2016-17 Kittrell Pitch Competition offered to students of all majors

Lacey Klotz | 

As a liberal arts university, Lipscomb University sees a lot of creativity and ambition amongst its entire student body: art students who dream of opening their own galleries, engineering students who desire to build and sell robots for medical advancements, or perhaps a group of entrepreneurial students starting a backpack company to help alleviate world poverty and empower women.

Today, businesses are beginning in college dorm rooms, and it is crucial to help provide the proper resources and business skills to students of any major, so they know how to one day make those dreams a reality, said Jerry Stubblefield, Lipscomb’s entrepreneur-in-residence for the College of Business.

Take Facebook for example: In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, along with four college roommates, launched the social networking service out of their Harvard College dorm room. Today, the company is worth nearly $245 billion, has over 14,000 employees and has more than 1.65 billion monthly active users.

Such stories motivate Lipscomb University’s Center for Entreprenuership, housed in the College of Business, to create on-campus opportunities to help Lipscomb students develop their business skills.  

This year, for the third consecutive year, students of any major will have the opportunity to pitch a business plan in the 2016-17 Kittrell Pitch Competition. During the competition, students will have the chance to win seed money and a mentorship opportunity to help launch their businesses one day.

The competition is fully funded by Marty Kittrell, an alumnus and member of Lipscomb’s Board of Trustees, who has provided $20,000 for the competition in honor of his father, William, who was a 1941 graduate of Lipscomb.

The Kittrell Pitch Competition will have two qualifying rounds, one this fall and one this spring, before the final competition will be held in April 2017.

The first qualifying round is set for Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 5 p.m. in Stowe Hall, located in the Swang Business Center. Students will pitch their business models in front of a panel of professional entrepreneurs and will compete for a first place prize of $3,000, a second place prize of $2,000 and a third place prize of $1,000 in the first qualifying round.

The second qualifying round will be held Monday, April 3 at 5 p.m. in Stowe Hall, and although there is not a cash prize at this competition, the top three winners will immediately qualify for the final competition that will be held on Wednesday, April 5 at 5 p.m.

During the final competition, finalists will present their business ideas to a panel of professionals and compete for a $10,000 first place prize, $3,000 second place prize and $2,000 third place prize, to use as seed money to develop and ultimately launch their business into their desired market.

“Lipscomb has brilliant students who are creative, innovative and have the passion to create a business, but we also realize non-business majors might not know where to begin,” said Joe Ivey, director of Lipscomb’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “It is crucial for students to understand that it takes business skills, including management, marketing and accounting, as well as creative skills to get a company started.”

To help in this process, the Center for Entreprenuership at Lipscomb is offering opportunities to assist in developing business models by offering:  

  • One-on-one mentoring services provided by Joe Ivey and Jerry Stubblefield as well as other professors in the College of Business who offer mentoring services in specific business skills.
  • Two elevator pitch competitions where students can win $1,000 in total awards, plus a trip to the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organizations’ (CEO) Annual Pitch Competition. All Lipscomb undergrad students are also welcome to join Lipscomb’s student chapter of the CEO led by Lipscomb students Luke Benda and Katie Scholl.
  • Workshops throughout the semester for business professionals to interact and educate students. The most recent workshop was with Patricia Leonard, owner of Runway to Success, who gave tips on how to deliver a winning elevator pitch.

“We currently have multiple students in the process of starting their own companies and want to encourage and provide resources for more students, business majors and non business majors alike, to do the same,” said Stubblefield.

For more information on the Kittrell Pitch Competition, visit: www.lipscomb.edu/entrepreneurship.