Enter IgniteWV and win the coaching and cash you need.

Eager support for The Next Great West Virginia Business is here—it’s just waiting for The Next Great Entrepreneur to step up.

That support comes in the form of IgniteWV. It’s the latest incarnation of the business plan competition that started at WVU two decades ago and gradually grew to involve mentors and investors and to encompass colleges across the state, then high schools, then the public. 

Quite a few successful launches have come out of it. Some are household names in Morgantown: Andrew White Guitars won in 2004–05, and Neighborhood Kombuchery was a winner in 2018–19. Some have moved to locations better suited to their niches—SwifTAG, a winner in 2016–17 for its RFID tracking system for laboratory animals, is now Pittsburgh-based SwiftSCIENCE. And there are others.

A business plan competition that puts business ideas together with management know-how and investment dollars is a good idea anywhere, but it can make a real difference in a state like West Virginia. “98% of businesses in the state of West Virginia are small,” says Tara St. Clair, program director of the Encova Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at WVU, which organizes the competition. That is, they meet the U.S. Small Business Administration’s definition of “small” as having fewer than 500 employees.

IgniteWV is a fresh take on the two-decade-old competition. For one thing, high schools have been separated out as SparkWV. For another, college students and the public will compete together. 

And most interestingly, rather than each winner receiving the same predetermined cash allotment, IgniteWV contenders will make their best cases for the start-up funding their businesses need—then the judges will decide how many of the proposed businesses to support and how to allocate a total pot that may be as large as $200,000 by the time of the competition.

“It makes more sense—someone might need $10,000, and someone else might need $50,000,” St. Clair says. It also more closely models real-world pitching and investing. “We bring in angel investors and venture capitalists, and they can say, ‘I know you’re going to need another infusion of capital, so come in and we’ll find a way to support that.’”

Here’s how to get your business idea into the mix: 

• Assemble your team and choose a team leader. Teams with diverse skill sets are recommended.
• By noon on January 18, submit a 90-second video pitching your idea for a business that you have registered or will register in West Virginia. Describe your product, service, or invention and make your best case for how it addresses a need. Applicants are invited to submit supplemental materials, too—those will be treated confidentially.
• Wait with anticipation as applications are evaluated by a panel of judges.
• Get the announcement by February 1 of five finalists in each of two tracks—one for Main Street, community-oriented businesses and one for technology and innovation-focused businesses. 

The 10 finalists will be enrolled in the rigorous four-week National Science Foundation Innovation Corps entrepreneurial training program. “This will be our first year partnering with I-Corps,” St. Clair says. “And that opens them to SBIR/STTR funding”—those are large pots of federal early-stage, high-risk funding for start-ups. Contenders will also receive customized coaching through the month of March. Then, on April 10, they will make their final pitches at the state’s annual entrepreneurship symposium, Bridging Innovation, in Huntington. 

Winners will walk away savvier, better connected, and capitalized for the next phase of their businesses. They will also have access to the IgniteWV advisory council for further coaching.

“It is critical to support not only start-up businesses, but the longevity of these businesses,” St. Clair says. “We want them to succeed because, when they succeed, the entire state succeeds.”

IgniteWV runs on the efforts of St. Clair, contributions from foundations and private donors, and the volunteer time of business coaches and investors. “If someone wants to mentor, coach, or judge, there are ways to participate other than having an idea,” she says. 

But if you do have an idea that’s ready for prime time, check the Compete page of the IgniteWV website for tips on how to succeed in Round One—then get to work on your pitch. Good luck!

READ MORE ARTICLES FROM MORGANTOWN LOWDOWN