The fifth annual LSU Student Incubator Venture Challenge ended Wednesday with several large checks, totaling $25,000, awarded to support burgeoning student businesses.
Twenty-three student incubator businesses entered this year’s competition, the most in the event’s history, said Student Incubator manager Kenny Anderson. This year’s four finalists — Ambici, Tonal Innovation, Louisiana Decoy Company and Lagniappe Onshore — pitched their business plans to a panel of four judges in a live competition.
Anderson said the challenge developed from a need to provide students with easy access to capital. Students often have difficulty acquiring capital to support their businesses because they do not have the collateral necessary to take out loans, he said.
Mock pitch events are common practice among business incubators across the country, and monetizing the event was a great way to incentivize students to create business plans, he said.
“We wanted it to be a little more fun, and we wanted to light a fire under them,” Anderson said.
Ambici took home the first place prize of $8,500. Brothers Reed and Riley Stephens, a mechanical engineering sophomore and Mandeville High School senior respectively, created their wooden watch company after growing up surrounded by their father and grandfather’s carpentry work.
“We thought it was only right to blend our passion for wood and love for watches together,” Reed said.
The brothers prepared for the competition for two weeks, practicing their speech to a stuffed sweatshirt with a tissue box head as a stand-in for the live judges.
Despite the extensive practice, the win was still a shock, Reed said.
“I was very surprised,” Reed said. “I thought Tonal [Innovation] was going to take it because their presentation was phenomenal. Someone actually laughed at me because when they said it my mouth actually dropped.”
Tonal Innovation’s Daniel Wendt, a finance senior and Tiger Band drum major, and business management senior Garrett Kessling, the band’s saxophone section leader, took home the second place prize of $6,250.
The company’s eFlip device will allow musicians to connect their smartphone or tablet to their instrument using a lyre, saving the musician the time and hassle spent fumbling with traditional music flip books, Wendt and Kessling said.
Third place winner Aaron Koenck, a history and political science senior, won $5,500 for his startup, Louisiana Decoy Company. Koenck developed a revolutionary hunting decoy that operates as both a standing and floating decoy, while also folding in half for easy transportation.
The avid duck hunter said the Student Incubator provided him with the business skills that allowed him to successfully start his company.
“It’s brought me light-years ahead,” Koenck said. “That’s just knowledge I can’t get from what I study.”
Lagniappe Onshore, a hydrocarbon prospecting and consulting firm, took home $3,500 for a fourth place finish. University alumna Erin McCreery and geology graduate student Caroline Broderick founded the company to leverage the production of small oil wells across the state.
Attorney Robert Tucker, a partner at Jones Walker Law Firm, said this year’s presentations were the most impressive he’s seen during his five years as a Venture Challenge judge.
Tucker said he enjoys supporting the Student Incubator program because it provides students with invaluable real world experience.
“It’s a huge head start,” Tucker said. “It’s a very competitive world. Real life is very different, and so it’s really cool for them to get some experience while they are still a student.”

Gallery • 11 Photos

Greta Jines

University alumna Erin McCreery (pictured) and geology graduate student Caroline Broderick pitch their business, Lagniappe Onshore, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 as part of the LSU Student Incubator's Venture Challenge at the Lod Cook Alumni Center.