Student startups prepare for Freirich Competition Friday
They're back: passionate Skidmore students who dream of launching their own businesses
and have well-vetted plans for doing so.
It's time again for the Kenneth A. Freirich '90 Business Plan Competition, a signature
Skidmore event that since its establishment five years ago has transformed the lives
of many Skidmore students -- just as the competition's founder intended. The fifth
edition of the competition will start this Friday, Feb. 27, at 2 pm in Filene Recital
Hall.
Since 2010, more than 250 students and 150 businesses have entered the competition.
Nearly 40 students representing 19 businesses have entered this year.
"There's nothing more rewarding than watching these amazingly talented and creative
Skidmore students take on the biggest challenges of their lives and succeed," says
Freirich, who started his own publishing business as a Skidmore sophomore. That was
in 1988. Today Freirich is the president of Health Monitor Network, a thriving entrepreneurial
company that has grown fivefold over the past 10 years.
Freirich has once again put up $20,000 in prize money to inspire students to pursue
their own dreams. Total cash prizes — with others contributing — will reach $50,000
this year with in-kind legal and accounting services offered to winners as well. For
the first time, prizes will also be awarded for plans in social and artistic entrepreneurship.
Teams may enter each year and so there will be some familiar faces among the contestants.
For example, Alexander Nassief '16 is back. He's the junior who finished in second
place last year, and is generating sales from aging rum in ocean-submerged containers
in Dominica. His company is Rum Dogs, Inc.
Also returning is Stella Langat '16 with Double Dee’s, her business which aims to
meet the under-served need in her native Kenya for basic quality women's undergarments.
Among teams entering for the first time are:
- Evolv Composting, a subscription-based compost collection service for residents and businesses in the Saratoga area;
- Seeds for Peace, a non-profit organization taken over and run by four students that supplies organic fruit, vegetable and flower seeds and other agricultural supplies material to those in need in war-torn, weather-ravaged countries around the world.
- Dream Team Comics, a producer of comics for good causes.
"All of these initiatives are quintessentially Skidmore in their creativity, global
reach, and their social consciousness," says Roy Rotheim, the professor of economics
who has returned in this fifth anniversary year to serve as competition director,
his fourth time doing so.
Also "quintessentially Skidmore", notes Rotheim, is the "cooperative learning environment
in which each finalist is assigned a mentor from among the judges." Nine successful
alumni with entrepreneurial backgrounds – listed below -- have agreed to serve in
this invaluable role as judge/mentor.
- Sara Arnell ’82, CEO and founder of Karmic;
- Ray Bryan ’94, financial advisor at Janney Montgomery Scott;
- Andrew Eifler ’07, senior director for product management, AppNexus;
- Ken Freirich ’90, president of Health Monitor Network;
- Andrew Goetz ’84, president of MALIN+GOETZ;
- Christine Juneau ’82, principal, Christine Juneau, LLC;
- Seth McEachron ’04, owner of Battenkill Creamery;
- Nic Platt ’76, partner, Point Capital Partners;
- Nancy Wekselbaum ’73, owner of The Gracious Gourmet.
