Global Student Entrepreneur Awards - Global Competition for College and University Students

ACE, GSEA’s Canadian Regional Partner, crowned the winner of the 2007 National Student Entrepreneur of the Year competition on 10 May 2007. From www.acecanada.ca:

Kendal made it through a provincial and regional round of competition before traveling to Toronto to compete for the National title and a cash prize of $10,000. At the national level of competition, six regional champions showcased their business success, while attending a post secondary institution full time, to a panel of over 30 top executives who selected the 2007 Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

“I am honoured and thrilled to be named the 2007 Student Entrepreneur of the Year,” comments Kendal. “TicketGold has been my passion for the past three and a half years and this award provides great recognition for my accomplishments to date and motivation for what’s to come in the future.” 

TicketGold won over the judges because of the accomplishments Kendal has achieved as a young entrepreneur, while still in school full time.

Since October 2003 Kendal, a Commerce student at the School of Business, has owned and operated TicketGold (www.ticketgold.com), a ticket brokerage firm that provides premium and sold out tickets to events world wide. TicketGold has served thousands of clients around the world, while sales have consistently doubled over the past three years. TicketGold has access to over 500 million dollars worth of real time inventory consisting of over three million tickets to over 50,000 events offered by 2200 ticket brokers in North America.

Kendal will now represent Canada at this fall’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards Global Finals - stay tuned to www.gsea.org for more information as we get closer to the competition!

Upcoming GSEA Regional Competitions:

4 June 2007 - GSEA New York / Connecticut Regional Finals - Fairfield, CT

5 June 2007 - GSEA Pennsylvania / New Jersey Regional Finals - Villanova, PA

Date TBD - GSEA Arizona Regional Finals

August 2007 - GSEA Australia Regional Finals (Sydney, Melbourne)

Thanks for all of your calls and emails, stay tuned to GSEA.org for more dates, times and information!

The circus was in Beantown and so was the GSEA on Monday for the 2007 GSEA New England Regional Competition. Five of New England’s finest undergraduate student entrepreneurs, all from different campuses around the region, came together for what was one of GSEA’s toughest regional fields to date.

The competitors arrived bright and early to the Sawyer Business School of Suffolk University, the host of the competition, to begin preparations. In short order the judges arrived and we were ready to begin the competition.

(L to R: Alan Hollander - Managing Partner of Equation Partners, Henry Shterenberg - Owner of New England Sports Academy, Tom Rosedale - Managing Member of BRL Law Group, Fred Marckini - CEO of iProspect, and Kevin Krauss - Director of Suffolk’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies)

Chris Ronzio of Firewire Films was the first competitor up to present. Chris presented on his film production and DVD sales aspect of his business - noting that his key differentiator from other fiming and video documentary businesses was his innovative way to sell his material.

“We’ll go to places like a cheerleading competition, where we’ll sell DVD copies of the competition and previous competitions and advertise in the front cover of the DVDs” he explained, “which helps drive new customers and new avenues of sale.”

Michael Kopko, Harvard student and CEO of media darling DormAid was next to present. DormAid, a business that revolves around doing the dirty work for college and university students such as laundry, cleaning, etc. is definitely one of Mike’s biggest passions.

“It’s an amazing business, one day we’ll be doing a student’s laundry and the next weekend he’s calling us at 3 in the morning on Sunday to clean up the messy results of a party. It’s very fun.”

Next up was Brendan Ciecko of Ten Minute Media. Brendan completely stunned the judges with his business, which is that of producing high-end web content for music stars, such as Bob Seger, Monica, and Natalie Cole, as well as managing music artists. His media-heavy presentation was very attractive - but of course this is the GSEA, and he needed to prove that his entrepreneurial abilities were the same caliber of his creative ones.

Brendan shared that with Ten Minute Media he was following his #1 passion, and that putting people over profits was his secret to success. He faced 12 minutes of heavy questioning from the judges, trying to find out the scalability of his business, Brendan’s plans for the future, and more. He fielded them well and the judges took a mid-morning break to collect their thoughts.

