ETSU’s College of Business and Technology opened submissions for the fifth annual iBucs Student Venture Pitch Competition. On the College of Business and Technology website, iBucs – also known as Innovative Buccaneers – is described as “an entrepreneurial start-up competition that offers ETSU Students the opportunity to win seed money for their innovative and entrepreneurial ideas.”
The iBucs competition is open to any ETSU student ranging from undergraduate to doctorate. With the help of faculty members, students can work individually or a team over the course of the semester to create, design, and build their innovative ideas. They then submit an application, which includes basic information about the competitors and their inventions.
On the day of the competition, candidates gather together to present their ideas to local professionals, community members and a distinguished panel of judges who are knowledgeable and passionate about entrepreneurship.
In 2019, husband and wife duo Logan Craft – a senior computing student – and Alexandria Craft – a grad student – took home first place in the competition with their joint creation, Daily Eatz. Daily Eatz is a website where consumers can go to find deals offered by local restaurants and businesses, such as kids receiving free meals or discounts for college students. Alexandria gathered the information from the restaurants, while Logan tackled the coding.
“Daily Eatz always has had a goal of creating a website where the user could go and find one location for many different deal types,” said Logan, in a video posted to the College of Business and Technology website that spotlights the couple’s win.
This year’s competition will take place on April 1, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at the Millennium Center; all applications are due by March 15.
For more information, students can contact Sonu Mirchandani, Bill McTier, or Stephen Hendrix – all lecturers in the Business & Technology Department – at their respective email addresses. Any student who is interested in submitting an application for the event can visit www.etsu.edu/ibucs/.
