Carolina Alumni Review - November/December 2008

lenge before I went to business school,” Richardson says of the company’s beginnings. Because Chasnovitz was a Carolina student at the time, they were eligible to enter the competition. At that point, they knew they wanted to create market access for the cooperatives’ products, but they didn’t really have a plan. “We developed a business plan in the course of doing the Challenge,” Richardson says.

Though she would hone the plan further while in business school, Richardson said the Zebra Crossings proposal was solid enough to win both the social track and the people’s choice awards in the 2006 Challenge. She says that while in business school, she benefited from the launch course in a number of ways.

“The first phase is a feasibility analysis,” she says. “You create a survey that goes to a panel of people you don’t know to find out what they think of your venture idea. It was great to get some external feedback — that was a huge plus for us.” She also appreciated the input of other MBA students through the launch process and their help as she built a financial model. “I’d done my best to do a P&L statement, but this took it to the next level for me to be able to project what funds I’d need, what revenue I could expect.”

Late last summer, Zebra Crossings ( www.zebracrossings.com/zencart) was moving toward partnership with an environmentally conscious wedding company, www.thegreenbrideguide.com.

Zoller, who co-teaches the “Launching the Venture” course, says that the students and alumni who develop their entrepreneurial skills represent the best of the next generation. “They are going to solve our most pressing problems,” he says. “They are acting on their convictions, and that’s what entrepreneurship is all about. It’s not about the great idea; it’s about acting on it.”

— Kathleen Kearns

An article about Nourish International was published in the September/October 2008 Carolina Alumni Review, available online to GAA members at alumni.unc.edu/archive. An article about Sindhura Citineni ’04, a winner of this year’s GAA Distinguished Young Alumni Award, appears on page 50 of this issue.

Carolina Challenge Winners

Multidisciplinary teams have taken part in the Carolina Challenge business-plan competition each year since 2005, competing for prize money that now totals $50,000. The top winners in the John Stedman Commercial Track and the John Stedman Social Track, listed below, indicate the range of enterprises teams have come up with. Each year, honorable mentions, a People’s Choice award and the Liquidia Science Prize also are awarded.

2008 First Place, Commercial:

Mei Lu (American Green/Beautiful Green), which plans to introduce miniature golf to China’s middle class.

2008 First Place, Social: Carolina Liquid Assets, which plans to manufacture and distribute a ceramic water purifier to Cambodia’s poor.

2008 Second Place, Commercial: Applied Micro Products, a line that uses patented, biodegradation-based, time-release technology, including an environmentally friendly wood preservative.

2008 Second Place, Social: Greener Greek Initiative, a custom-tailored energy auditing and consulting service for fraternity and sorority houses that wish to reduce their carbon footprints.

2007 First Place, Commercial: SizeMeUp, a provider of software to help online apparel retailers reduce returns by ensuring that customers order the correct sizes.

2007 First Place, Social:
Universal Nut Sheller, a venture to

manufacture and more widely distribute a simple sheller that can shell peanuts 98 percent more efficiently than by hand.

2007 Second Place, Commercial: Knowble Inc., an online networking and communications tool to help academic and corporate researchers collaborate.

2007 Second Place, Social:

Know Your Plate, a venture that promotes sustainable agriculture by taking the farmers’ market online.

2006 First Place, Commercial:

TRG Online, now New Media Campaigns, which offers a product for managing online voter-campaign marketing.

2006 First Place, Social:

Zebra Crossings, an online retailer of fair-trade wedding gifts created by artisans in economically disadvantaged areas.

2006 Second Place, Commercial:

Health e-Lunch Kids, an online service offering healthy lunches delivered to children in schools and camps nationwide.

2006 Second Place, Social:

Rival Magazine, a magazine that aims to promote collaboration on service projects among students at UNC and Duke University.

2005 First Place, Commercial: RemedEase, a patented first-aid treat-ment/product for stopping nosebleeds quickly and effectively.

2005 First Place, Social:

New Worlds Through Literature, a foundation that facilitates and organizes the donation of enriching literature and libraries to people of all ages who do not have prior access to such literature.

2005 Second Place, Commercial: CollegeGrocer.net, a student-owned and -operated business to provide to-the-room grocery delivery for students who live on the UNC campus.