Jousting into business world

Four teams of UCF students will be jousting their way into the business world Friday afternoon.

Over the past eight years, 400 UCF students have competed in the Joust Business Plan Competition, which is hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in the College of Business. This year, 30 teams competed, 16 made it to the semifinals and four made it to the final stage.

The final round of the competition will be taking place in the Fairwinds Alumni Center Friday at 1:30 p.m. First prize for the competition is $10,000 and a one-year membership to the UCF Technology Incubator.

The final teams are Dave's Market, led by Matt Schaefer; Free in a Box, led by Daniel Seeff; Oh My Groceries, led by Nick Frazier; and Better Ways to Study, led by Ace Glenn.

Schaefer, a grad student majoring in hospitality management, worked with business partner Kyle Roach, a senior hospitality management major, and started Dave's Market as a tribute to his late brother. Dave Schaefer was a UCF student who passed away last October.

Matt plans to run a restaurant and says he saw this as a perfect opportunity to do something he has always wanted to do. The focus would be on fine cuisine and drinks — something he and his brother have always been passionate about.

Schaefer is proud to have convinced a room of people of his business plan during semi-finals and plans to do it again Friday.

"Aside from winning a bunch of money, I would like to take Dave's Market to the next step and make it a reality," Schaefer said.

Seeff, a senior accounting major, said putting a business together is no joke and Free in a Box is proof. The idea of Free in a Box is to allow companies to give promotional materials and products directly to students instead of sending representatives to meet them at school and bring these items.

Seeff says that through Free in a Box, companies could combine cognitive marketing with tangible marketing by pulling up a demographic like "males involved in Greek life on campus" and sending out items like protein bars and deodorant.

Regardless of the results of this competition, Seeff said he plans to pursue his project. He said joining this competition is the best decision he has ever made and that this is his first attempt at entrepreneurship.

"This is the best class you can take at UCF, and it's free. You might even get paid by UCF," Seeff said.

Nick Frazier, junior accounting major, plans on starting Oh My Groceries, a website that would create a weekly grocery list based on coupons and local deals that would also create recipes. There would be a small fee based on the length of the subscription.

Frazier will base the grocery lists primarily on Publix and CVS, rather than making students drive around town. Frazier says he plans to get people to eat better by planning meals instead of having a potluck of whatever is in the freezer. Frazier plans on expanding this business to give vegan and vegetarian options but is working on regular meals for now.

"I don't want to be a jack-of-all trades and a master of nothing," Frazier said.

Glenn, a senior finance major, started Better Ways to Study, LLC to provide studying materials to visual learners. Glenn started the business in October 2010. Glenn said he has learned that judges are there to help and not out to get him and that he has received great advice from seasoned professionals.

Glenn said he is a visual learner and came up with this idea while studying a 20-page voice document for a test he had the next day.

"It's a new way to learn. I created it. People liked it," Glenn said.

Cameron M. Ford, founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, started this competition as a business showcase for students in which students could meet alumni, figure out the business-planning process and learn new skills and perspectives.

Ford said  the goal is not to launch a bunch of companies, but that it is an added bonus. It takes many people to help run anything on this large of a scale, and one of these people, Steve Felkowitz, contributed $25,000 to sponsor the event.

The UCF incubation program received the Incubator of the Year Award in 2004, Ford said. The UCF Technology Incubator is a facility where businesses have resources that most businesses do not.

Ford said he is enthusiastic about this year's proposals because these students are going to put on a great show that spans the range of many types of businesses.