2025 Business Plan Competition winners
Winners have been selected in the ninth annual Augustana College Business Plan Competition, which invited teams or individual students to present their ideas to a panel of business professionals.
The competition is funded by the Augustana Creative Enterprise Fund, which has been supported by a donor. Participating students submitted written business plans, and the top five plans were invited to compete.
First place
$4,500 prize
"Pulse Path," presented by Million Zeyede '26, a computer science and accounting major from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Second place
$3,000 prize
"Almas Saffron," presented by Lina Maatouk '25, a business analytics and data science major from Casablanca, Morocco, and Philip Exl, a business administration-finance and business analytics major from Vienna, Austria
Third place
$1,500 prize
"Kulture," presented by T.Y. Stone '26, a communication studies major from Chicago, Ill.
Fourth place (tie)
$500 prize
"Wandering Trader," presented by Dante Rinaldi '25, a business administration-management and English major from Gurnee, Ill., and Albert Buvary '25, an accounting, international business-finance and international business-marketing major from St. Charles, Ill.
"Stogie Watch Co.," presented by Jake Weinberg '25, a business administration-management and accounting major from Highwood, Ill.