The fourth annual Fowler Business Challenge kicked off at midnight on Friday, Oct. 5, as St. Thomas undergraduate and graduate students submitted their business concepts for the contest.
Junior Derek Donnelly has already been putting in long hours to complete his submission for a chance to win the grand prize: a $10,000 scholarship.
Donnelly was unexpectedly swept up in the competitive spirit when his entrepreneurship professor suggested that the class split into groups and devise ideas for the business concept challenge.
After brainstorming sessions, group meetings, and talks with their professor, the group had narrowed down its ideas.
“We got it down to a couple that we thought, ‘OK, this is something we could pursue for the submission,’ and then we decided on this one,” Donnelly said.
The brainchild for Donnelly and his two classmates is Cordz, a desktop cord organizer.
Donnelly said Cordz is designed for 10- to 26 year-olds. The organizer will be bell-shaped and have cutouts to fit the cords it holds. The design will be heavy enough so that it doesn’t slide around on the desk and come in a variety of colors and patterns.
Many students from all majors, both graduate and undergraduate, have recently completed the same process as Donnelly has in order to submit their own business concepts. Students can compete individually or on a team.
Martha McCarthy, who works on Marketing and Communications for Fowler, said she expects to get around 100 submissions across the graduate and undergraduate divisions this year, up from 84 submissions last year and 66 in 2010.
The growing numbers could be fueled by the incentives the Fowler offers to the winners. Both the graduate and undergraduate winning teams receive a $10,000 scholarship, runners-up receive a $5,000 scholarship, second runners-up receive a $2,500 scholarship, and third runners-up receive a $1,000 scholarship. Ron Fowler, a 1966 St. Thomas graduate, made these scholarships possible by donating the money for the three previous Fowler competitions, as well as future Fowlers.
“We are hoping that if this year is successful … that every year we’ll be able to provide more scholarships, and potentially even get some local corporate partners involved to offer some additional scholarship funds for students,” McCarthy said.
For Donnelly, this year’s competition is his first, and he said he is less concerned with the scholarship than he is about just getting a feel for what the Fowler is like.
“The Fowler is something I would look at for next year as a senior, but I’m glad that I’m doing it this year kind of as a practice run so I know how the submission works,” Donnelly said.
McCarthy said a lot of students choose to participate in the Fowler more than once, and in some cases, it can give them an advantage.
“A lot of students have done it two or three years, and it’s really cool to see them come back with stronger pitches and plans, always a different business idea, but they take what they learn from the judges and they are very inspired and excited to keep working on it,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the unique ideas are what makes Fowler participants so successful.
“The winning concepts are always very novel ideas,” McCarthy said. “Usually they are a bit more groundbreaking, but they can be very simple too.”
After the midnight deadline, a group of St. Thomas professors and faculty will go through the submissions and decide on 16 semifinalists from both the graduate division and undergraduate division. The semifinalists will be announced on Oct. 9, and will present their concepts to a panel of judges on Oct. 19.
Gabrielle Martinson can be reached at mart5649@stthomas.edu.