Newswise — Babson MBA student business LazyBones, a laundry delivery, dry cleaning, and storage service for college students, is winner of the 2009 Douglass Foundation Entrepreneurial Prize Competition at Babson College.
Lazybones, presented by Babson MBA candidates Dan Hermann and Joel Pedlikin, currently generates more than $1.2 million a year in revenues and 20 percent net profit margins. Lazybones plans to achieve explosive growth by franchising the business, increasing its revenues tenfold during the next five years. www.lazybones.net
First runner-up is K. Guillard, presented by MBA candidate Katie Fink. K. Guillard--Custom Apparel for Every Unique Woman--a lifestyle clothing company that provides women with the ability to purchase high-quality, custom-fitting, and fashionable apparel in a convenient shopping experience.
GroupGuess, second runner-up, presented by Bernardo Sosa and Yugo Kanazawa, both 2nd year MBAs, delivers a forecasting tool for businesses to plan ahead of time by aggregating knowledge, simply by asking their community (employees, suppliers, or customers) with a small incentive. GroupGuess provides a tool to tap the "Wisdom of Crowds" with a carrot. www.groupguess.com
The Douglass Foundation Entrepreneurial Prize Competition is a graduate business plan contest that awards cash prizes of $35,000 and additional 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 corporate entrepreneurship. The Babson graduate student or team who submits the most feasible business plan before the judges, consisting of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, local business people, and alumni, receives the $20,000 first place cash prize, $10,000 for placing second, and $5,000 to third.
The Babson College 2009 Business Plan Competitions were held during the school's "Celebrating Student Venturing" day. Babson founded the very first college business plan competition in 1984 and this year awards are almost $100,000 in cash and services in kind.
This year's competition was sponsored by Pepper Hamilton and VistaPrint. Pepper Hamilton LLP is a multipractice law firm with more than 500 lawyers in seven states and the District of Columbia. The firm provides corporate, litigation, and regulatory legal services to leading businesses, governmental entities, nonprofit organizations, and individuals throughout the nation and the world. The firm was founded in 1890. VistaPrint is the small business marketing company that provides products like business cards, postcards, checks, and rubber stamps to small businesses and consumers.
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 www.babson.edu.
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