Delta Surface Technologies (DST), LLC was the winning team in the 2004 Student Business Plan Competition. They were awarded $10,000 to start their own business and $15,000 in consulting services.
DST got their idea for making surfaces flat because Jonathan Wappel, one of the members of Delta Surfaces, is a hockey player and is part of his own management group that owns ice rinks. The money Delta Surfaces received will be used to get the business operating by the end of next year. Specifically, the money will be used for lawyer and accountant fees and patents. In three years they hope to expand their company to doing interior floor analyses and golf courses.
Next year the competition hopes to go statewide. This year teams from Southern Maine Community College were allowed to participate. One of the speakers said half jokingly that soon the competition would be expanded to be worldwide. The Business Plan Competition began at USM three years ago.
There were some disappointed teams. Nate Lentz and Gary Lytle both juniors at USM have been starting their own company called Triad Installation and they were not chosen for the awarded money. In fact Nate already has an undergraduate degree but decided to come back for an engineering degree in order to actualize his idea with Triad.
Triad Installation is a service-based company that will “design and install fully integrated computers and home theater systems in the home and businesses.” Lentz and Lytle’s vision is that in the future everything will be computerized and this is how he sees the company profiting. In more and more homes there will be a need and desire for easier systems. Lentz said “you will call in on your cell phone and start the roast . . . This is going to be the future.” Whether Triad’s vision will work is too soon to tell but Lytle said, that he and his partner will keep going with the business and perhaps they will try again next year.
Thirty-three teams registered to compete, four from SMCC. The team members ranged from nursing and English to computer science and accounting. One of the requirements was one member of each team had to attend a business plan fundamentals workshop.
Sixteen of the thirty-three teams did an analysis of their ideas and three judges looked them over. Fourteen teams wrote business plans by the end of March and from these plans, the top five teams were picked.
On April 10 they gave their presentations. There were three judges; John Chandler of Berry, Dunn, McNeil, and Parker, Joseph Herlihy of Spinglass Management Consultants, and Diane Sammer of Small Enterprise Growth Fund. The teams were judged by their written plans, plan presentation, and plan viability.
The top five teams were Chaya Studios (original jewelry making), Delta Surface Technologies (devices for mapping surfaces and making them flat) winner, Gametime Family Entertainment (family entertainment park, food court, and paint ball), Professional Assertion Services (helps companies choose reliable employees), and Triad Installation.
Ruth Miller can be contacted at [email protected]