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New venture development instructors and UNCL team members pose with prizes at the Ivey Business Plan Competition in Ontario, Canada. From left: David Hinton, Michael Burton, Clayton Woodruff, Peyton Lentz, Sarah Goforth.
A team of graduate student entrepreneurs from U of A won first place in Canada’s prestigious Ivey business plan competition, securing $20,000 for an innovative project that deters bike theft without requiring a bike lock. Invested in solutions.
UNCL Co. (short for Universal Network Controlled Lock) is an app-enabled security device that can be retrofitted to public bike racks. Riders can protect and monitor their bikes without the burden of carrying heavy locks.
UNCL is the third U of A team to win the competition, held January 20-21 this year at the University of Western Ontario’s Morrisset Entrepreneurship Institute. Previous U of A winners include 2012 and his 2013 Learning DifferentiatED and Picasolar.
UNCL grew out of the New Venture Development course sequence at Sam M. Walton College of Business. The team was formed when his four co-founders met in his NVD class and CEO Michael Burton recruited them to work on the idea of micromobility security solutions, according to the Office of Entrepreneurship of Innovation. Executive His Director Sarah Goforth said.
Other founders are Chris Roderick, Payton Lenz and Clayton Woodruff, all executive MBA students.
A year-long hands-on business incubation program for graduate students, NVD enables students to pursue their startup ideas in a hands-on, team-based environment. The course constitutes the entrepreneurship track of the full-time Master of Business Administration and Executive MBA programs. Non-business students enter the course by earning an entrepreneurship diploma.
Goforth, who oversees the program, said: He also teaches courses with David Hinton, Associate Director of Technology Ventures.
“Michael joins a handful of students we’ve worked with over the past few years who arrived on day one with a passionate determination to solve a problem they’ve personally experienced as avid cyclists.
“Our passion for this issue is shared across our team of hardworking and talented co-founders, and is what our competitive judges and real-world investors and business partners are looking for.”
According to Burton, these experiences at NVD were “critical” to UNCL’s success in Canada.
“NVD forced us to become familiar with ‘pain’ and empathize with our customers before creating a product,” says Burton. “Novelty and innovation are meaningless unless they solve the right problems for the people experiencing them.”
UNCL plans to use the money to complete a digital prototype and transition to a minimum viable product, Burton said.
“Renderings are great, but cash is going to bring life to our devices,” Burton said.
After developing its initial business model during the fall semester, UNCL applied for and was accepted into OEI’s flagship business incubation program, the Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP). UNCL is the first of his NVD teams to be accepted into the incubator. UNCL joins his four other cycling companies and another targeting rock climbing in GORP’s Spring 2023 cohort.
Winning the competition in Canada “just added fuel to our already burning flame,” Burton said.
About the U of A Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation:The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation creates and curates innovation and entrepreneurship experiences for students of all disciplines. Through the Brewer Family Entrepreneurship Hub, McMillon Innovation Studio, Startup Village, and Greenhouse at the Bentonville Collaborative, the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation offers free workshops and programs. This includes social and corporate innovation design teams, venture internships, contests, and startup coaching. A division of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and Economic Development, the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation also offers on-demand support to students becoming innovators within existing organizations and entrepreneurs starting new things. increase.
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