MBA Family Memoir Publisher Wins Pepperdine Business Plan Competition

Gina Warren, MBA '11 Full-time MBA student Gina Warren won the $15,000 grand prize at the 2011 Pepperdine University Business Plan Competition Finals, held this past Saturday.

Judges connected with her proposal for Memoir Studios, a service that would allow families to capture and record the memoirs of elder members and then packages their stories into a personalized, professionally crafted book. The business was inspired by her own experience when she immortalized her grandfather’s stories into a gift volume the whole family could enjoy. The personally relevant and emotionally driven dimension of the pitch, along with a clearly defined market and potential for growth, won over the judging panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors. If anything, the judges advised Ms. Warren was thinking too small.

Hosted by the Graziadio School of Business and Management and Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law at Pepperdine’s School of Law, the competition attracted 34 business plans. Ten plans moved forward to semi-finals earlier in March and produced the four finalists who squared off before an expert panel of professionals who all had built companies. Scott Alderton, founder and partner at the law firm Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP; marketer Brad Fornaciari, president of Lighthouse Branding; Robert Hagestad, COO of B2P, Inc.; Daniel L. Manzer, president and CEO of Custom Lawn Service; Jason Nazar, co-founder and CEO of Docstoc.com, who co-founded Pepperdine’s business plan competition when he was in graduate school; and David Smith, founder and chairman of Core Capital Management served as the event’s judges.

Memoir Studios previously won Gina Warren first place in Pepperdine University’s inaugural Fast Pitch Competition last November. Warren graduated cum laude from the school’s Seaver College with a B.S. in Sports Medicine and she completes the MBA program this April with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. During her graduate studies she has been actively involved in the full-time program as co-president of Pepperdine’s Challenge for Charity chapter. The administration and her peers selected her as an Emerging Leader of her class. Faculty and classmates also nominated Warren to deliver the student address at commencement.

All Finalists Presented Winning Business Plans

Competition runner-up Blake Terreri, representing Impakt Media Group, earned $5,000 for his advertising company specializing in the design and delivery of “mobile billboards”. Having completed trials with six existing clients such as Trump Casino and Jones Motors and in talks with two more potential customers, the firm demonstrated the viability of utilizing the sides and backs of delivery trucks as advertising space along high-impression daily routes in major markets.

The Carlsbad based art company Yonder Biology and finalist Shawn Buckley each were awarded $2,500.

Represented by Andy Bass, Lukasz Nosek, and Dean Sauer, Yonder Biology presented a plan to grow their two-year old business producing large canvas prints of customers’ unique DNA portraits. The pattern visualizing a person’s, family’s or pet’s one-of-kind genetic code is combined with individual, family or pet photography that results in a high art treatment suitable for framing and display. The finalists seek to expand the market for their DNA portraits into a variety of personalized merchandising options.

Finalist Shawn Buckley’s MenuPage Communications hopes to one day replace printed restaurant menus with rich media-driven, highly interactive tablet based menus. He imagines an iPad-like device that turns those dense selections books at an Applebee’s or Cheesecake Factory into a more visual, easily searchable experience.

Judges praised all the finalists for delivering solid, well-reasoned business plans that demonstrated inventiveness and were not afraid to “think big.” It was a tight competition in which the deciding factor came down to the difference of one vote point.

Social Enterprise Award

Each year, the student group Values-Centered Leadership Lab recognizes a business plan submission with a social vocation that reflects Pepperdine University’s mission to strengthen lives of purpose, service, and leadership. MBA student Andrew Fischer accepted the $1,000 prize for the Social Enterprise Award. His plan, Green Fleet Vehicle Management, one of the 34 original submissions, proposed a business offering car owners at-home (or work) vehicle servicing while also conserving water through waterless car detailing, petroleum recycling, tire recycling, and clean fueling techniques.

About the Competition

The Pepperdine University Business Plan Competition challenges students from all of the University’s colleges and graduate schools to compete for financing toward an existing or proposed start-up venture, which is judged in elimination rounds by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and faculty members. Founded in 2004 by students at the Graziadio School of Business and Management, the competition provides a forum for entrepreneurial ideas and ventures to be realized with the support and resources of the entire Pepperdine community.

Chick-fil-A, Gaiam, Hydraflow, iWE Foundation Project, Engagement Strategies and Lighthouse Branding sponsored this year’s competition.