Guest Speaker: Amy Sallin

Amy Sallin is the Assistant Director of the Burke Center for Entrepreneurship at UW Seattle.  The Burke Center's purpose is to promote and support entrepreneurs.  Amy came to speak with us on the UW Business Plan Competition, which is hosted by the Burke Center.  The competition is open to all college students in Washington State.  Amy was quick to explain that the competition is about starting a business as a whole, not just the business plan.  They are talking about changing the name to reflect that, which could be as early as next year.

People enter the competition as teams, the size of which ranges from 2 to 10 people, although the average is 4 or 5.  Teams can have members that are not college students, but the team leader must be a student.  There are three rounds, and only a fraction of the teams competing survive each round.  First is the screening round, where each team submits a 5-7 page executive summary online, and 36 people will be chosen to move on to the next round.  Second is the financing round, which is set up like a trade show and each team has a booth to promote their product.  Up to 4 people can be in a booth, talking to judges about their business at a time, and judges will choose how they split the pretend money they have to invest.  The 16 teams with the most money invested will move on to the final round.  The final round is when teams write their business plan, and a winner is chosen.  The winning team is awarded a monetary prize, but there are also smaller, specialized prizes that are awarded by special interest groups.  For example, AARP awards a $5,000 prize to a team of their choice who has an idea that would help low income seniors.  Throughout the competition, teams can get feedback, coaching, and can change their direction accordingly.  Some teams have completely changed everything about their business plan due to feedback they receive.

Amy told us that anyone who is interested in more information should email her, and she will provide all the details.  Someone asked about information regarding past winners, and she told us the official website lists past winners and success stories.  She let us know that participating in the competition looks really good on a resume, and personally knows a few people that have gotten an interview because of it being on their resume, and they got the job.  Her one word of caution, was to work out how work will be divided and prize money will be divided among the group members beforehand, and to put it in writing.  Much like starting a business, it is important to work all that out because the problem of people not pulling their weight is a risk.

Mission and Vision statement

Vision statement:  Helping people to live easier.

Mission statement:  PandaSave strives to make the chores in people's lives easier and more efficient, so they can spend more time actually enjoying life.

Mantra:  Live better.