Young Company Wins Best Business Plan Award

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Brandon Hill (left) and Barry James celebrate their win at the IBK Capital-Ivey Business Plan Competition.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A team of University of Arkansas students took the top prize at Canada’s premier graduate student business plan competition by creating a business plan for a company that improves retention and success rates of adults preparing for the General Education Development test.

The Learning DifferentiatED team, led by President and Chief Executive Officer Barry James, a doctoral candidate in the microelectronics-photonics program, earned first place at the IBK Capital-Ivey Business Plan Competition. The University of Arkansas team was one of 50 teams from top graduate schools in the United States and Canada that entered the competition. Finalists were invited to make presentations at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

“We were up against 10 other teams from the U.S. and Canada, and each team had exceptional business ideas,” James said. “Most teams had already created prototypes for their ideas, and some had already begun to record sales for their products. So the competition was very stiff, especially since we did not have a prototype of our product.”

Learning DifferentiatED’s software program, manaGED Prep, is based on James’ 100 percent successful pass rate and 91 percent retention rate while working as a GED preparation instructor at the Fayetteville Adult Education Center and the Austin Academy in Austin, Texas. The software will provide a curriculum geared specifically toward the adult learner. The GED test covers five core subjects and, when passed, certifies that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skill. More than 8 million adults in the United States and Canada will enroll in an adult education program for GED preparation in the next five years.

For its first place finish, Learning DifferentiatED received a prize of $20,000 and an automatic berth in the Venture Labs Investment Competition — the Super Bowl of business plan competitions — at the University of Texas at Austin, where the team will compete for more than $100,000 in cash and prizes.

Investors often attend these competitions,, offering students a direct channel for networking and spreading the word about their business plans. Conversely, these investors get a sneak-peek at up-and-coming entrepreneurs and new ventures.   

“Exposing your idea and your team to investors in this type of a setting is very important. I would even consider it as important as winning a competition,” James said. “Ultimately, when we get ready to start this business venture, we would have amassed a huge network of investors who already know what our company is about, the product that we intend to offer and, most important, these investors would have already shown an interest toward our product.”

The team plans to attend at least 10 national competitions in locations such as Cincinnati, San Diego, Austin, Houston, Las Vegas and Little Rock.

“Now that we have won our first competition, anything less than a win will be disappointing,” James said.

James plans to file formal paperwork to make Learning DifferentiatED an Arkansas limited liability corporation and is currently developing a working prototype for his product. The prototype should be ready in March 2012. He expects to begin full product development in May 2012.

James envisions Learning DifferentiatED as being the North American leader in self-paced eLearning products and services by 2022.

The Learning DifferentiatED team is mentored by Carol Reeves, associate vice-provost for entrepreneurship and a professor in the department of management at the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Reeves has coached several other award-winning entrepreneurial teams originating at the University of Arkansas.

“The Learning DifferentiatED team has been working extremely hard on their business since June, and their win at the Ivey competition is evidence of that effort,” Reeves said. “Their product is critically needed by adults who want to improve their employment prospects.”

Other members of the Learning DifferentiatED team include:

• Brandon Hill, chief business development officer, managerial M.B.A. student.

• Senthil Raman, chief operating officer, M.B.A. student.

• Brandon Wright, chief financial officer, master of accountancy student.

• Murali Natarajan, chief technology officer.

• Chris Cambridge, chief strategy officer.