ADA – Four East Central University students in the entrepreneurship program are looking to keep ECU’s winning streak alive in the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup competition.
The Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup is a collegiate business plan competition open to students on any Oklahoma campus. Students take what they have learned in a classroom setting and apply it to real-world opportunities as they assemble teams, identify products, research markets, formulate financial projections and create business plans. The real competition comes when teams pitch their concepts to a panel of potential investors.
Dr. Stacey Bolin, the director of ECU’s Wilburn L. Smith Center for Entrepreneurship, makes sure students are more than ready for these tough competitions.
“In our Entrepreneurship program, we combine classroom learning with real-world experience in multiple ways,” Bolin said. “Our students work very hard to prepare for these competitions and I couldn’t be prouder of their performances.”
Competing this year are Nathan Fountain of Ada with Soap N’ Stuff, Madalyn Hess of Garvin with The No-Waste Paste, Faith Andrews of Noble with Central Paw Dog Resort, and Logan Cosby of Stonewall with Salvation Lumber.
The students will compete in the semifinals on April 14, and the finals are scheduled for April 15.
ECU students took home $14,000 in prize money from the 2021 Love’s Cup contest, bringing the University’s nine-year winnings total to $154,000 – an astounding accomplishment for a school of any size.
Wendell Godwin, dean of the ECU Stonecipher School of Business, praised the students and the continued success of the Wilburn L. Smith Center for Entrepreneurship.
“The Center for Entrepreneurship was created by Carol Smith to honor her late husband,” Godwin said. “The funding and focus provided by the center has allowed Dr. Bolin to grow our overall Entrepreneurship degree and attract amazing students from around the state. We are all very proud of this winning streak, which has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with the hard work and preparation of Dr. Bolin and our incredibly bright students.”