Small business plan competition comes to San Juan College or university through Hawk Tank method

FARMINGTON — An on-line presentation introducing a new San Juan College application created to really encourage and reward younger business owners will acquire place up coming week.

© Photo by Fort Lewis Faculty
Fort Lewis School alum Anthony Martin pitches his company prepare for an global and cultural mountain bike tour procedure to the Hawk Tank committee at the faculty in 2019.

The digital Hawk Tank Kick Off Facts Session will be supplied at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26. The presentation will concentrate on the start of the Hawk Tank method at the university, which is an initiative through which budding entrepreneurs contend from every other for start-up funding.

The Hawk Tank program started at Fort Lewis Faculty in Durango, Colorado, in 2016, and is growing to San Juan College or university this spring as a result of a partnership of the two establishments. The program is modeled soon after the Emmy-winning “Shark Tank” reality tv sequence that has aired on ABC due to the fact 2009.

Groups of San Juan College or university learners and significant college students from all over the area are eligible to just take section in the competitiveness, which phone calls for them to existing their concepts for new companies to judges. The faculty groups will contend for a money prize of up to $5,000, while the superior college teams will compete for scholarships.

The winning San Juan Higher education staff will progress to the future spherical of competition, in which it will encounter the successful workforce from Fort Lewis University. The staff that wins that spherical will acquire an additional $5,000 for a full of $10,000 in startup funding for its fledgling company.

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Officers at both equally schools are excited about the options the enlargement of the Hawk Tank application to San Juan Higher education delivers learners from during the region. But they are most likely even much more enthusiastic about the spirit of cooperation that is currently being designed among their two institutions and the probability that their partnership will end result in other joint ventures before long.

© Image by Fort Lewis Higher education
Michael Valdez

“There’s a whole lot of cross pollination,” Michael Valdez, affiliate professor of administration at FLC and co-director of the Hawk Tank application, stated, describing the logic of the two establishments embarking on a partnership. “There are a ton of instructors who teach at both equally San Juan Higher education and Fort Lewis College. We have all these connections, but for some rationale, we just haven’t gotten traction (on earlier initiatives to mount joint packages).”

The Hawk Tank could be the catalyst that improvements all that, officers at equally faculties say. Steve Elias, dean of the Faculty of Small business Administration at FLC, reported the momentum began making two a long time ago when he and other associates of his faculty traveled to Farmington to meet with San Juan School President Dr. Toni Hopper Pendergrass for what he assumed was heading to a quick get-to-know-you session. That expected one-hour conference turned into a 4-and-a-50 %-hour brainstorming session about how the two institutions could be a part of forces and begin operating alongside one another.

Exporting the Hawk Tank plan south to San Juan College or university was the reasonable put to start out. The remaining parts fell into place past slide when Eddy Rawlinson joined San Juan University as its dean of the School of Enterprise and Data Engineering. Rawlinson became an enthusiastic supporter of the idea, and he, Elias and Valdez determined to start the Hawk Tank at San Juan College or university this spring even with the much less-than-great state of the economy.

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“This yr all the stars aligned,” Valdez explained, laughing. “I know a whole lot of persons imagine that is mad — who grows a method all through a pandemic? Properly, Fort Lewis College or university and San Juan Higher education.”

© Photograph by San Juan College
Eddy Rawlinson

Rawlinson mentioned the original reception to the idea amongst his school users and students has been quite good.

“I consider it truly is heading to be interesting. You can find by now been a good deal of dialogue about it,” he explained, including that San Juan College or university options on promoting the new program aggressively by way of its web-site, fliers and social media.

“The pebble’s been dropped, and now we’re part of that,” he claimed. “I want to see those people waves expand.”

FLC officials have been keen to improve the Hawk Tank outside of their have campus and recognized that San Juan University was the evident 1st action in that strategy, Elias mentioned.

“Our target is to have Hawk Tank be the premier company approach level of competition in the 4 Corners states,” he stated. “This is the very first move towards that reality.”

Valdez said the Hawk Tank has been prosperous at FLC partly mainly because it casts a wide internet.

“Pretty much 50% of our pupils (who take part) are nonbusiness pupils,” he said, introducing that his university also has a flourishing mentorship application of alums and neighborhood businesspeople to help pupils flesh out their concepts.

© Scott Griggs/Fort Lewis Faculty
Steve Elias

Valdez stated 320 persons have submitted much more than 170 submissions to the FLC Hawk Tank program around the a long time, with groups consisting of up to 5 folks.

Rawlinson explained he does not have any idea what kind of participation the Hawk Tank at San Juan College or university will see in its initial stage, but he thinks the software is most likely to produce some excitement.

“When learners talk to each other about their ordeals they’ve had, which is some of the finest promoting we can get,” he said, introducing that he hopes to see pupils learning these types of disciplines as art and audio commence to think of techniques to monetize their abilities and create enterprise designs that mirror that.

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The kickoff session can be seen on-line at https://fortlewis.zoom.us/j/97738196633. Absolutely free digital workshops for all those interested in Hawk Tank also will be presented, such as “Marking Your Company Tips a Fact 101,” “Authorized Problems and Issues,” “Market Evaluation and Revenue Forecasting,” “Revenue, Fees, Money and Funds” and “Pitching Your Enterprise Thoughts.”

More information can be uncovered on line at sanjuancollege.edu/hawktank, or by emailing Rawlinson at [email protected] or Valdez at [email protected].

Mike Easterling can be arrived at at 505-564-4610 or [email protected]. Help community journalism with a electronic subscription.

This short article originally appeared on Farmington Day-to-day Instances: Company prepare competitors arrives to San Juan College or university by means of Hawk Tank application