VCU Business Plan Competition Tests Mettle of Participants

By Tom Gresham

April 27 loomed large on the calendar this year for Jason Bonasera, a senior in the VCU School of Business. Bonasera, who graduates Saturday with a major in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship, took the two-part entrepreneurship course this year that is taught annually by Matthew Rutherford, an associate professor of management. The course is spread out over the entire academic year and ends with a business plan competition sponsored by the local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. April 27 marked the final round of judging for the competition.

Bonasera and teammates Rachell Krumm and Josh Grohler advanced with four other teams past the first round of judging, which was held on April 21, and arrived for the final round at the offices of the Hirschler Fleischer law firm with a sense that the culmination of their time in the VCU School of Business was upon them.

 “There’s so much buildup to this one day,” Bonasera said. “I felt like my whole academic career was riding on it, even though it wasn’t. It felt like the biggest day of my life.”

On the big stage, Bonasera’s team, which was named “Thrive,” flourished, giving a presentation that Rutherford described as “very crisp and very impressive” and earning a victory in the competition and a $1,500 prize. Thrive’s winning business plan was for an interactive watch that doubles as a personal trainer. The watch contains software that designs workouts for its wearer, taking into account body type and fitness level, and then tracking those workouts, storing data and revising workouts.

The “More Than Cheer” team, which included Brittany Rose, Brent Dodd, Alec Rountree and Ibrahim Al-Jassim, was the runner-up, earning $500. Rose founded More Than Cheer, which provides small-group cheerleading instruction, in 2007.

Bonasera, who works as personal trainer, first conceived the idea for the watch in an earlier business course and then revived it for Rutherford’s class, honing the idea and business plan with Krumm and Grohler. Bonasera plans to continue to pursue the product idea after graduation and will begin to look for a software engineer who can build a prototype.

Judges in the business plan competition are largely members of the Associate for Corporate Growth. They are savvy about what works and does not work in the business world, making them ideal advisers for the students. The first round of judging tends to be harsh, Rutherford said, serving to show students the weaknesses in their plans – the areas where they need to strengthen their proposals. Judges help the students identify the details they have failed to consider or have failed to adequately address.

Bonasera said his team made major changes to its business plan after the first round of judging, though they had less than a week to execute those alterations. It made their plan much stronger, he said.

Bonasera described the entrepreneurship course as intense, marked by long nights laboring over different aspects of the business plan to meet deadlines. It made his team’s strong finish all the more rewarding.

“There was a sense of accomplishment that was not like anything I’d ever experienced before,” Bonasera said.

Bonasera said the experience provided him with a confidence that has carried over into the job interview process. He knows that the business competition victory helps his resume stand out, and his experience presenting a business plan before tough judges steeled him for the interviews themselves.

Rutherford said students often appear wide-eyed before their presentations, but they are relieved and proud when they are finished.

“That’s the whole idea – to put them on the line,” Rutherford said.