Michigan Technological University students showed the reason why engineers make good entrepreneurs at the recent New Venture Competition held at Central Michigan University.
Tech teams brought home both first and third place in the competition, with the first place team, Ben Mitchell and Wade Aitken-Palmer, also winning Best Social Venture.
The pair won with their business plan to create better bicycle tires for rural Africans, who often depend on bicycles for transport and employment. Their company,
Baisikeli Ugunduzi, won a total of $40,000 in prizes for sustainability, social impact and entrepreneurship. That money will make the startup stages of the company possible, says Mitchell, who plans to head to Kenya in May.
"We are working with bicycle taxi drivers, who can go through many tubes in a month," he says of the company's main product, a tube tire that eliminates flat tire issues. "The tubes will have to be produced in Taiwan, as there are no production facilities in Kenya."
But after that, the pair plan to hire mechanics and assembly workers in Africa so that the product can be locally produced for its market.
The third-place team, Picket Books, won $5,000 to get their idea started. Students Kyle Johnston and David Shull plan to invest the money in the Houghton area to launch their online textbook rental services for next spring.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Ben Mitchell, Michigan Technological University
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