Entrepreneurship students from Northern California came to Cal Poly Humboldt on April 27th to compete for cash prizes in the 5th Annual Future Four & More Business Concept Competition.  Competing schools included of course Cal Poly Humboldt but also Chico State University, Sacramento State University, Butte College, and College of the Redwoods.

This venue for the Future Four rotates annually and this was the first time Cal Poly Humboldt hosted the event.  “Humboldt County has a really strong entrepreneurial ecosystem and it is wonderful to expand it beyond the Redwood Curtain and to share it with other schools from around Northern California.”, Nancy Vizenor, Director of the Humboldt Institute for Entrepreneurship Education and Associate Professor of Management in the Humboldt School of Business.

The concepts ranged from dog leashes to ride sharing.  Butte College Brad Keith took first place with Keith Braille Reader from Butte College.  Second place went to Gioavanni Galasso with Boa Dog Leashes from Chico State. Third place went to Bianca Wittenberg with Firefighter1 from Sacramento State. Finally, fourth place went to Evan Swanson and Scott O'Hair with Irijule from Sacramento State. 

Sponsors of the event include George & Peggy Schmidbauer, the Patricia D and William B. Smullin Foundation, Blue Lake Rancheria, Coast Central Credit Union, Green Diamond Resource Company, and Redwood Capital Bank.

Our judging panel included Don Banducci, Jennifer Budwig, Jim Penny, George Schmidbauer, and Jim Sessa.