Tixora wins UW business plan competition

Tixora wins UW business plan competition

2015-Burrill_bizplanA day-long competition with 43 teams of students being judged by 23 business people and entrepreneurs led to a $10,000 prize for Tixora, an online booking service for intercity motorcoach buses.

The 2015 G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition, held today at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, saw three other teams win top recognition from judges, as well as several other awards.

In addition to Tixora, the judges made the following awards to the top winners in their respective
competition tracks:

  • A $7,000 prize to ITR Medical, a novel resectoscope designed to reduce bladder cancer
    recurrence rates;
  • A $4,00 prize to LifeMap, which documents a person’s life by pinning stories, photos, and music
    by where and when they happened in online maps; and
  • A $1,000 prize to Entolution, an industrial-scale cricket mill providing food-grade cricket meal to
    edible insect food manufacturers.

PerkinsCoie, LLP provided prizes of $7,000 for ITR Medical, $2,500 for Tixora, and $1,500 for LifeMap.
The Breathe for Change team won the $3,000 Wisconsin Center for Education Products & Services
(WCEPS) prize with a business idea to offer programs focused on the well-being and health of
teachers, students, and communities.

The following business ideas were recognized as runners-up, with each team being awarded $250:

  • Serving Earth LLC—Reusable food-to-go boxes made of post-consumer recycled materials.
  • VitaCycle—An affordable and modular method to produce, transport, and consume microgreens
  • Boxable—Develops and delivers EPS foam recycling programs for universities, biotechnology
    companies, and related firms
  • Speakamos—Website and smartphone application for intermediate to advanced language learners

In past years, the competition has not only fostered innovation through entrepreneurial competition,
but led to the establishment of successful businesses such as Chefs for Seniors, EatStreet, and
Greenverse. A listing of past Burrill Competition ventures launched by students, can be found here.

University Research Park is a proud sponsor of the competition.