Springboard Ideas Challenge to be held in Snyder

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Snyder will be one of five locations for Abilene Christian University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy’s Springboard Ideas Challenge competition.
This is the first year Snyder will host the first round of the competition and the city will join Sweetwater, Brownwood/Early, Haskell and Abilene as sites.
The Snyder event will be held at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Snyder Chamber of Commerce office.
The program allows local college students and community members the chance to pitch business ideas to local investors and possibly walk away with thousands of dollars in startup funding and other resources.
Over the last nine years, the competition has awarded more than $400,000 to entrepreneurs.
This year, the program will make changes to the overall process.
“One of the biggest changes has been moving from a business plan to a business model competition,” said Karen Heflin, Springboard program coordinator. “A business plan, which is what we’ve required in the past, is a lengthy report. A business model is more of a storyboard presentation with initial research done by participants. It gives aspiring entrepreneurs valuable information before they ever launch their business, helping them be more successful.”
Each person will be given two minutes to pitch their idea to investors during the first round.
Training and mentors will be available to teams that advance beyond the first round. These resources will help prepare contestants to take the initial idea and transform it into a working and applicable business model that investors would be interested in, Heflin said.
The competition will end in May with the top three teams presenting their final business model to a group of local investors for a chance to win $15,000.
More information is available at acu.edu/springboard.