Our final two students participating in the first-ever UNI Early Founders Program are Denzel Washington and Spencer Walthall. These entrepreneurs were hand-picked because the JPEC staff saw potential in their preexisting business ventures and were confident that this opportunity would provide valuable experiences for these students.
We are so excited to launch our Early Founder's Program this summer! This program will kick off on Monday, June 3rd and will wrap up on Friday, August 2nd. We have six driven students who will be developing and growing their business plans throughout the summer. Each business is at a different level of growth, which leaves plenty of room for improvement for each student. We are excited to be working with such a motivated group of young entrepreneurs and sharing their progress with you. Leading up to the kickoff date, we will be revealing more about each of our students and the businesses they…
On Friday, April 26th, three tenants whose businesses are located in the R. J. McElroy Student Business Incubator program competed in the Pappajohn Student Entrepreneurial Venture Competition. The competition was hosted in Des Moines with John Pappajohn and Dan Storck with Equity Dynamics along with Dan Cosgrove, Chief Strategy Officer at Growers Edge Financial in Johnston, IA and Tom O’Reilly, President of Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA judging the competition to determine the three state finalists.
Gabe Groothuis, a Sales Management and Organizational Leadership double major, from Marion, Iowa, was recognized at the UNIBusiness Leadership Celebration on April 11, 2019 as the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center Student Entrepreneur of the Year. Gabe was UNI’s 2018 Elevator Pitch Competition winner and represented UNI at the National CEO conference in Kansas City this November advancing through to the second round before being eliminated.
Corey Behrens, a junior, of Mason City, Iowa, studying digital media production and the owner and operator of Simplistic Views, a photography and videography startup has been selected to receive the 2019 R.J. McElroy Student Business Incubator Student Business of the Year award.
Gabe Groothuis, founder, operator, and owner of Groothuis Solutions, has been a tenant at the UNI JPEC for two semesters now. With the help of another Student Business Incubator (SBI) Tenant, Corey Behrens, Gabe has been growing Groothuis Solutions to become an online platform that distributes educational media content to high school programs throughout the nation to better their mock trial programs. Previously, Gabe offered in-person consulting and clinics, and after scaling his business, he is able to offer three different online courses to his clients: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
Five Cedar Falls High School students have had their nose to the grindstone and are making tracks in their business, oldpeoplebrand. Hollis Wilson, Camden Dusenbery, Joey Dunning, Mack Eastman, and Lars Christiason began the oldpeoplebrand in mid-December of 2017. The group of friends decided to come together and start a clothing brand that derives from prevalent streetwear and attempts to promote their idealistic type of culture throughout. Some of the clothing items offered at the …
Our newest addition to the incubator, Jessica Wise, had the opportunity to showcase her business, White and Yellow T-shirt Co., on Main Street, in Waterloo, for Shop Downtown Saturdays. White and Yellow offers four distinctive lines of t-shirts with uplifting quotes on them and donates 10% of the profits to local charities specifically tied to that line.
TJ Nissen is a 2018 Graphic Technologies fall graduate and the owner of Network Nirvana, a business in the JPEC’s R. J. McElroy Student Business Incubator. In 2018, TJ was awarded the UNI JPEC Business of the Year award to recognize his hard work and dedication.
CEDAR FALLS — The John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Northern Iowa received a development grant from e-Fest to support its entrepreneurship program and student activities.
