Business Plan Competition Winners

L-R: Business Plan Competition Winners FormaPop and Karuna Colectiva

The University of New Mexico's Business Plan Competition strives to turn students into entrepreneurs. This year's event was notable in several respects:  not only did more sponsors contribute to the prize pool, raising the total prize amount from $75,000 to $87,000, but for the first time UNM signed a memorandum of understanding with Central New Mexico Community College, partnering with CNM to open the competition up to CNM students.

The competition runs on two tracks: technological, utilizing intellectual property developed by UNM or CNM students or from Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Labs, or STC.UNM; and entrepreneurial, a generalist startup competition that does not involve intellectual property. Six technological and twelve entrepreneurial teams competed for six prizes on each track.

This year's top technological prize went to FormaPop. FormaPop's team members Antonio Gutierrez, Scott McFall, and Aundre Huynh have developed an innovative baby bottle attachment that helps the mother by making feeding easier. The bottle's cap contains built-in formula storage for convenience on the go.

The top entrepreneurial prize went to Karuna Colectiva, conceived by Henry “Jake” Foreman.
Karuna Colectiva is a pop-up workshop where students work, learn, earn and apply what they learn from the Cycles of Life learning tools through market-based education.

Congratulations to all winners and participants!