UC Students Cash In on Original Idea for New Business Venture

Four UC students took an original idea and turned it into a new venture to win second place in the 2nd Annual Reality Check Crosstown Challenge Business Plan competition at Northern Kentucky University (NKU).

Team members Stephanie Albers, A&S ’12, Breeana Dixon, BBA ’12, Rosalie Giesel, BBA ‘12, and Krista Streckfuss, BBA ’11, created a patent-pending cell phone case equipped with a breathable pocket that emits an appealing fragrance via a replaceable trademarked scent card in the case. Giesel, Dixon and Krista are entrepreneurship majors; Albers is minoring in entrepreneurship.

The product is the brainchild of the team’s new business venture called Tek-Tak LLC that came to life in a class called New Venture Creation taught by Tom Dalziel, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management, entrepreneurship undergraduate program director and Small Business Institute director.

The fragrant cell phone case invention earned them $2,500 as second-place winners in the undergraduate business plan competition and has now set the team on the road to bringing the product to life.

The team will use the money to launch the product, team member Rosalie Giesel says. “Our next step will be to further our market research.”

Initial research indicated 70 percent of 200 people surveyed would buy the product, she says. “We even went to Verizon stores and talked to a manager who said he would order 30 of them today if the product was available.”

The competition featured more than 100 teams from Northern Kentucky, Miami and Xavier universities. Of the nine teams in the semifinal round, Team Tek Tak bested two from NKU and Miami in the morning semifinal to advance to the final three. Miami University finished in first place and Xavier University finished third.

In two weeks, the graduate competition begins with the Cardinal Challenge at the University of Louisville, where UC Lindner College of Business Team Ischaban will compete.

Following that, the local UC Spirit of Enterprise Challenge on Feb. 23 and 24 at Cincom Systems takes place, a competition of 16 teams from across North America.