IdeaBounce into Student Entrepreneurship

The inaugural Illinois IdeaBounce Competition, held on March 5, 2007, kicked off National Entrepreneurship Week on the University of Illinois campus. The Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership in partnership with the Daily Illini received fifty-four unique entrepreneurial idea submissions from UIUC students.

The competition rules were simple, take any idea a student has been eager to share or develop, formulate the thoughts into 600 words, and submit it to the Academy's website. The top fifteen ideas were chosen, and students subsequently presented a two-minute "elevator pitch" to a panel of distinguished judges from Chicago and Champaign.

Ideas included a diverse array of disciplines, from engineering to industrial design, music to traditional business ventures. Non-for-profit businesses, social ventures, and profit businesses were well represented, as the students did a fantastic job of conveying the value of their ideas to the judging panel.

After difficult deliberations, the top five ideas were selected, and the finalists were presented with $250 each and dinner that night with the judges. Final student ideas ranged from an ear-bud alarm clock, to group cyclists that make hospital visits to cancer patients, while raising pledge money to fund cancer research. Our congratulations to the final winners, Bryan Brooks, Ryan Franklin, Renata Sheppard, Anish Thakkar, and Jeffery Weisman, and many warm wishes for future success developing their ideas into thriving businesses.