University of Arkansas Teams Finish in Top Four in Two Business Plan Competitions

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EverClean Coating Solution team members (left to right) Bill Ryan, Corey Thompson (third from left) and Manesh Phogat pose with Van Clouse, director of the Cardinal Challenge.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas continued its success this year in graduate student business plans, reaching the finals in each of the last two competitions in which it competed.

EverClean Coating Solutions, which has created a self-cleaning coating technology for solar panels that improves efficiency, advanced to the final round and placed third at Cardinal Challenge 2013, the University of Louisville Business Plan Competition. The team took home a $3,000 cash prize on Feb. 16.

On Feb. 23, ParadigMed, which manufactures a cost-effective device for adult male circumcision in an outpatient setting, pushed into the finals and finished fourth at the Spirit of Enterprise Graduate Business Competition, hosted by the University of Cincinnati’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The team won $1,000 on Feb. 23.

The university has advanced to the finals in each competition in which it has competed this year. On Jan. 26, Picasolar, which has developed a patent-pending process to improve the efficiency of solar cells, won the grand prize at the 2013 IBK Capital-Ivey Business Plan Competition, held at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

“The results this year have been outstanding,” said Carol Reeves, associate vice provost for entrepreneurship. “The University of Arkansas continues to succeed on both a national and international stage.”

The University of Arkansas has fielded competitive graduate student teams at state, regional, national, and international business plan competitions since 2002. During the past decade, students have almost $1.4 million in cash at these competitions.

The EverClean Coating Solutions team members are Bill Ryan and Manish Phogat, master in business administration students in the Sam M. Walton College of Business and Corey Thompson, a doctoral student in the College of Engineering. Ryan is in the executive MBA program.

Stephen Kayode and Tara Mink, both in the executive MBA program in Walton College, founded ParadigMed. The circumcision device addresses challenges associated with reducing the heterosexual transmission rate of HIV globally, primarily in Africa.

The teams formed in the New Venture Development graduate course taught by Reeves, holder of the Cecil and Gwendolyn Cupp Applied Professorship in Entrepreneurship in the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

A fourth U of A team, HomeDx, is working to develop the first over-the-counter influenza test that will be distributed through large retail channels. HomeDx will compete at the Global New Venture Competition on March 13 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.