M&S Guitars licks the competition to claim the top prize in Mayo Business Plan Competition

finance majors James Seyffart ’14 and Tim Pfenninger ’14 and mechanical engineering major Alex Matteson ’13, claimed the $12,000 grand prize in this year’s Mayo Business Plan Competition, a contest designed to challenge 
students to dream up the
 next big business idea and blueprint a course of action for bringing their idea to life.

Words by TCNJ's editorial staff

(L–R): Dean of the School of Business William Keep presents the 1st Place prize of $12,000 to M&S Guitars: James Seyffart, Alex Matteson, and Tim Pfenninger. Photo (c) Deric Raymond '11

The M&S Guitars team, made up of finance majors James Seyffart ’14 and Tim Pfenninger ’14 and mechanical engineering major Alex Matteson ’13, claimed the $12,000 grand prize in this year’s Mayo Business Plan Competition, a contest designed to increase student appreciation for the challenges associated with developing a viable business offering (product or service) while, through an iterative process, recognizing those students best able to articulate a plan that addresses these challenges.

The team’s plan to build a new kind of guitar beat out team Campus Corner Laundry’s idea to create a laundry service for students at area schools (the team claimed the $6,000 second prize) and team SurpriseMe’s idea for a gift card app (which claimed the $2,000 third prize).

In all, seven teams competed for the prize money, which was donated by Professor Herbert B. Mayo and Eric Szabo ’97 (who also served as a judge).

Click here to read more about the competition.