Cloud students compete in Entrepreneurship Challenge

CAPTION: Douglas Tanyanyiwa (left) and Ryan Mangunda received a $1,500 prize at the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge with their business ABX Logistics.

Cloud County Community College had a team compete last week at the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge at Kansas State University. The team, made up of Douglas Tanyanyiwa and Ryan Mangunda, both students attending Cloud from Zimbabwe, received $1,500.

Tanyanyiwa and Mangunda pitched their start-up business, ABX Logistics, a transportation and logistics business that would be located in Chicago. Their business plan included catering to small businesses in the Chicago area and facilitating movement of their products and services.

“Our team representing Cloud County Community College presented themselves professionally, convincingly articulated their pitch, and handled some really tough questions from their judges,” said Shelly Farha, Cloud County Business Department Chair, Instructor and Academic Advisor. “These business students spent countless hours preparing their proposed business ideas. They were creative, diligent in their research and feasibility studies, and rehearsed their pitches until they were perfect. We are incredibly proud of them!”

Sponsored by the Kansas Masonic Foundation, organized by K-State’s Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship and supported by Network Kansas, the 10th annual Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge gave students experience in making business proposals.

The Challenge put students in three events, a mock boardroom session, a trade show and a trading card game, according to K-State.

In the mock boardroom, each team was judged on their executive summaries and judges were given 10 minutes to ask questions about the student businesses. In the tradeshow event, students showed their products and services to guests at the competition and then guests voted for their favorites.

“This event is an opportunity to showcase the tremendous entrepreneurial talent we have in the state of Kansas,” Director of the Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship Chad Jackson said. “The real-world experience of pitching a business in front of the type of business experts we have on our panel is invaluable to these students and provides real-world feedback and support to launch companies within our state.”