University of Miami Herbert Business School Holds 20th Annual Business Plan Competition

Published by Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation on

Business Plan Competition

The Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation is a proud sponsor of the Miami Herbert Business School’s annual Business Plan Competition. In 2017, the Foundation established the Business Plan Competition Endowed Fund, which will fund the endeavor for decades to come. Open to all University of Miami students and recent alumni, the competition awards almost $50,000 in prize money every year to help budding entrepreneurs get both the feedback and funds they need to turn their ideas into a real business. 

“Everyone has a business idea, but it’s often hard to translate that idea into an actual business,” said Aaron Dykxhoorn, a graduate student at the University of Miami Herbert Business School who is involved in the Business Plan Competition’s planning and process. “We want to promote and encourage our student’s creativity.”

And that’s exactly what the University of Miami Herbert Business School does through its annual Business Plan Competition, a program that helps would-be business owners get their ideas off the ground, awarding significant prize money to promising young entrepreneurs. In 2017, the Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation created the Business Plan Competition Endowed Fund to finance the school’s annual competition.

Students from all academic disciplines are invited to participate in the annual event. Participants may attend pitch lab workshops to receive advice about their business ideas, guidance on their business plans, and feedback on their presentation decks.

A board of judges is selected each year who rate the business plans on a set of criteria. Each student presents his or her passion project in hopes to bring it to fruition. This year, 31 students submitted their business plans. Those were narrowed down to eight students competing in the final round.

Highlights from a vast array of this year’s entries include:

  • Poke, an augmented reality app for people to see themselves with a tattoo before getting inked
  • Lyman, a dating app that relies on mutual friends rather than random matches
  • Crystal Clear, a company that seeks to eliminate surprise medical bills

The winner of this year’s top $25,000 prize was Kyle Levy, who won for his company Unihop, which revolutionizes the way in which college students receive deliveries. Levy saw a problem with the delivery process on packages going to University of Miami students on campus, so he created a business plan focusing on the intersection of delivery, convenience, and speed. Levy also won the Heffner Fellowship, which is a $1,500 endowment from Bill Heffner.

“We want to thank the Finker-Frenkel Family Foundation for their continued generosity and believing in this program,” said Dykxhoorn. “It’s impossible to calculate the full extent of their investment!”

To learn more about the 2022 Business Plan Completion, please visit: https://www.herbert.miami.edu/student-network/business-plan-competition/index.html