MTSU rising senior aerospace technology and mathematics major Mervyn Thomas-Crawford said the idea for his Air-Aid Technology business stemmed from his days playing high school baseball, when he would suffer skin abrasions on his hip called raspberries when he slid into bases.

The Baltimore, Maryland, native describes Air-Aid as a 3D structural support system that provides a controlled environment around the wound to allow for a natural healing process. He said the technology is based on the concept that abrasions heal more naturally amid constant air circulation, but the need for clothing or use of traditional bandages often prevents that and hinders the healing process.

Dressed in a black suit and shirt, Thomas-Crawford explained his business plan for the product before a panel of judges inside the Student Union Parliamentary Room as the spring semester wrapped up. He was joined by several other student and alumni finalists who presented their own entrepreneurial ideas as part of the 2023 Business Plan Competition Finals in a bid to claim the top prize among the record $32,000-plus in prize money awarded this year.

Presented by the Pam Wright Chair of Entrepreneurship and the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, MTSU’s Department of Management within the Jennings A. Jones College of Business again hosted the annual competition to provide entrepreneurial-minded students and alumni with an opportunity to develop comprehensive business plans while receiving feedback and advice from already established entrepreneurs and other professionals.

Thomas-Crawford and Air-Aid Technology emerged with first place, followed by spring graduate Cory Sherman (Get Credentialed) in second; fall 2022 alumna Jamie George and partner Haley Harris (Like a Virgin Sober Bar) in third; and honorable mentions for Britton Cherry (Good Samaritan Hauling and Labor), graduating senior Samer Kattih (Kattih Syndications), senior Alexis Mahon (She-Ssentials) and senior Savannah Tucker (Savvy’s Sweet Pecans).

Management professor and competition organizer Joshua Aaron, holder of the Pam Wright Chair of Entrepreneurship, said he’s pleased the competition continues to grow in number of submissions as well as prize money — this year divided among the top three winners and four honorable mention participants.

Participants submit their business plans early in the semester, followed by an elevator pitch and trade show competition in March and the finals a month later. Slideshow presentations at the finals included details about potential target markets, sales and revenue projections and other relevant information in the “Shark Tank”-styled format.

“The thing that really stands out to me this particular year … is how much growth I saw between the semifinals and finals,” Aaron said. “The growth was amazing. The students are really investing time in these ventures, and they are so polished.”

About a dozen judges gave feedback to students participating in the elevator pitch semifinals competition earlier in the semester, determining which ideas would advance to the finals.

“Whether they have the best idea in the world or just a decent idea, they’ve handled themselves with so much class and dignity and professionalism tonight in front of these judges,” Aaron continued. “These judges take their time to come here to help these students grow and take their businesses to the next level.”

First-time finals judge Dean Heasley, a digital marketing professional and partner in the Boro Business Lab, said he was “very impressed” with the finalists’ presentations.

“We actually have two MTSU graduates that work for Boro Business Lab, so I know that MTSU puts out a great student,” said Heasley. “But these students in particular are very impressive, and I’ve even asked one of the students if I could invest in the company.”

Other finals judges included Lori Williams with Middle Tennessee Electric; William Fields with State Farm Insurance; Janet Martin with the Urban League of Middle Tennessee; Mike Williams with Tennessee Distilling; Wil Clouse, founder-president of The Clouse-Elrod Foundation Inc.; Missy Lay with Wild Goose Chase Events; Jessie Buntin, 2022 Business Plan Competition winner with Buntin Custom Cabinetry; Shelby Craig with Rocket Shirts; David Carrozza with Sacred Selections and founder of two medical labs; and Aaron Davis with Limitless Solutions Publishing.

Top three winners show diversity of ideas

Thomas-Crawford, who emerged as the winner of this year’s competition and the $9,000 top prize, said he’s had an active imagination from the time he was a child, and once an idea gets in his head and sticks, he writes it down and pursues it.

“I never limit my thoughts as far as the possibilities in the world as far as where I can take myself and my ideas,” he said following his presentation. “I think imagination plays a key part in pointing out problems in the world and actually solving those problems.”

He tapped into his technical background and interests to use the 3D-printing technology available at the Makerspace at the James E. Walker Library to design Air-Aid prototypes, which he passed out to the judges as part of his finals presentation. He told judges the technology could be very helpful in addressing the problem of bed sores in nursing homes and hospice care facilities and could potentially have uses in the military.

Thomas-Crawford said he is pursuing funding through the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, program, a competitive program that enables small businesses and startups “to explore their technological potential and provide the incentive to profit from its commercialization.”

