Ariel Molinaro
The Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship has partnered with TD Bank to develop a competition.
TD Bank Business Plan Competition provides an opportunity for students to gain first-hand entrepreneurship skills and the potential to win seed capital funding to make their business idea a reality.
Florida Southern’s inaugural TD Bank Business Plan Competition invites students to submit their unique ideas for a startup company for the chance to win $10,000 in seed capital to launch their business.
Startups must be majority-owned (50 percent or more) by a current FSC student to be eligible to compete. Applications are due March 4.
The competition is open to all current undergraduate or graduate students at Florida Southern, regardless of major declaration.
“We focus all our programs to be interdisciplinary here at the Center for Free Enterprise & Entrepreneurship,” Justin Heacock, Director of CFEE and Entrepreneur-In-Residence, said. “The great thing about Entrepreneurship is [that] it’s a complementary skill set to any major here at FSC. Our goal is to provide an avenue of execution for anyone who is looking to make a difference in their field.”
The introduction of a Florida Southern-exclusive competition that is endorsed by a nationally recognized corporate title sponsor embraces the college’s engaged learning programs. Engaged learning aims to apply academic concepts to the real-world nature of an industry.
This is the first such competition FSC has presented that offers real capital funding.
“A partnership of this size for a business plan competition is very important to FSC and our student body,” Heacock said. “This partnership allows us to create a new layer of experiential education where our students can learn outside the classroom through pursuing their own startup [and it] allows entrepreneurship to go beyond just being theoretical.”
Interested students can contact Heacock at jheacock@flsouthern.edu for specific information covered during the Feb. 2 competition information session or for further innovation support.
