The annual business plan competition at Rutgers Business School ended in an unprecedented first place tie between a pair of app developers and a team with plans to open a restaurant...
Other teams participating in the annual competition included a team of undergraduates – Priyanka Patel, Sara Ali, Annie Zhang, Rachel Winner and Carly Kenselaar – who are developing a bracelet capable of helping to protect its wearers against sexual assault. The team – the first one made up entirely of undergraduate students – received $1,000 in prize money to continue developing their company, Merakhi Smart Jewelry.
MBA student Leslie Silva also won $1,000 to invest in Altani, an online boutique with a curated selection of fashions from designers and boutiques that put ethics first.
Richard Romano, president of the Sales Executive Club of Northern New Jersey Foundation and a judge, said that the five finalists participating in the 2019 competition were the “best ever as a group.”
“Each had very marketable ideas, some further along than others, which informed our decisions,” he said.
In addition to Romano, the judges included Sharon Lydon, executive director of the Rutgers MBA Program and John Wilson, who also represents the Sales Executive Club of Northern New Jersey Foundation. Mayuresh Pandit, a Verizon Wireless product manager and Rutgers MBA alumnus, helped to mentor the students.
FULL SOURCE: Rutgers Business School | Two teams share top prize in annual business plan competition