Silicon Solar Solutions of Fayetteville has developed a method of improving the efficiency of solar cells by 15 percent, and the patent for its technology has been moved from provisional to pending by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Silicon Solar Solutions is a Genesis Technology Incubator client at the University of Arkansas and an Innovate Arkansas client firm. It received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in December to further advance the technology, developed in partnership with fellow UA graduate business plan team Picasolar. [Read more…]

At the University of Arkansas, students from Dr. Carol Reeves’ New Venture Development class are preparing to conquer the world, or save it, or both. In Haiti, impoverished people are echoing American complaints about modern life using words that hit awfully close to home. This is all related. I spent a day in Fayetteville last week for a story I am writing for a business magazine. It’s about the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup, a competition where college students create and present business plans for cash prizes. [Read more…]

A team from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville took the grand prize at a Canadian business competition for a process to improve solar cell efficiency, the UA announced Thursday. The team, Picasolar, won $20,000 for its first place prize at the IBK Capital-Ivey Business Plan Competition held Jan. 25-26 at the University of Western Ontario. The team was then invited to the Venture Labs Investment Competition at the University of Texas at Austin in May, an event that bills itself as the “Super Bowl of business competitions.” Picasolar’s process was invented by team member Seth Shumate and could improve solar cell efficiency by 15 percent, which could save manufacturers between $5 million and $10 million annually per production line. [Read more…]

8th year of Youth Entrepreneur Showcase Business Plan Statewide Competition for fifth through eighth grade students.

Top 25 to compete and sell their products January 18, 2013 at Park Plaza Mall

Much ado has been made about the success of collegiate business-plan teams from the University of Arkansas, and rightfully so. This story from the current issue of Arkansas Business highlights the accomplishments of these student entrepreneurs and focuses on the continued success of UA teams on a national level. Most of the teams that hail from The Hill are graduate-level, but undergrad teams from John Brown University in Siloam Springs have been enjoying their own success lately. JBU teams swept all undergrad categories at the 2011 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup, then took first and second overall plus won the agriculture and elevator pitch awards and the graduate Innovation award at the 2012 event. [Read more…]

Being from Arkansas carries a certain degree of swagger in some fields – retail, poultry, rice and trucking, for example. Perhaps it’s time to consider adding collegiate business plan teams to that roster. The young entrepreneurs who make up these teams, most of them from the University of Arkansas, are helping create a strong entrepreneurial brand for the state. For the past several years, Arkansas students have continued to fare well at national competitions and, more importantly, in the real business world. Several appear to be headed toward “big exits” – selling out to big corporations for big money or perhaps even launching an IPO. [Read more…]

After a full day of oral presentations, ten judges from across the United States selected collegiate business plan teams from John Brown University (JBU) of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), as the 2012 winners of the Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Awards at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Both of the winning undergraduate teams were from JBU, while both winning graduate-level teams were from UNLV. First place winners took home a $30,000 cash prize, a team trophy and individually-personalized plaques. The second place winners received $20,000 prize, a trophy and individually-personalized plaques. The teams’ faculty advisors earned a $3,500 check as well. “The quality of the winning business plans is phenomenal, as are the students who produced them,” Arkansas Capital Corporation Chief Executive Officer C. Sam Walls said. “These students are not only business savvy, they are creative and well-equipped to successfully become the business leaders of tomorrow.” The winning undergraduate teams are: [Read more…]

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…]