UT Students To Compete in National Entrepreneurship Competition

University of Tampa seniors Morgan Bierbrunner, an entrepreneurship major, and Isabella Dillio, an advertising and public relations major, will represent the University at e-Fest, a national entrepreneurship contest, April 18-20, at the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship in Minneapolis.

UT Students To Compete in National Entrepreneurship Competition University of Tampa seniors Morgan Bierbrunner and Isabella Dillio will represent the University at e-Fest, a national entrepreneurship contest.

The pair, fresh off a third-place showing at the Florida Governor’s Cup intercollegiate pitch competition, will enter their company, Rush Power, in the three-day event that brings together the top 25 finalists from a national pool of online business plan submissions. Teams will participate in four competitions with a cash prize pool of $215,000.

Participants will also attend workshops and presentations from prominent business leaders, including a keynote by Richard M. Schulze, the benefactor of e-Fest and the founder and chairman emeritus of Best Buy.

Rush Power, which won UT's entrepreneurial pitch contest Spartan Cup in February, aims to revolutionize personal fitness routines with a unique line of pre-workout gummies.

"The success of Morgan and Isabella at the state level and their progression to the national stage of e-Fest exemplifies the caliber of entrepreneurial talent we nurture at UT,” said Frank Ghannadian, dean of the Sykes College of Business. “Their innovative spirit and determination reflect the essence of our entrepreneurship program."

Bierbrunner and Dillio applied to e-Fest with a video created by a fellow student in UT’s Spartan Accelerator, Winston Riepl, a senior marketing major. The Spartan Accelerator program is where any UT student, regardless of major, can receive support and access resources for budding business ideas.

“It’s nice to watch the students collaborate and get results,” said Josh Ray, the new venture advisor who leads the Accelerator program in the John P. Lowth Entrepreneurship Center.

The Lowth Center, part of the Sykes College of Business, is located within the Daly Innovation and Collaboration Building at UT. The space is creatively designed to bring together prospective student

entrepreneurs, educators and experienced executives to generate, define and develop entrepreneurial concepts and to launch new ventures.

For more information, see the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center website at ut.edu/entrepreneurcenter/.