By Rachel Lutz, Assistant Editorial Editor
The Zarb School of Business Department of Management, Entrepreneurship and General Business partnered Wednesday, November 10 with Capital One Banking to offer three teams of students the chance to build their own business with a startup fund from Capital One.
"The students participating in this program are gaining hands-on experience that they can take with them into successful careers upon graduating to distinguish themselves from others in a competitive world," said Patrick J. Socci, Dean of the Zarb School of Business.
The first group to present was Rent-A-Spot. The idea for their company stemmed from the fact that parking is unsatisfactory on campus, and they wanted to provide a quick, convenient, guaranteed spot for a select few students, faculty, and staff.
Rent-A-Spot's idea is to have a silent auction to win one of 20 prime parking spots on the academic side of campus. The 20 winners would also have the opportunity to share the spots with their friends. For example, if that one student only commuted to campus Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they could share the spot with a friend who only comes to campus Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The silent auction would take place two weeks prior to the start of each month, because the parking rentals would be monthly. Public Safety would also be heavily involved, because they would have the right to tow people using the spots that they are not renting for that month.
The second company to present their ideas to the panel of judges was Student Lottery: A Scholarship Fund for Students. They are currently deciding between two names and several logos, wintuition.com and scholarforadollar.com.
The idea behind their company is to have a lottery similar to Mega Millions, where it is only a dollar for one line of numbers, and you can have up to five lines on one ticket. Anything higher than three matching numbers and the bonus wins money. The people that will be eligible for this lottery is anyone ages 18 and over,
The money won from the lottery can be put towards scholarship to an accredited school of your choice anywhere in the country to pay for tuition, books, or a meal plan. It can also go into a 529 Savings Plan account with the specification it will be used for education.
The third and final group to present is called Personalization PLUS. Their idea was born from the fact that the nearest embroidery and customizing shops were outside a three-mile radius, and were not catering to college students. Personalization PLUS would bring their embroidering services to The University's Student Center, as well as taking larger orders online for a cheap rate across the board.
Next week, the judges from Capital One will hold one on one meetings with each team. After the meetings and continued deliberation, they will choose a winner and award them the money to start their business on campus. Each group had an estimated startup cost of about $3,000 for advertising, accumulation of resources, and maintenance costs.