Kentucky Highlands Announces Idea Competition Winners for First Phase
Wednesday July 21, 2010
For Immediate Release
July 21, 2010
Kentucky Highlands announces idea competition winners for first phase
Next phase runs through Aug. 20 and will award $7,500 in cash prizes
LONDON, Ky. - The Business Innovation & Growth Center at Kentucky Highlands today announced the six winners in the first phase of its statewide business idea competition.
The BIG Idea Competition awarded $1,000 to six Kentucky businesses for their one-page business summaries:
- Awesome Labs of Lexington, which has created a proprietary optical touch-screen technology that enables users to interact with large, life-size interactive displays;
- B2 Solutions of Somerset, whose eGxPro Software automates and streamlines the documentation required for FDA approvals to accelerate new products to market;
- Monumental Builders of Jamestown, which manufactures a patented product that can use recycled materials to create a cultured stone concrete block system for building construction;
- NuForm Thermal Management of Sadieville, which recycles coal ash and turns it into a ceramic material that can replace the chemical flame retardants in polyurethane foam insulation;
- Olde Kentucky Logs of Corbin, which manufactures artificial logs that have an antique, hand-hewn look but are made of concrete using molds of actual 150- year-old logs; and
- STATShift.com of Versailles, which offers a customized, web-based medical staffing software company that links health-care facilities that have staffing shortages with available health-care professionals.
"These companies are using innovative technologies and ideas that have great potential to create jobs and grow the economy in Kentucky," said Jim Carroll, director of the Business Innovation & Growth Center. "We're pleased to provide them with a cash prize they can use to advance their business idea. We look forward to seeing not only those ideas expanded upon in the next phase of our competition but also receiving submissions from new sources."
The contest, which attracted 47 applications for Phase I, is for entrepreneurs who an idea to create or expand a business in Kentucky.
Next phase runs through Aug. 20; $7,500 in cash prizes to be awarded
Phase II of the competition will run through Aug. 20. The Executive Summary Competition requires participants to submit a three- to six-page synopsis of their business plan that will describe how they plan to commercialize their BIG Idea. Three winners each will receive $2,500.
The final phase will be the Oral Presentation Competition, conducted during the months of September and October, will invite participants to present their BIG Idea in person and will include a review of their business model, business plan and financial projections. The winner will receive $10,000 and 12 months free rent in Kentucky Highlands' Business Innovation and Growth Center, a business accelerator that will open in London, Ky., this fall. The runner-up will receive $5,000 and six months free rent in semi-private work space. The second runner-up will be awarded $2,500 and six months free rent in semi-private work space.
Total awards for the three phases include $30,000 in cash prizes and free office space.
Eligible participants include entrepreneurs, new businesses or existing businesses (with 20 or fewer employees) that can demonstrate they have an idea to create additional job opportunities in Kentucky. Each participant is eligible to win prizes at each phase, but companies do not have to submit proposals in Phase I to be considered for the remaining phases.
Proposals will be judged on various factors, including job creation in Kentucky, high-growth opportunity, uniqueness of the idea, ability to communicate the concept with clarity, and the feasibility and ability to generate revenue from out-of-state sources.
Each phase of the competition will be judged separately. Judges will include investors, economic development professionals and representatives from the competition supporters.
Other competition supporters are the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, Young Professionals of Eastern Kentucky, SCORE, the U.S. Small Business Administration, The Silicon Hollow Association, Lexington Venture Club, Eastern Region Innovation & Commercialization Center, The Center for Rural Development, Southeast Kentucky Economic Development (SKED), Kentucky Small Business Development Centers and Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED).
Visit www.khic.org for the contest rules and application.
Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, founded in 1968 to stimulate economic growth in nine counties in Southern and Eastern Kentucky, now serves 22 counties in the region and has created more than 10,000 jobs.
KHIC's Business Innovation & Growth Center, which will be the first LEED-certified business accelerator in the state, will include 9,600 square feet of product development, office and laboratory space for area entrepreneurs. It will open this fall in London, Ky., and is expected to assist 16 businesses, help create 127 new jobs and generate $6 million in private investment during the first five years.