Last month, three CAFNR students participated in Mizzou’s Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator Finale, with two placing high enough to receive funding for their business ideas – and all three receiving valuable experience. Participating CAFNR students were Cailey Blackmer, senior in Plant Sciences; Noah Graham, junior in Agricultural Systems Technology; and Harley Whitaker, junior in Natural Resource Science and Management.
Entrepreneur Quest or EQ has invested over $261,000 in student businesses since 2018; it is a signature program of the Griggs Innovator Nexus, which is an education program for students with the most scalable ventures.
“Entrepreneur Quest is a semester-long business accelerator open to all students at Mizzou to apply,” said Kelsey Raymond, executive director for entrepreneurship programs. “The accelerator includes an elevator pitch for the top 15 students and is quickly cut to the top 10 from those pitches. This means over 8 weeks, they are given weekly workshops with business coaches on everything from finances, legal, marketing, sales and even public speaking. The workshops are designed to help the students launch and grow their businesses and prepare them for the final pitches where they compete for a $30,000 prize pool.”
Raymond was previously a judge for the competition, and notes that it has brought her even more joy to be able to work with the students for the entirety of the program.
“I was standing on the side of the stage like a proud mom the night of the final pitches because I was just so impressed with how far the students have come in such a short period of time,” she said.
Cailey Blackmer, Green Society
Cailey Blackmer is a senior in Plant Sciences with an emphasis in Horticulture Science and Design and minors in Agribusiness Management, Business and Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management. She showcased her business, the Green Society. Green Society is Blackmer’s passion project; Green Society strives to support sustainability and health by delivering quality houseplants to clients for use indoors, helping to promote liveliness.
Blackmer heard about EQ while thinking about the next steps for her business after completing her time in a retail storefront space in the MU Student Center.
“When my time in the space ended, I decided, why not apply for something else?” Blackmer said. “One of the other retail space student owners was a previous contestant, and I also had many mentors who encouraged me to apply.”
Blackmer chose her business, the Green Society, since it is a project she is passionate about and has been working on for a while. She has had success in the student retail storefront and is continuing her business online. She wants to shift her business to a larger scale and create a community-focused space for plant lovers to connect.
“Aside from the networking and mentorship opportunities, I really learned to look at my business as something that should not be compared to another person’s success, but to think of it as competing with myself,” said Blackmer. “I was able to shift my mindset to, how can I top what I’ve already done, and how can I better myself to better my business?”
Blackmer also notes that her passion for plants and entrepreneurship has led her to where she is today. With this passion, she has also excelled on the National and Collegiate levels in plant science-related competitions and events. Blackmer holds the title of 7th in Interior Plant Identification and 11th in Interior Plant Design from the National Collegiate Landscape Competition, which is a part of the National Association of Landscape Professionals.
With this experience, Blackmer is continuing her business, the Green Society, and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for her.
Noah Graham, AcreView Analytics
Noah Graham is a junior majoring in Agricultural Systems Technology with a minor in Agribusiness Management and holds certificates in Precision Ag and Fitness Program Management. He showcased his business AcreView Analytics. His business’s mission is to convert complex farm data into clear insights that help farmers make confident, profitable decisions.
“I received an email from the university, read over it, and I saw EQ,” said Graham. “I thought this would be a pretty cool opportunity to apply for; something a little out of my comfort zone.”
Graham chose AcreView Analytics since he had started it the previous summer. He is also very passionate about agriculture and finding ways to help farmers make the most out of their passions. This stems from his involvement in his family’s fourth-generation farm and trying to achieve a better financial and productivity balance.
“We help farmers achieve peace of mind when analyzing data using Excel-based spreadsheets and systems,” he said. “We also help farmers with their farm financials, organizing them and painting a picture that is easy to understand when talking about their operation. This is an agency I have been running for about seven months now. I figured since it was something I was already doing, I might as well put it to good use for EQ. I realized that there is a really big community dedicated to supporting students interested in exploring their entrepreneurship interests. It was super interesting getting to know different entrepreneurs and business owners who want to help students like me succeed.”
At the finale, Graham received second place. With this ranking, he earned $10,000 to invest in his business over the next 6 months. He notes that he couldn’t have done this without the support of his family, mentors, past leadership experiences, and his deeply rooted faith.
Graham plans to continue his business and is always open to accepting new customers.
Harley Whitaker and team, Vital Track
Harley Whitaker is a junior majoring in Natural Resource Science and Management with an emphasis in Fisheries and Wildlife. Whitaker was part of a group that showcased their business, Vital Track. Vital Track is a business focused on empowering senior citizens and caregivers with proactive health monitoring to administer preventive healthcare and enable robust emergency response.
Whitaker (second from right in the photo) heard about EQ last summer. At the end of last school year, he and his teammates wanted to create something that the senior healthcare industry would benefit from. After thinking of ideas and looking into different needs, they decided on a device to help the elderly community and healthcare workers.
“We actually had it suggested to us that the senior care industry would be a big industry in the next few years due to the lack of technology existing in that field and the current problems of understaffing and supply shortages,” said Whitaker.
Along their journey of making connections and working with different senior care organizations, they met Raymond, and she recommended they apply for the course. They jumped at the opportunity and got to work at the beginning of the fall semester.
“Seeing how much improvement can occur in a short amount of time when you really push your own mind and your team to work hard on something is amazing,” Whitaker said. “I was also impressed by the importance of connections and how valuable when starting a company. Knowing people is the biggest advantage that you can have.”
The Vital Track group also placed at the Finale. Whitaker and his group placed third, earning $5,000 for their company as well as an additional $2,000 for being the audience favorite.
Vital Track plans to use its funds from the competition to further enhance its business, connections, products and accompanying app. The company plans to finalize its plans within the next year and implement its technology in a local senior care facility to test its products and business plan.
For more information about this program or related activities, contact Kelsey Raymond, executive director for entrepreneurship programs at Mizzou.
This story was written by a student in AGSC_COM 2150, which gives students the opportunity to explore public relations and journalistic writing with real-world experience in CAFNR.