Newswise — Babson MBA student business "Lifeprints" " a new concept in high-end portrait studios " is the winner of the 2005 Babson College MBA Business Plan Competition.
Student founders/entrepreneurs Ryan Bettencourt, MBA 2005, of Portland, Oregon, and his wife, Monica Bettencourt (Huettinger) of Park Ridge, Illinois, won the 2005 Douglass Foundation Graduate Business Plan Competition.
Lifeprints is developing a chain of upscale and modern branded portrait studios located in high-end urban and suburban malls, anchored by stores such as Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and Restoration Hardware. Lifeprints will better meet the demands of today's portrait consumer by offering higher quality, more modern, custom portraits taken in a simple, artistic, environment using the latest in digital portrait technology. Their first store is expected to open in Chicago in June 2005. (http://www.mylifeprint.com.)
The Douglass Foundation Entrepreneurial Prize Competition is a graduate business plan competition that awards cash prizes and services in kind totaling more than $40,000 to the winners and runners-up. The business plans cover start-ups, acquisitions, company growth, real estate development, or entrepreneurial ventures. The Babson graduate student or team who submits the most feasible business plan for an entrepreneurial venture receives the $20,000 first place cash prize.
"It's truly an honor to win such a prestigious competition at the nation's top graduate business school in entrepreneurship," said Bettencourt. "Monica and I really enjoyed competing against such talented entrepreneurs and are thankful to all those that helped us prepare for the competition." The 2005 competition was sponsored by Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP, the international law firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs capitalize on opportunities and build for the future.
Babson founded the very first college business plan competition in 1984. Since that time, winning prizes have increased from the $1000 range in the beginning to almost $100,000 today in total cash prizes and services in kind for the undergraduate and MBA competitions.
Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit http://www.babson.edu.
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