Thomas-Crawford, who also earned an extra $500 for best elevator pitch and $500 for best trade show earlier in the semester, had to kick that imagination into another gear toward the end of the competition after discovering that another company had already put a similar product on the market.

“Looking at the competition, I can say that Air-Aid Technology stands out and definitely has potential growth in the market,” he said.

Before the winners were announced, Thomas-Crawford reflected on the monthslong process to reach this point.

“It’s definitely taught me how to juggle,” he said with a wry smile outside the presentation room. “This with school has been pretty rough, but I did it, I’m here, so we’ll see who wins.”

Second-place winner Cory Sherman, an Ohio native and spring 2023 graduate with a business innovation and entrepreneurship degree, said his idea for Get Credentialed developed after going through the process of trying to earn his personal trainer certification.

“One of my clients who was actually going to be a co-owner, he was a personal training client of mine. So I went through the process of getting credentialed myself, and it was a nightmare,” he said. “And I said there has to be a better way to do this. … I knew I couldn’t be the only person who went through this difficulty, so let’s make something that makes it easier.”

Get Credentialed provides an avenue for coaches, trainers, therapists, and other wellness and fitness professionals to become credentialed through insurance providers to accept health insurance for their services. Sherman, who emerged with $7,000 as runner-up, said the competition has been invaluable, allowing him to get productive feedback on his business plan throughout the process. 

“It’s helped me get input from a lot of people I wouldn’t otherwise have probably been able to speak to,” said Sherman, who won an additional $500 for best written business plan. “This started out as just an idea in my brain, and partially because of the classes I’ve been able to take here at MTSU, I’ve been able to turn that little idea into … I think I could do this. I am light years ahead of where I was six months ago when this whole thing started.”

That sentiment was echoed by MTSU alumna and third-place winner Jamie George of Portland, Tennessee, and her friend and business partner Haley Harris of Phoenix, Arizona. 

The two ran into each other earlier this year at a grocery store and discovered they were serious about sobriety. Harris, an actress by trade, shared her idea about Like a Virgin Sober Bar to provide tasty non-alcoholic drinks in social settings for people who didn’t want to drink alcohol.

“We don’t drink, so we find it hard to go out,” George said. “So we wanted to create something for people who don’t want to drink and be around the chaos that can come with alcohol. … So we wanted to do the ‘mocktails’ and incorporate nonalcoholic spirits in them so that it does still taste kind of funky and cool.”

Harris said she decided to become sober this year and the idea came to her one day while she was driving. She and George were in the same Bible study group and a new year’s vision board gathering brought them together where the concept begin to take shape.

George, who graduated in December with a degree in tourism and hospitality management with a minor in business, tapped into her previous presentation experience from lecturer Dennis Gupton’s entrepreneurship class. She used the business plan framework she developed for that course and modified it to fit their sober bar concept and to prepare for the competition finals.

“It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” Harris said of presenting their plan to the judges. “This actually brought out a lot of confidence doing more research into our business. … This is a legit thing.”

George said the duo was prepping for upcoming events in the region where they would be selling their product and will continue promoting their business as much as possible, thanks to the $5,000 in prize money they received.

“This is a passion,” George said. “This is something we want to do for the rest of our lives.”

Honorable mention: ‘Don’t see yourself short’ 

Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, resident and rising senior Britton Cherry was among the four honorable mention recipients, each getting $2,000 to put toward their business ideas.

A business administration major with a concentration in information systems, Cherry said his idea for Good Samaritan Hauling and Labor developed from a previous job experience. Cherry said he felt that he could develop a better way to provide the same services by emphasizing recycling. 

His company would provide physical labor services, junk removal services, resale of items, and recycling of select materials to generate revenue. Disposing of unwanted materials would be “in the most optimal environmentally friendly way possible.”

“I’ve learned a lot. One of the big things is to be confident in yourself and believe in your abilities,” said Cherry, who also picked up the Robert and Virgie Clouse Agricultural Entrepreneurial Spirit Award and $600 grant. “Don’t sell yourself short. … I’m going to be the CEO of something.”

Spring graduate Samer Kattih, a political science major from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, also earned an honorable mention nod for Kattih Syndications, his idea for a real-estate investment firm focused on affordable housing markets in Nashville, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado.

“I was interested in investing; I knew I loved investing. So I started out in stocks and thought this was pretty cool,” Kattih said, “but I lost a ton of money. I wanted something tangible, so I started investing into single-family homes, but it didn’t seem like the return was good enough there.”

