Colorado State University College of Business Students Earn $75,000 in Grants and Awards to Turn Project into Sustainable Global Business
Note to Editors: Photos of the GSSE students working in Peru are available with the news release at http://www.newsinfo.colostate.edu/.
The classroom just got a lot bigger for Colorado State University graduate students Jacob Castillo and Michael Callahan.
In less than a year, their project for the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise master’s degree program in the College of Business has gone from the chalkboard to international business.
The company they created, called PowerMundo, LLC & SAC, is now operating in Peru.
PowerMundo manages a global distribution network for healthy and affordable technologies to empower people in developing countries. The company’s goals are to improve people’s lives, create local employment opportunities and conserve natural resources. The company sells items such as LED lights, small solar panels, solar radios and other products that can save people money and improve people’s health.
"There are hundreds of sustainable products and billions of people who could live better if they only had access to the products," said Jacob Castillo, co-founder of the company with fellow graduate student Michael Callahan. "The GSSE program has given us the business acumen to start an international company and to recognize sustainable business opportunities."
Through their work in the graduate program – and with the help of Professor Ken Petersen – PowerMundo earned a $45,800 grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance to perfect a supply chain model for the business.
"The students will continue to build upon their understanding of international logistics by actually testing several strategies," said Petersen, who teaches supply chain management at Colorado State.
The company has also received a $15,000 seed grant from Colorado State’s Clean Energy Supercluster, a model for more quickly taking innovative services and products developed at the university to the commercial marketplace.
"PowerMundo has had terrific support from the GSSE masters program," Petersen said. "The new Green MBA program acts as an informal incubator for the company and allows them to get to the point of a viable startup much, much faster."
Callahan said the company has taken its cues from Colorado State’s land-grant mission to provide service through outreach to the community.
"You have all these resources within the university and other like-minded individuals, the clean energy business cluster in northern Colorado, CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory," Callahan said. "We are leveraging all of these resources."
The resources within Northern Colorado, the training they received in business school and the financial support from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance will enable PowerMundo to continue making headway and attract additional funding.
PowerMundo has received significant recognition around the country in the past several months. The company was:
-Named first-place winner at the Camino Real business plan competition in El Paso, Texas, which resulted in $10,000 cash and $35,000 in in-kind services.
-Named first-place winner out of 100 teams in the William James Social Business Plan competition with $3,000 cash and in-kind prizes of $10,000.
-Selected as one of nine teams invited to participate in a Venture Well Student Social Venture Capital Forum held in March.
-Named second-place winner in the Richard Heinberg Sustainability Competition for $1,000.
-Named the winner of a $2,000 travel stipend to compete in the Stuart Clark Venture Challenge in Canada April 2-4.
-Named finalist in the Rice Social Business Plan Competition and semifinalists in the CU-Boulder and San Diego State Business Plan competitions.
About the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise master’s degree program
The College of Business started the Master of Science in Business Administration in Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise program in fall 2007 to teach students entrepreneurial, sustainable approaches to address great global poverty, health and environmental challenges. The program ultimately could help some of the world’s four billion people who live on less than $3 a day with creating their own sustainable solutions and businesses. For more information, go to http://www.biz.colostate.edu/gsse/pages/default.aspx.
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