After the break, Mike Matros presented on his business, Garage Galore. Garage Galore produces custom, organized garages - promising to rid the garage of the standard cluttered, junky appearance into a clean, organized masterpiece.

Mike originally started his business from his passion for hotrods, which led him to spending a lot of time in the garage. From here it was easy for Mike to see a clear business opportunity and capitalize on it. Mike has been able to close exclusive New England distributorships for many of the products he installs - proving that he is one of the top in his field.

Last up was Mark DiChristofaro, student of Boston University and owner of Perspective Productions. Like the first presenter, Mark has a great multimedia presentation of his filming business, which has done a lot of work with local colleges and universities to produce film footage.

The judges had a difficult time with the scoring process, and once again in typical GSEA fashion we had a close race with *1* point separating second and third place. Here’s how it turned out:

First Place: Michael Kopko - DormAid - Harvard University

Second Place: Brendan Ciecko - Ten Minute Media - Hampshire College

Third Place: Chris Ronzio - Firewire Films - Bentley College

(L to R: Brendan Ciecko, Chris Ronzio, Michael Kopko)

Thanks again to Suffolk University, EO Boston and all of our nominees and competitors in the GSEA New England Regional Competition! Next up are the New York, Philadelphia and Arizona regionals… stay tuned!

The GSEA descended on the offices of Dickstein Shapiro, one of the USA’s top law firms on Wednesday for an exciting Washington DC Regional Finals Competition. Dickstein Shapiro partner Andrew Sherman, recognized as one of America’s top ten entrepreneurial minds by Fortune magazine was our gracious host for this prestigious event which featured student entrepreneurs from Delaware, North Carolina, Maryland and Washington DC.

The event had a fantastic range of businesses represented. From sports to technology to candy and snacks, the student entrepreneurs competing worked to win over the judge panel consisting of members from the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s DC chapter.

(Judges from L to R: Marc Isaacson, President of Village Green Apothecary, Akbar Sharfi, President of Legal Advantage, Daniel Turner, President of Turner Consulting Group and Michael Brey, President of Hobby Works)

Evan Bowen, of the Elite Passing Academy kicked the competition off by describing his business and entrepreneurial background to the judges. Evan’s business is hosting camps all across his home state and is looking to further expand and perhaps test a franchising model.

Kailen Cage was able to work the crowd’s collective sweet tooth with her stories of her vending business, Kailen’s Candy Catering. Kailen showed the judges that her focus on customer service - going as far as having suggestion boxes on her vending machines for customers to give feedback - truly set her apart from the competition. Kailen also handed out quarters for all to try some of her delicious candy straight from a vending machine she herself worked to design.

Tim Mertes, CEO of Altenergy Corporation showed the judges that he was a true serial entrepreneur. From selling used cars in his mid-teens to customers all across the nation, to founding a neutraceutical company which has over $1.2 million in annual sales, and now having recently filed a patent for a new, more efficient light bulb, Tim really has the fire glowing brightly.

Chris Wu and Ross Epstein also delivered great presentations to the judges. Chris stepped in to his business, The Smith Store, turning it around and driving sales and profits to new heights. Ross has been servicing customers all around his local area with RE Computer Consulting, his business that services home and business hardware, networking and software needs.

However - there is only room for three on the podium, and in typical GSEA style we had a close finish. Here are the results!:

First Place: Tim Mertes - CEO, Altenergy Corporation - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Second Place: Kailen Cage - Kailen’s Candy Catering - University of Maryland, College Park

Third Place: Evan Bowen - Elite Passing Academy - University of Delaware

(Student Entrepreneurs L to R: Evan Bowen - Elite Passing Academy, Chris Wu - The Smith Store, Ross Epstein - RE Computer Consulting, Tim Mertes - Altenergy Corporation, Kailen Cage - Kailen’s Candy Catering)

Thanks again to all of our nominees, competitors and judges… and now on to the GSEA New England finals next week!