Business-plan teams from the University of Arkansas and John Brown University dominated the 2012 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Wednesday in downtown Little Rock. JBU teams took home five of 12 awards at the event, including the top two prizes in the overall undergraduate division, while UA teams swept the top three places in the overall graduate division. Teams from JBU and the UA took home top honors at last year’s competition as well. The top two finishers in both the undergrad and graduate divisions will represent the state next month at the DWR Tri-State Governor’s Cup in Las Vegas that pits business-plan winners from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Nevada. [Read more…]

The recent full moon brought with it some shining STARt-up companies in the form of the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup (DWRGC) winners. The teams participated in Arkansas’s premier collegiate business plan competition that is sponsored by the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation (AEAF), an affiliate of the Arkansas Capital Corporation (ACC). With constellations circling overhead, an enormous screen on center stage, two huge side screens and a fast-paced, well-choreographed presentation, the collegiate team winners’ names were announced. Lisa Fischer, a morning show announcer at KURB-98.5, former NBA basketball star and UALR Assistant Coach Joe Kleine and Honorary Event Chairman John H. Tyson kept the audience entertained and enlightened in regard to the winners. [Read more…]

A team led by Ellen Brune, a University of Arkansas doctoral student in chemical engineering, won a March 13 business plan competition at the University of Nebraska, the UA said Tuesday. It is the third UA graduate student team to take the top prize in a 2012 business plan contest that carries an automatic berth for the Venture Labs Investment Competition. The UA said it is the first time any university has won three qualifying contests in the same year for what is billed as the “Super Bowl of business plan competitions.” “The University of Arkansas has been excelling in national and international business plan competitions since 2009, but we reached new heights in 2012,” Carol Reeves, associate vice provost for entrepreneurship and a professor in the department of management at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, said in a news release. [Read more…]

AFS Just Wants a ‘Good Piece of Steak’

by Mark Carter

A good piece of steak. Lawson Hembree is simply trying to make sure you get one. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Innovate Arkansas client firm and John Brown University startup Agricultural Food Systems. AFS is developing a handheld device called the TenderID that measures the tenderness of raw beef carcasses right on the line in processing plants. [Read more…]

Several Holt Middle School 7th grade students had the chance to turn their ideas for starting a business into reality when they were selected to sell their products at an Expo in Little Rock by the Y.E.S. for Arkansas Empowering Entrepreneurs program. The selected groups’ products were: Shnibiti Bags, collapsible shopping bags; and Smart Pillows, pillows with a pocket for carrying a book or phone along on a car trip or a park visit. [Read more…]