He then turned to apartments and found a mentor who specialized in syndications as well as a business partner to help him develop his idea. But the initial feedback to his plan was humbling, Kattih said, requiring him to rethink his entire approach if he hoped to progress further in the competition. 

“So I focused on affordable housing, and the need for affordable housing is growing,” he said. “And it can be super profitable actually, so I focused on how affordable housing can satisfy this growing need with how high rent has gotten.”

Kattih, who earned an extra $500 for best elevator pitch, said the judges at the finals asked “dynamic questions,” particularly about his fee structure, that requires him to reassess his financial models.

“Being in this business competition is the sole reason I’ve been able to improve the business concept so much in the last two months. I’ve done more research for this competition than all of my classes combined,” said Kattih, who already has a job working for a property management consulting firm, which should help him build his knowledge base to eventually pursue his own business.

‘I’m going to start this business’

Honorable mention recipient Alexis Mahon, a senior political science and pre-law major from Memphis, Tennessee, felt good after presenting her idea for She-Ssentials, a handmade cosmetics company that sells various organic products that range from shea body butter, body scrubs and scented candles.

But for her, it’s also more than just a company.

“What I’m banking on is the fact that it’s not just a cosmetics care company, it’s also a place where I’m building a community of women who are seeking holistic remedies to certain skin and body ailments. So in addition to this being a cosmetics company, I also want to build a community of women of color who come together to seek ways to solve common feminine health issues,” she said.

Mahon, who is a member of MTSU’s NAACP student chapter, considers herself an activist and advocate first, work she’s taken on since she was a teenager. So more than providing a product, she wants to provide a solution to her community through her business.

“I suffer from various skin ailments myself, and those ailments caused me to be subconscious about myself. So I’ve started something where women can come together and express their grievances with whatever issues they’re having with self-esteem … and try to find solutions for those issues.”

Thrilled to walk away with the $2,000 to invest back into her business, Mahon admitted that business and entrepreneurship takes her well out of her comfort zone, and the finals presentation “made me very nervous.” 

“For me, the process has been kind of scary. I didn’t even think that I would make the semifinalist round, but I did a nice job with my trade show and elevator pitch,” Mahon said, referring to the preliminary competitions in the runup to the finals.

“It played out very well. I received a lot of good feedback from the judges to help me grow. So whether or not I win the competition, I’m going to start the business.”

Fellow honorable mention recipient Savannah Tucker, a senior business innovation and entrepreneurship major from Smyrna, Tennessee, said the judges were extremely helpful with their feedback, with some offering her contacts that could assist her in further developing her Savvy’s Sweet Pecans business. 

Tucker, who also captured the Wil Clouse Entrepreneurial Maverick Spirit Award and $600 grant, said she plans to use her $2,600 in total prize month to purchase enough ingredients to take her product to farmer’s markets where customers “are looking for local, homemade goods.”

Tucker said she learned about the competition in lecturer Gupton’s new venture creation class in the fall. As a part of the class, students pitched their business ideas to a panel of judges, and Tucker’s idea was put forward by Gupton to be entered in the broader competition.

Tucker said the journey actually started from she and her grandmother making their sweet treats around the holidays for family and friends and increasingly getting inquiries about purchasing more.

“I had never thought about selling them. We just enjoyed doing it on the side for fun,” she said. “But it really got me to thinking, so one year I just threw some in a mason jar and asked if anyone was interested in buying them … and it’s kind of grown and flourished into this thing I didn’t think was possible.”

Tucker said it was bit hectic polishing her business plan and creating a slideshow — all while finishing up other course work during the last weeks of the semester. But the experience has been worth the effort, she added.

“It boosted my confidence a ton. … As I’ve been a part of these different hands-on experiences, I’ve learned that, getting feedback from people outside of my family and friends, it’s incredible to hear that they think I’ve got something really good here,” she said.

“It’s also taught me to be teachable and be able to take advice from other people. But also seeking help … to help you grow in ways you couldn’t have done on your own. It can be very easy to try to do everything yourself.”

Management lecturer Kenneth George was among several Jones College faculty who attended the finals presentations. Like the judges, he too was quite impressed.

“The amazing ideas, the creativity that these students have, and that they can bring to fruition — put it into a plan and convince people that this is the thing to do is amazing to me,” George said. “How they take the idea and build on that, and start to see the spark of — yes, this can work — it’s inspiring to me. I’m very proud of the students because they’re exemplary of what all students can get out of the business innovation and entrepreneurship program at MTSU.”

For more information about MTSU’s Business Plan Competition, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/wrightchair/competition.php. Those interested in entering the 2024 competition should complete a new venture profile.

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)

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