Seven ISU students got the chance to present their business plans to entrepreneurial guru John Pappajohn in a statewide competition earlier this month.

The competition included finalists from five Pappajohn Centers located in Iowa: the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, Drake University, the University of Northern Iowa and North Iowa Area Community College of Mason City.

Three prizes of $5,000 were offered to the 12 teams that made it to the statewide level of the competition Dec. 1. University of Iowa students took all three prizes.

“The competition was a unique opportunity to be interviewed by John Pappajohn,” said Judi Eyles, program coordinator for the ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship. “[The students] got valuable feedback on running their businesses.”

The three ISU groups were selected from a total of 12 applicants who submitted plans for review to the ISU Pappajohn Center.

The applicants were judged on the content and viability of their ideas, which were submitted in proposals up to 40 pages long, Eyles said.

The finalists included Jon von Gillern, senior in computer engineering; Jeffrey Myers, graduate student in business; and a team of business graduate students including Augusto Canales, Melissa Harris, Vitaly Pecharsky Jr., Laurie DeGeus and Willy Nunez.

“Delphi Greek Solutions,” the project submitted by von Gillern, is information technology that specializes in organization for fraternities and sororities.

After being involved in the greek community for several years, von Gillern decided recruiting and alumni issues could be made easier by applying it to a computer program.

“It was neat to get Mr. Pappajohn’s perspective [on the plan] because he was in the greek community,” von Gillern said.

“We discussed some pitfalls I might face and how to handle them. He also gave me a contact in his national fraternity to bounce ideas off.”

The ISU greek community is using parts of von Gillern’s idea for men’s recruitment issues, but he has plans to repackage the program in the future for other campuses and greek chapters.

“I’m definitely going to follow up on my business plan [in the future],” von Gillern said. “I would have used the [prize] money for start-up costs, but now I’ll just supply it myself.”