WINTER PARK, FL (March 25, 2016) – The Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business has announced Details Flowers as the 2016 winner of its annual Venture Plan Competition, Central Florida’s very own “Shark Tank” where start-ups battle for funding and mentorship before the region’s top entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
The floral design company edged out three other finalists on March 24 at Canvs in Winter Park and took home $25,000 in prize money. Details Flowers’ disruptive software makes florists 60 times more productive, allowing them to complete projects that used to take 20 hours in just 20 minutes with their patent pending design tool. Details Flowers’ software improves the time to deliver proposals, receive payments, and order flowers.
In addition to the $25,000 cash prize, Details Flowers has the option for an additional $25,000 in equity funding as part of a partnership between Rollins College and Winter Park-based early-stage venture capital firm venVelo. Together they have committed equity funding and cash prizes toward winners of the competition for the next three years. This unique partnership provides winners access to a large network of mentors to assist in the success of their business. Runners-up Blurtbox, ScopeAround and HuLA will take home $15,000, $7,500, and $2,500, respectively. The competition also awards $10,000 of in-kind services.
“Winning the Rollins Crummer Venture Plan Competition is so exciting and means everything to Details Flowers. It is proof of concept and is going to change lives for people in our industry, bringing them into the 21st century,” said Isabella Johsnston, CMO Details Flowers and a graduate of Rollins College. “Participating in Crummer’s competition was a lesson on how important it is for an entrepreneur to be very diligent, open to feedback and surround yourself with a strong team.”
The Crummer Venture Plan Competition, hosted by the school’s Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship was started in 2005 to give Rollins students, alumni and faculty a platform to develop a viable business plan to take to the marketplace while gaining real-world experience that connects them with an influential professional network.
“The Venture Plan Competition showcases the importance of education rooted in real-world experience, a cornerstone of the Crummer philosophy,” says Cari Coats, Executive Director of the Crummer Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship. “The unique partnership that we have with our winners provides them with limitless potential to make a difference in Central Florida’s entrepreneurial scene and in their industry as a whole. We look forward to collaborating with Details Flowers to help build their business even further.”
Details Flowers is in good company with past winners, including 2015’s FattMerchant, a flat-rate subscription-based credit card processing service, and 2012’s flexReceipts, the leading enhanced digital receipts solution for retailers. Of the 14 companies that have been finalists for the Rollins Venture Plan Competition since 2012, 13 successfully launched and remain in business. Collectively, those companies have generated $17.8 million in revenue, raised $8 million in investment capital and employ 68 people.
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