INDUSTRY LEADING ENTREPRENEUERS ANNOUNCED TO JUDGE NATIONAL BUSINESS COMPETITION CHAIRED BY UNDER ARMOUR FOUNDER AND CEO

Six student startups were selected from nearly 150 nationwide entries to advance to the final round in the 2014 Cupid’s Cup Business Competition, chaired by Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank and presented by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. The finalists will compete for $115,000 in the final round on April 4 at the University of Maryland in College Park. Get your tickets now: www.cupidscup.com.

SEMIFINALISTS TO COMPETE FOR $115K NATIONAL BUSINESS COMPETITION CHAIRED BY UNDER ARMOUR FOUNDER AND CEO REGISTER NOW College Park, MD – February 14, 2014 – Fourteen student startups were selected from nearly 150 nationwide entries to advance to the semifinal round in the 2014 Cupid’s Cup Business Competition, presented by Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank and the University of Maryland’s Robert H.

Jason Shrensky is an angel-in-residence at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. He will be taking questions about securing funding, building your customer base, how the entrepreneurship landscape looks in this region, and more for the Washington Post’s Capital Business newspaper. Ask your question now. Join the live online chat on  January 22, 2014 at noon. 

A better job search system. Destroyed iPhones. Email without boundaries. Bacon. Those were some of the business ideas from five student businesses who went head-to-head for $3,500 in funding in the fall Pitch Dingman Competition, Thursday, Nov. 21 at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.  In the end, SellMyOldTech.Com ($2,000 first prize) came out on top after pitching a panel of judges and an audience of students, faculty, staff and alumni. QuickMailCheck captured second place ($1,000) and the Audience Choice award ($500).

The Cupid’s Cup business competition this year expanded beyond the university to award cash prizes to the most promising entrepreneurs in the country. But the April 5 competition, sponsored by Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank ’96 and hosted by Smith’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, found its top winner close to home.

Watching Terps men’s basketball games from the nosebleed section, Derek Shewmon, MBA ’09, and Federico Campbell, MBA ’09, often wondered why great seats below them in the Comcast Center remained empty. 

Nigerian-born Mondiu Ladejobi, EMBA ’13, found using wire transfers to send money home inconvenient and plagued by poor service. Ladejobi used his time in Smith’s EMBA program to launch Payvius, an international money transfer service that uses mobile and cloud technology. Ladejobi is focused on rolling out Payvius to serve the Sub-Saharan Africa market first. His goal is to help migrants and immigrants in the United States save on the cost of sending money home. 

During the week of November 18–22, the Smith School will participate as a partner in Global Entrepreneurship Week – the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.

How to increase innovation in any organization Entrepreneurship goes beyond starting and running new businesses. All organizations need people who think like entrepreneurs to innovate, move forward and stay ahead.