Home » Students win $10,000 at Startup Challenge Business Plan Competition

Students win $10,000 at Startup Challenge Business Plan Competition

UPIKE team takes top spot

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (Dec. 21, 2016) — The University of Pikeville recently hosted the Coleman College of Business’s fifth Startup Challenge Business Plan Competition.

Startup-Challenge-Dec-2016-1The event, which was open to area high school and college students and community members, was held in collaboration with the Kentucky Innovation Network Pikeville office.

CitrOHa took home first place and the $5,000 prize. The team, made up of UPIKE students Marcos Fondelius Sernandez, Nicholas Rodenbusch and Christin Justice, created an all-organic feed supplement to address the pervasive problem of osteoarthritis in dogs.

Second place and $3,000 went to the Pier Smart team of Dalton Rife, Madison Stiltner, Tyeisha Smith and Noelle Fields. The Phelps High School students are working on a portable desalination product to provide clean, salt-free drinking water to the more than 5,000 people who become stranded at sea each year.

Eyesight Education, consisting of UPIKE students Tengfei Si and Diego Rivas, earned third place and $2,000 with their idea of providing affordable, unbiased and comprehensive information to students from China wanting to attend college in the U.S.