Three emerging businesses received a combined total of $40,000 after participating in the finals of the Syracuse Panasci Business Plan Competition on Saturday, April 23.

The finals occurred without the presence of the competition’s main benefactor, Henry Panasci Jr., who died on April 14 at the age of 76.

‘For all teams, this competition was truly a mutual learning experience,’ said Dr. Frank Shi, a member of the Integrated Memory Systems, Inc. team that competed in the finals.

Five teams competed on Saturday, of an original 72 that began presenting their business plans in December 2004.

‘This is the big time, the real time,’ said Mike Morris, the director of the entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises program at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. ‘This is the show me the money time.’

The winner of the competition was Gary Jaye, an independent graduate student in business administration in the Whitman School, with his business, Tax Deferred Exchange, LLC. Tax Deferred Exchange plans to create an Internet service where real estate investors can obtain Tenant-in-Common investment offerings. Jaye won $25,000 for his emerging business.

The second-place winners were Michael Defosse, Bruce Gowing and Steve Raymond, all MBA students in the Whitman School, with their company SweetRack. Their company plans on designing, manufacturing, marketing and distributing hitch mounted carriers for off-road vehicles, Raymond said.

‘Before this, people threw their bikes in the back of a truck or on a trailer,’ Raymond said. ‘We stand-out amongst our competitors because of the features we will provide.’

SweetRack won $10,000 to jump start their business. The third-place winners were Dr. Young-Ki Hwang and Michael Joseph, also MBA students in the Whitman School; Stuart Card and William Chappell, graduate students in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and their associates, Fred Tims and Larry Ames.

Their company, Critical Communications, Inc, which plans to sell Advanced Wireless Communication Controller products, won $5,000.

‘We had to present this business plan many times and there were slight changes each time. We learned during the competition from judge feedback,’ Shi said.

The competition also presented awards to three other teams that showed potential in the competition. The Creative Excellence Award went to a business called Kewee, the Dreamer and Doer Award went to Masterminds, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award went to Coffee Grounds Caf.

‘We were pleased with how we did,’ Shi said. ‘Our company focused on technology, which others did not.’

Five judges listened to the presentations made in the final round, and all judges were themselves distinguished and successful entrepreneurs, Morris said.

Panasci himself was an entrepreneur who founded Fays Drugs, a drug store chain. In later years, Panasci founded the Cygnus Management Group. Along with donating money to create this business competition, Panasci had served on the SU Board of Trustees.

‘Henry Panasci was a phenomenal entrepreneur up until the end,’ Morris said. ‘He donated $1 million to support this competition and the ventures started by SU students.’

Published on April 24, 2005 at 12:00 pm