Entrepreneurial Teams By the Numbers

Picasolar became the latest University of Arkansas graduate team to make a splash in a prestigious business plan competition recently when it claimed $250,000 by winning the MIT NSTAR Clean Energy Prize in Boston.

The cash prize of $150,000 was the UA’s biggest since it began fielding teams five years ago, according to the school.

There’s a good chance you already knew that, though. There’s also a good chance you know Picasolar was coached by Carol Reeves, a Sam M. Walton College of Business professor and the UA’s associate vice provost for entrepreneurship.

You might know all of that because of the unprecedented success Reeves and her students have had over the last five years. Here, though, are a few facts you might not realize about teams that have participated in the Walton College entrepreneurship program:

• The teams have won 17 national business plan competitions, twice as many as the next closest competitor.

• Those teams have won more than $1.7 million in cash prizes.

• The teams have founded 10 businesses that employ almost 100 Arkansans.

• The teams have raised $16 million in private investments, grants and tax incentives.