Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Competition Results

Well we went out to Las Vegas and we did alright.  We walked away with more money than we came with.  That's always good especially in Las Vegas.  Arkansas did well overall.  In the undergrad division John Brown University swept the competition taking 1st, 2nd, and also the elevator pitch.  Congratulations to Craftistas for taking 1st and Agricultural Food Systems for taking 2nd and also winning the elevator pitch.

cycleWood took 2nd in the graduate division and also won the elevator pitch.  While we would have liked to win it all, the competition was tough.  However, we remain undefeated in elevator pitch competitions. 

Next Thursday we are headed out to London, England.  It should be a very exciting trip.  This will be the final competition for a while.  We have applied to the CleanTech Open, but won't find out if we made it to the semifinals for a little while. 

We are pushing forward with the business.  There are some hurdles we'll have to overcome as we scale up the production process.  This morning I spoke with a supply chain company to see if they could help us in our endeavors.  They do a lot of work for McDonalds and have quite a few connections that could be very helpful.  We have some momentum now and we want to keep that going.  Wish us luck!

Vegas!

cycleWood is headed to Vegas tomorrow for the Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Governor's Cup.  We'll be competing against teams from Nevada, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.  The other Arkansas team is our fellow team, TiFiber.  There are six teams for each division, undergraduate and graduate.  First place is a $25,000 cash prize.

Next week we'll be headed to London for the Licensing Executive Society competition.  We'll be over there for eight days.  This competition focuses on our intellectual property (IP).  I've never been to Europe so this will be first trip across the Atlantic.  I'm sure there will be plenty to see.  I will definitely be posting some pics from that trip.

We have also decided to enter the CleanTech Open.  This is a competition that focuses on green technologies.  There are regional competitions and a final competition.  Silicon Solar Solutions won this competition last year and said that it was a great experience.

On another note, the weather around here has been very unstable lately.  Last night the severe weather included heavy rain, strong winds, hail, and tornadoes.  A large tornado touched down in Joplin, MO tearing the town apart.  So far, 89 deaths have been confirmed from that tornado.  This has certainly been one of the worst, if not the worst, weather year I can remember.

Commencement

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I finished up my MBA, took my last test for a while. Commencement was yesterday. It was bittersweet. I'm glad to be finished with my MBA, but I'll miss the wonderful people I've gotten to know the last year and a half. Below are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

As one chapter closes, another one begins. We'll be starting up cycleWood Solutions in the coming months. There's still plenty of due diligence to be done. It's exciting and scary at the same time. We are in the current issue of Fortune. It's their Fortune 500 issue.

While this marks the end of my MBA, I will continue to blog to keep you updated on how we are doing.  Stay tuned, there's still plenty to come.