A business plan competition supported by Rhode Island businesses, nonprofits and universities awarded prizes Thursday of $57,500 each to a student and an entrepreneur whose ideas, sponsors hope, will help create high-paying jobs in the state.
David Dowdy, a senior at Johnson & Wales University, won the student prize in the 2006 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition for his plan develop unique wireless adaptors to transmit any electronic signal. The company is called PEK Wireless Systems.
Providence resident Jason Donahue of Axon Sleep Research Laboratories took the entrepreneur prize for his proposal to market products that enable people to wake up a the optimal time, helping them become more efficient and alert.
“We evaluated the feasibility of the applicant’s strategy and the likelihood of success within the proposed time frame and budget, as well as the potential impact on the state in terms of job creation,” said competition judge Margaret D. Farrell, a partner with Hinckley Allen & Snyder law firm in Providence, in a statement.
The winners were announced Thursday at the R.I. Convention Center, at a special meeting of the Brown Forum for Enterprise, which helped organize the contest.
Each prize included $25,000 in cash; an estimated $32,500 in services from Hinckley Allen; the law offices of Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels; accounting firm Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co.; and Point Judith Capital Partners; and a one-year membership in the Tech Collective, an industry group in the state.
