OSU students capture fourth place at TCU's Values and Ventures competition

Monday, April 22, 2013

OSU students Nick Cain and Flint Holbrook are congratulated by O. Homer Erekson, John V. Roach Dean of the Neeley School of Business, after capturing fourth place against students from 27 other universities from around the world during TCU's business plan competition.

Virtue and Veneration, a two-man team of Oklahoma State University students Nick Cain and Flint Holbrook, placed fourth against 27 other universities last weekend at the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures™ Business Plan Competition at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Cain, a mechanical engineering major, and Holbrook, a biosystems engineering major, presented Virtue and Veneration, a service providing comfort to grieving United States military veterans and their families. Cain and Holbrook have been working on their new business venture for the past year in the Cowboy Idea Hatchery, a student business incubator that is part of the Riata Center of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business.

The competition was for college entrepreneurs from around the world to showcase their ideas for businesses that make money while making life better.

"The Values and Ventures competition at TCU was very well put together and it was a real honor to be selected as a finalist. Even though we got fourth place we made some invaluable connections,” said Holbrook.

"This experience has cemented in my mind the idea [one that the OSU entrepreneurship department prescribes to] that entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and acting, and not a simple course of study," said Cain.

All 28 teams competed Friday in front of panels of different judges. Saturday, six finalist teams competed in front of a different panel of judges to determine the final cash-prize winners.

Virtue and Veneration received a $1,000 prize for their fourth-place finish. First place and $15,000 went to George Washington University, second place and $10,000 went to Christopher Newport University, and third place and $5,000 went to Texas Christian University.

Other U.S. participating in the 2013 Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures™ Business Plan Competition were Appalachian State University, Baylor University, Chapman University, Grand Valley State University, Regis University, Samford University, Southern Methodist University, St. Mary's University, Syracuse University, The University of Tampa, University of Arkansas, University of Florida, University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Oklahoma, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Villanova University, Wake Forest and Walsh University.

International universities included J.J. Strossmayer University Osijek, Osijek, Croatia; Monterrey Institute of Technology, Monterrey, Mexico; Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

For more details about and Virtue and Veneration read Spears School's previous story, OSU students will compete in TCU's Values and Ventures competition.