BSApp wins Annual Panasci Business Plan Competition

BSApp wins Annual Panasci Business Plan CompetitionApril 22, 2009Amy Schmitzaemehrin@syr.edu

The 100 student teams that applied to the annual Panasci Business Plan Competition in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University were first narrowed to 32. Twelve teams were then selected to compete in the semi-finals. On April 18, the top four teams competed for first prize.

After a long day of presenting and anxiously waiting, BSApp, consisting of Greg Ackerman ’08, G’09 and Peter King ’08 was awarded the first prize of $25,000. BSApp’s concept is to supply graduate business schools the necessary tools to trace an applicant from the moment of inquiry to enrollment and also to offer applicants an online service that allows them to submit their applications and supplemental materials to one location.

Second place and a $10,000 award were presented to Brand-Yourself.com, consisting of team members sophomores Trace Cohen and Pete Kistler, senior Robert Sherman and junior Evan Watson.

Third place and $ 5,000 were awarded to Food2Joules with team members Amina Isakovic, Preeth Muthusamy, Joon Choi, Alanna Simpson and Cheng-Mou Wu, all of whom are SU seniors, along with Lindsay Perez, a senior at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The judges also recognized the Tree Spoon team with the Perseverance Award and the Let Us Fish team with the Passion Award.

During the finals, the teams presented their business plans to Syracuse-area business leaders, who judged them on creativity, innovation, feasibility, comprehensiveness and their oral presentation.

The Panasci Business Plan Competition is hosted by the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship in the Whitman School. Students from the SU and SUNY-ESF campuses entered the competition.