The seven best student entrepreneurs at Grand Valley State University found themselves standing on the stage at Loosemore Auditorium Tuesday night pitching an idea for a business to a group of local entrepreneurs in the hopes of winning the fourth-annual Business Plan Competition.

The Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the Seidman College of Business’ Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, is intended to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in undergraduate students, according to the BPC website.

Adam Ingraham, the graduate assistant for the Center of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, said that they are trying to encourage students to developing business ventures.

“Half of our office’s mission is talent development, so these entrepreneurial competitions help guide students through the business startup process,” Ingraham said.

In addition to encouraging undergraduate students to pursue their business ventures, the competition winners received funding for students to launch their business. First prize was $5,000, second prize was $3,000 and third prize was $2,000. Ingraham said there was a fourth award, called the “Buzz” Award, which is given to the student with the best advertising and marketing campaign, which is determined by the number of “likes” the competitor received on Facebook.

Senior Luke Richard walked away from the competition with the $5,000 first-place prize money and big plans for his company, G.R. Greens, a business which will grow produce hydroponically in Cedar Springs, Mich.

“My idea or vision for G.R. greens developed over a few years of reading and learning about issues facing the world today,” said Richards, philosophy major. “One of major issue is food production, and that’s something I think we’re all passionate about. Hydroponic food production happens to be one of the more sustainable and clean options out there, so it seemed like something worth exploring, and before I knew it, I was designing the G.R. Greens logo.”

Richard plans to resume operations with G.R. Greens after he graduates this May and is taking his company to the regional business competition as well.

The second place winner was a company called The Great American Culture Company, LLC, which was created by junior Mu Yang, an international business major, and fifth-year Jeramiah Cornell, a marketing major.

Yang and Cornell created their organization to assist international students in adjusting to life in the United States.

The Great American Culture Company will launch this August.

Third-place winner, senior operations management and marketing major Frank Leonard, pitched an idea called Keg Regulators, which are intended to prevent skimming (stealing) of draft beer in bars. Leonard was unavailable for comment.

Sophomore Joe Presutti and senior Cory Cain won the “Buzz” Award for their presentation on Suckers for a Cause, which is intended to provide fundraising and promotional opportunities for non-profit organizations, Presutti said. The first line of products that Presutti, a finance and economics major, and Cain, majoring in marketing and finance, plan to release are custom hard candy lollipops, which will be available for sale online, in retail stores and through other avenues in the near future.

The judges at the event were looking for three major factors in choosing the winners, said Mark Olesnavage, one of the judges and managing director for Hopen Life Science Ventures. They looked at the market that the proposed businesses would serve, the idea as it would stand within that market, and confidence in the student or team’s ability to turn their idea into a business.

“G.R. Greens had the most of all three,” Olesnavage said. “But they were all very deserving.”

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