Even the CoronaVirus can’t stop Love’s Cup teams.

Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup is moving forward with the oral competition, with the finalist teams presenting their investor pitches via Zoom on April 16-17. We are also planning an awards announcement that will be streamed on Facebook Live so friends and families of the competing teams can watch.

Students and advisors have told us how appreciative they are of the continued support for the competition from Love’s Travel Stops and all our sponsors and judges.

We talked with one of our finalists, Cullen Edens from East Central University, who is pitching an environmentally friendly company called Eco-Snap Tiles that creates flooring tiles out of recycled plastic.

Cullen shared some of the challenges he has had to overcome in order to compete in the oral presentation. He lives in rural Latta outside of Ada and does not have WiFi at his home. So, he found a connection at his church, which lets him access high-seed Internet in its lobby to better communicate with his advisor, Dr. Stacey Bolin and fellow students.

The pandemic has cancelled or postponed many important events in Cullen’s life — including his graduation ceremony — but he’s grateful the Love’s Cup found a way to continue with virtual presentations.

“I am so ecstatic to have the opportunity to still compete in this inspiring competition,” Cullen told us.

Ron Bolen, advisor to three finalists teams from the University of Oklahoma, said the 2020 Love’s Cup virtual pitch has provided some unexpected benefits for students. OU teams are holding more frequent practice sessions as they adapt their pitches to the new format i2E created to accommodate social distancing.

“Like all of us, the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup operational team had to make quick decisions and respond to the current situation,” Bolen said.  “I have been incredibly impressed at their work.”

We wish Cullen and all of our teams the best of luck and appreciate their fortitude to carry on and be as unstoppable as the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup.