Collapsible dog crate wins $15,000 through student entrepreneurship competition

By Lauren Hines | March 22, 2022 | Columbia Missourian

On Tuesday, MU students learned it was possible to make $15,000 in 12 minutes.

In that 12 minutes, MU student entrepreneurs had seven minutes to make a pitch and five to elegantly answer questions.

As part of this year’s Entrepreneur Quest competition, nine teams of MU student-entrepreneurs competed at the Bond Life Sciences Center for a piece of $30,000 to fund their startups. The Veterans United Foundation and U.S. Bank provided the prize money.

The competition has been held annually since 2018, though it was canceled last year due to the pandemic. When it returned this year, it branched out from the business school, with multiple finalists coming from outside the Trulaske College of Business.

“I think we’re getting more traction with different corners of campus,” said Greg Bier, executive director of Entrepreneurship Programs. “Students are now understanding that when we give away seed money, it’s not a scholarship; the seed money goes to their company.”

The prize money was split among the three winning teams. The top prize of $15,000 went to Jack Murray, College of Veterinary Medicine student, for his innovative collapsible dog crate.

Second place and $10,000 went to Aaron Heienickle from the Trulaske College of Business for his card game, Products, to inspire entrepreneurship.

Michelle Gershkovich, from the Department of Textile & Apparel Management, won $5,000 for a service that can help people find the right fit for their uniforms.

Murray said going from the veterinary world to business “was an easier jump than I anticipated.” He said the smooth transition was due to the program’s large amount of help and mentorship.

Murray designed a Murphy bed-style dog crate, inspired by his dog, Heidi. Her crate took up a lot of space in his small bedroom, and Murray couldn’t find any cheap but sturdy foldable crates online.

So, he designed a plastic and metal one that attached to the wall using magnets that can fold down to only 4 inches wide.

Murray decided that 10% of the revenue would go to the Purple Leash Project, which helps make domestic abuse shelters more dog-friendly.

“It kind of sparked something in me that you can do more than just being a veterinarian,” Murray said. “You can actually have a bigger impact in somebody’s life than just treating somebody’s animal.”

The other six teams pitched ideas ranging from student storage to a computer program for organizing electronic medical data to a bracelet that hygienically stores a retainer.

“It’s not a homework assignment to them,” Bier said. “They’re not doing it for extra credit. They’re doing it because they have a sincere passionate interest in solving a problem for a customer.”

Originally published by the Columbia Missourian.