Marshall’s Lewis College of Business to Host Business Model Competition

To support West Virginia's innovation ecosystem, Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business will conduct an inaugural WV Innovation and Business Model Competition (WVIBMC). The preliminary qualifying round will be held on March 14, and the finals are scheduled for April 6. The winning team will receive a $5,000 cash prize and an expenses-paid visit to the Intuit campus in Mountain View, California.

Dr. Avi Mukherjee, dean of the college, said that this new competition was empowered by Intuit Inc. Executive Chairman of the Board Brad D. Smith (Marshall ’86) and inspired by Intuit’s 2017 “Design for Delight” challenge. "The idea is to develop a business model validated through customer feedback and field research,” Mukherjee said. “The competition rewards ventures for breaking down an idea into a key business model hypothesis. The result is to promote new business ventures among university students to encourage innovation and building of disruptive and scalable startups.”

To compete, students must participate in an Innovating for Impact workshop, develop a business model through testing key assumptions, and then explain this journey and its results to a panel of judges at the Huntington campus qualifying event on Thursday, March 14, at the Brad D. Smith Foundation Hall. 

The most successful student team, as determined by the judging panel, will advance to the competition finals event April 6 and will compete against winners from nine other West Virginia colleges and universities for the $5,000 cash prize and Intuit-sponsored trip to the Silicon Valley. 

Student teams will follow a similar presentation format for the finals event.  All finals event participants are guaranteed $500. 

For additional information including information about the Innovating for Impact workshop, please contact one of the competition organizers: Ben Eng: eng2@marshall.edu ; Olen York: york@marshall.edu; Jeremy Turner: turner15@marshall.edu.