Wright Venture finals moves to online format

During the online Wright Venture finals, students will present their business plans to experienced entrepreneurs, called Wolves. (File photo from 2017.)

Wright State University students with promising ideas for a new business will still get to compete for startup funds during a live online version of Wright Venture, the annual entrepreneur competition hosted by the Raj Soin College of Business.

Wright Venture will take place Thursday, April 16, starting at 3:30 p.m.

Viewers can watch the student entrepreneurs’ presentations through Webex. It will take attendees a moment to sign in (clicking the link will take attendees to the WebEx sign-in page). Use the password “venture” to join the event. Attendees can join the event up to 15 minutes before the start so that they don’t miss the beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Wright Venture is an entrepreneurial competition modeled after the reality competition series “Shark Tank.” The winner of Wright Venture is awarded $5,000 in startup funding.

The event, originally scheduled in March, was postponed when Wright State suspended all university events due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Raj Soin College of Business revived the competition by moving it online, giving students, who spent much of the spring semester preparing for their presentations a chance to compete. The student entrepreneurs and judges, a panel of experienced entrepreneurs called Wolves, as well as any viewers will participate remotely away from campus. Students in the Raj Soin College of Business, Computer Science and Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts are participating in this year’s competition. Damian Langstaff, an entrepreneurship major and president of the Entrepreneurship Club, will serve as the technical coordinator of the event.

“In these challenging times which restrict in-person meetings and events, we are fortunate that today’s technological advances allow us for forge ahead,” said Thomas Traynor, dean of the Raj Soin College of Business. “We are pleased to be able to host our ‘virtual’ Wright Venture to provide this year’s students an opportunity to participate.”

Wright Venture encourages students to consider taking on the role of entrepreneur by providing instruction for starting a business and bringing their idea to life. Wright Venture creates an experience similar to an actual business startup, including networking, mentorship, creative idea development, product design, service creation, financial management, business planning and marketing skills, offered free by Wright State faculty, staff, and local and regional sponsors.

“Our students can learn some valuable lessons from this experience — the importance of perseverance through difficult times, showing resilience in using different forms of communication, and the experience of planning a new venture while getting advice from successful entrepreneurs,” said Kendall Goodrich, chair of the Department of Marketing.

Past winners of the competition include a water purification kit, a gym bag designed to organize clothing and belongings, and Galatune, a strategy card game.

Funding for the Wright Venture program is provided by the James Family Entrepreneurship Program and Scene75.

More information is available at wright.edu/wrightventure.