Iowa student entrepreneurs to compete for business plan cash award Dec. 10

Ames, Iowa -- Iowa college students will pitch innovative business plans to a team of professional investors Friday, Dec. 10, as they compete in the Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan competition. Iowa State University has three teams competing.

The student presentations will be held in the morning at the Pappajohn Higher Education Building, 1200 Grand Ave., Des Moines. The winning teams will be recognized at an awards luncheon from noon to 1 p.m. The finalists will compete for three, $5,000 cash awards.

Iowa State is among 13 teams selected as regional winners in the annual Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan Competition held in November as part of the Iowa Venture Capital Conference.

John Pappajohn, president of Equity Dynamics, Inc., Des Moines, and founder of the five John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers in Iowa, created the competition five years ago.

Iowa State regional student winners and the names of their projects are:

• Matt Ostanik, Master's of Business Administration, "Electronic Exchange"
• Michael Albertsen, sophomore in dietetics, "Clari-Tea"
• Melanie Davis, senior in computer science; Doug Houghton, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering; and Shahzaib Younis, a 2004 computer science graduate from Iowa State, "Proximity Innovations".