Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

GovCup lights entrepreneurial flame

Get in Touch

By Scott Meacham

Copyright © 2014, The Oklahoma Publishing Company

We’ve just completed the 10th annual Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup collegiate business plan competition. Since inception, more than 1,350 students have taken the GovCup challenge.

The Governor’s Cup has awarded more than $1.4 million in cash and $65,000 in scholarships. Students produced more than 450 innovative ideas along with business plans to commercialize those ideas, and 20 emerging Oklahoma small businesses have started up.

But the Governor’s Cup isn’t really about how many companies get started. It’s about applied education.

Claire Cornell, assistant director of entrepreneurship at the University of Tulsa, has been a faculty adviser with the Governor’s Cup since 2005. Claire teaches a class in entrepreneurship built around the Governor’s Cup.

“This class and the Governor’s Cup can be a life-changing event for students,” she said. “They gain so much confidence in their own abilities. They take all the excellent education that they’ve received in their other classes and apply it to a real life business. It’s exciting for students to apply all those years of study to produce a tangible business plan.”

Instilling the entrepreneurial spirit in students has always been at the heart of what i2E has tried to achieve with the Governor’s Cup.

It takes a strong pipeline of human beings with entrepreneurial spirit to build an innovation economy, and our students will be the future architects of that economy.

No matter what position GovCup students take after graduation — whether they become entrepreneurs (and we hope a lot of them will) or whether they join a large corporation, the Governor’s Cup teaches our young people about recognizing opportunities and how business works.

Since day one of the Governor’s Cup, we’ve received funding from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. Without it, we never could have gotten the Governor’s Cup off the ground nor created such a unique educational experience for hundreds of Oklahoma students.

For the past several years, the Reynolds Foundation contribution was $154,000 per year for the cash awards. The Reynolds funding has been a catalyst to attract more than two dozen local sponsors who joined in over the years to provide base funding to cover expenses (nearly $250,000 in 2014) locally.

The Reynolds Foundation’s contribution will soon be ending, however, with the coming liquidation of the Foundation. That means the prize funding for the Governor’s Cup ends next year.

We are immensely grateful for the past decade of support and sponsorship from the Reynolds Foundation.

Now the challenge is to find a new prize sponsor for this statewide collegiate business plan competition.

The Governor’s Cup lights Oklahoma’s entrepreneurial spark. We need to fan that flame, not allow it to go out.

Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Meacham at [email protected]

Click here to read the story at newsok.com

 

  • admin
    admin

More News

Loading...
Black doctor smiling with stethoscope
Blog, i2E
02.09.23

Titan Intake Automates Patient Referrals to Accelerate Care

Read more
man and woman reviewing paperwork at a table
Blog, i2E, News
01.10.23

Stories of Oklahoma Innovation: Building a Startup

Read more
woman in lab conducting a study
Blog, i2E
12.13.22

Bayesic Technologies Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of Data Analysis in Healthcare

Read more
Bison grazing fields
Blog
11.30.22

Bison Underground Merges Nature, Science, and Technology to Tackle Climate Change

Read more
African American family sitting on couch reading and chatting
Blog, E3, i2E
11.22.22

Fokes Connects Families, Caregivers and Care Agencies for Smoother Communications and Care 

Read more
i2e blog post graphic
Blog, News
11.03.22

Introducing: Stories of Oklahoma Innovation

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.28.22

Oklahoma Grown! i2E Invests in BIO startups

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Moleculera Labs BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma State University BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

ECHO Investment Capital BIO

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

100 S. Cincinnati Ave – Suite 514
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources

© 2022 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Programs

  • E3
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Love's Entrepreneur's Cup
  • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E