Iowa State Students Win $5,000 in Business Plan Competition

Stacy Holzbauer, Iowa State University veterinary medicine student, said, "They brought up questions that we had never even thought about" while Stacy's business partner, Troy Kaiser said, "To present something that we developed to such prestigious individuals was an incredible experience."

A total of nine business teams were present at the final round of the competition. These teams were composed of students from the University of Northern Iowa, Drake University, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and North Iowa Area Community College. Three business teams were selected and each were awarded $5,000 seed grants. The winning teams were:

Great Plains Veterinary Services - Iowa State University Troy Kaiser (junior in veterinary medicine), Stacy Holzbauer (senior in veterinary medicine)

Knot Magazine - Drake University Jennie Dorris, Jim Casey

Biomedical Solutions - University of Iowa James Fenton, Vikas Goel

John Pappajohn commented that the competition not only benefits young entrepreneurs, but it also benefits Iowa. He said, "We particularly like working with students because this is how we create new business activity in the state of Iowa and create successful new entrepreneurs."

Stacy Holzbauer said, "Winning a competition like this gives you confidence that your business plan will materialize."

Students and institutional representatives present at the awards luncheon cheered when Pappajohn said, "We'll do it again next year!" The 2002 Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan Competition will be kicked off in the fall at the Iowa Venture Capital Conference in Des Moines.