The Details
Citi Salutes is excited to launch its second Realizing Your Dream Business Competition. In collaboration with two of the IVMF’s portfolio of veteran and military family entrepreneurship training programs, V-WISE and Boots to Business, which are funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Citi Salutes is setting out on a national search for the next generation of veteran entrepreneurs! Finalists from each program will present their business plans to an expert panel of judges at the grand final event to be held in 2015. A dozen winners will take home a total of $130,000 in prizes funded by the Citi Foundation, including special honors for Best Social Venture, Best Technology Venture and an Impacting Veterans Prize.
2014 Business Plan Competition Winners
V-WISE:
First Place: $25,000
Kristina Guerrero – TurboPup
Second Place: $15,000
Shevonica Howell – Academy of Scholars
Third Place: $10,000
Jill Hinton – Outdoor Book Club
Best Social Venture 1: $5,000
Sonia Deal – Diabetes Education Augmenting Lifestyles Centers & Clinic, LLC
Best Tech Venture 2: $5,000
Lisa Belcastro – TF SASA, LLC
Venture Impacting Vets: $5,000
Terri Spahr Nelson – Sugati Publications
BOOTS TO BUSINESS:
First Place: $25,000
Sandra Gonzales – DOCERE E-learning Solutions
Second Place: $15,000
Dr. Tony Turin – Mt. Hood Eye Care
Third Place: $10,000
Andre Smith – Celestial Lighting Services
Best Social Venture: $5,000
Becky Watson – Music for Wellness, LLC
Best Tech Venture: $5,000
Andre Smith – Celestial Lighting Services
Venture Impacting Vets: $5,000
Rudy Lopez – Lopez Psychological Services
2014 Business Plan Competition Judges
John Tien
Managing Director, Citi, and Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Larry Broughton
Founder & CEO of Broughton Hotels and a former Green Beret
Jessica Eaves Mathews
Founder and CEO of Grace & Game
Bill Elmore
Former Associate Administrator for Veterans Business Development, U.S. Small Business Administration
Ryan Delaney
Senior Vice President and Head of Asset Management, Oaktree Capital Management
Gina Harman
CEO of the Accion U.S. Network