MerchantEyes LLC, a graduate business plan team from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, took first place Thursday in the first Tri-State Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup competition in Las Vegas.
The top two graduate and undergraduate teams that won Governor’s Cup competitions in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Nevada last month competed this week in the tri-state competition, held for the first time this year.
MerchantEyes team members Kristin Huber, Karen McSpadden, April Seggebruch and Stan Zylowski won a grand prize of $25,000 and a trophy. Faculty advisor Carol Reeves received $2,500.
"We are so proud of our Arkansas entrepreneurial talent," said Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation President C. Sam Walls III. "While MerchantEyes was the first-place graduate competition winner, we believe the other finalist teams have created plans for viable businesses and we look forward to hearing of their future successes."
MerchantEyes’ business plan describes itself as a company that "proposes a digital solution to the current manual system of tracking and validating the $2 billion spent annually on in-store retail merchandising activities. Their proprietary Web-based software solution will bring efficiency, accuracy and transparency to the in-store merchandising process."
MerchantEyes took home the second place graduate level prize of $10,000 at the Arkansas competition in Little Rock April 17.
Representing Arkansas at the event were two teams from the UA as well as teams from Harding University and John Brown University.
The competition, now in its eighth year, was conceived by Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote the development and commercialization of ideas and technologies at universities. A 2004 grant from the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation provided funding and established similar competitions in Oklahoma and Nevada.
The Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation, an affiliate company of the Arkansas Capital Corp. Group, manages the competition.
Other Tri-State winners include:
Undergraduate Level
First Place: Nantiox – University of Oklahoma at Norman – "biotech platform pharmaceutical technology for ophthalmic diseases."
Second Place: Waste Alternatives Transformation Technologies – University of Nevada at Las Vegas – "will reduce the ecological burden on traditional landfills while producing clean, sustainable, energy and energy products that do not rely upon fossil fuel sources."
Graduate Level
First Place: MerchantEyes, LLC – University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
Second Place: Perpetual Pharmaceuticals – University of Oklahoma at Norman – "developing a self-regulating, glucose-sensing, insulin delivery system that effectively manages diabetics’ glucose levels."
Click here for more information about the Arkansas Governor’s Cup, or here for more information on the tri-state competition.
Sign up for Daily E-news
