![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/mayo-business-winners.jpg\" "\\"mayo-business-winners\\"")
\u201cWe spent months working on the concept, programming a mock site, testing different functions and \u2028technologies, as well as surveying the desires of our potential market,\u201d said Dolan. \u201cWe even launched and operated a full blog to test users\u2019 feedback on certain aspects we plan to incorporate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The work paid off handsomely, as the trio beat 15 other student teams to claim the competition\u2019s $12,000 grand prize. The contest was the brainchild of finance professor Herbert Mayo<\/strong>, who wanted to give students an appreciation for the challenges associated with developing a viable business offering and reward those best able to articulate a plan that addresses those challenges. Mayo worked with Dean of the School of Business William Keep<\/strong> to plan and coordinate the competition, and contributed $10,000 for prize money.<\/p>\n Eric Szabo \u201997<\/strong>, who served as one of the competition\u2019s judges, was so impressed with the idea that he matched Mayo\u2019s $10,000 donation.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring this difficult transition phase of the economy, it is so important\u2026to create an out-of-the-box learning \u2028environment where students can differentiate themselves while supporting good, marketable ideas,\u201d said Szabo, who is managing director and chief risk officer for Annaly Capital Management. \u201cSociety will only emerge from the current economic malaise via continued support of the notion that we need to reward and \u2028encourage entrepreneurial activity, as it is [activities like this competition] that stimulate creativity, productivity, and opportunity in our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Fifteen teams entered the competition, which was open to students from any of TCNJ\u2019s seven schools. An 18-judge panel selected the top six plans, and those teams presented their proposals in February. The top three teams were then asked to further revise and present their plan to a five-judge panel at the finals on April 4.<\/p>\n At the April event, Albert Matlock \u201912<\/strong>, Anthony Grullon \u201912<\/strong>, Dan Bucher \u201912<\/strong>, and Laura Mendez \u201914<\/strong> won the $6,000 second prize for their plan to refurbish and sell vintage clothing products. Frank Piazza \u201912<\/strong>, Mike Arnone \u201915<\/strong>, and Pat Chirchirillo \u201913<\/strong> claimed the $2,000 third prize for their proposal to make and sell hats.<\/p>\n Keep said he was \u201cimpressed by the \u2026 passion and creativity\u201d of all contest entrants, as well as by the finalists\u2019 \u201cpoise under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Craig, Dolan, and Nwafili, who are also developing several applications on top of their platform for merchandising companies, musicians, and nonprofits, said they plan to use their prize money to refine their site in preparation for its official launch this summer.<\/p>\n A logo design contest was held in conjunction with the business plan competition. Junior graphic design major Elvira Logorda\u2019s logo was selected from the 29 received. She received a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card.<\/p>\n Laura Herzog \u201912 contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The proposal of three freshmen to build a website where users create a customized \u201conline magazine\u201d won top prize in the first Mayo Business Plan Competition, a contest designed to challenge TCNJ \u2028students to not only dream up the\u2028next big business idea but also blueprint a course of action for bringing that idea to life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-june-2012","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}