Northwest Venture Championship / Banshee River Boards finds Success

April 6, 2006 12:56 PM MDT

 
The entrepreneurial spirit is in competition mode at Boise State.

 
The Northwest Venture Championship pits students from several different schools against each other — a chance at making their products a reality.

 
Josh Woodard is part of team BSU at this year’s competition. For him and his partner, this is a chance to get their product off the ground. The device is called Key PC, and will likely be marketed to students.

 
“The can put all their applications, all their documents, everything that they equate with the computing environment on a small flash drive that fits right in their pocket,” said Woodard.

 
Whether or not Key PC wins, Woodard says just being here means the product now has a much better chance at becoming a marketable product.

 
We’re going to be pitching our product to people who are angel investors and venture capitalists, other business professionals who can show us how to adjust and to have a better company,” adds Woodard.

 
But what they really want is to win the competition, and give their company a leg up on success. The prize for the winner is $10 thousand in startup money, and free consulting and free office space for a year. The only caveat, says BSU Professor Kent Neupert, PHD, is that the winner must stay in Idaho.

 
“What we’re trying to do is attract more business here, startup companies who employ people, create a tax base, create a revenue base for the state,” said Neupert.

 
It’s an annual issue in the state, finding ways to keep graduates and potential businesses here. Neupert says this is one way that Boise State is working to mend the problem. And potential winners like Key PC’s Mark Morris says staying in Idaho is exactly what he had in mind.

 
“We want to establish our roots in Idaho, we also have learned a lot, we have grown up here in Idaho, and we want to establish some kind of good company. We want to be a good company, and we want to give back to the community,” said Morris.

 
The competition has proven itself. Two years ago Kevin Veon took the contest with his invention, the River Board. With the startup money he took home, and investor contacts, Veon has been able to develop the product into a successful, Idaho-based business called Banshee River Boards.

 
Banshee’s vice president for sales and marketing, Cooper Kalisek says the board has created a new sport that’s a combination of bungee jumping and wakeboarding.

 
“You take the board, you get in the current, the current hits the board, pushes you downstream, and stretches out the bungee. After the bungee is fully stretched out, you just rock the board forward, the bungee recoils, pulling you back upstream at about 35 miles per hour,” Kalisek said.

 
Banshee River Boards recently won the ISPO Brandnew award, which seems to be getting them international attention. The company now has distributors and representatives in countries like Spain, Slovania, France, Germany, Canada, and of course local retailers like the Eco Lounge in Boise.

 
All of that since the product was introduced just two years ago at Boise State University.

 
If you’d like more information on Banshee River Boards, check them out on the internet at www.bansheeriverboards.com.