Alex Hart-Upendo, a 5th grader at Gifford Elementary School in Racine who has made a splash in national news media, is the grand prize winner in Wisconsin YES!, a statewide youth business plan contest for students in middle and high school.
Hart-Upendo’s company, Build-A-Bow, is a custom eco-friendly bow retailer specializing in bow ties, hair bows and bow ties for dogs. Hart-Upendo founded Build-A-Bow when he was just nine years old.
In addition to starting his business, Hart-Upendo is the author of “Bullies, Bowties and Brilliant Alex.” Written at only nine years old and published in 2016, Hart-Upendo wrote the book to encourage the inner entrepreneur in children, while bringing awareness to bullying. Hart-Upendo has been featured in Forbes and GQ magazines and received attention from Ellen Degeneres, Steve Harvey, Harry Connick Jr. and ABC’s Shark Tank.
Hart-Upendo will present his winning idea June 6 at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Madison during the awards luncheon for the Governor’s Business Plan Contest. To register for the two-day conference, visit www.witrepsconference.com.
Students submitted their ideas in a 250-word online summary to compete in Phase 1 of the contest. Professionals from across the state served as judges, provided feedback and scored the ideas. About two-dozen entries were selected to move on to Phase 2, where they submitted 1,000-word executive summaries covering company overview; product or service description; customer definition; market description, size and sales strategy; competition; management team; financials; and capital needs.
Second place was awarded to Noah Doble of Brookfield Academy for his entry Protein Bean, a nutritious, quick-service cafe in which customers can create their own protein- and coffee-infused drinks. Rahul Mullick of University School of Milwaukee was awarded third place with his entry, Probiotic Infant Foods, a baby food line fortified with probiotic strains to improve infant health.
In alphabetical order of the submission name, other participating finalists in the sixth annual contest were:
| Submission Name | School | Name |
| Azo-Heat | Whitman Middle School | Ronan Piontek |
| Cord Clip | Neenah High School | Jordan Setterstrom |
| Eco-wipes | Whitman Middle School | Myles Calhoun |
| Evacside | Whitman Middle School | Savannah Williams |
| Gardening Buddy | Longfellow Middle School | Arthur Wellenstein |
| Glo-Cord | Whitman Middle School | James Branski |
| Happy Campers | Crivitz High School | Paige Fuhrmann |
| Helping Hands | Madison East High School | Nyagoah Biel |
| Hydrovitae | Longfellow Middle School | Greta Krueger |
| Palette Shoes | Neenah High School | Esteban Guerra |
| RoboScoop | Crivitz High School | Zachary Walters |
| Sozoderm | Longfellow Middle School | Greta Krueger |
| Stuf-Cakes | Brookfield Academy | Nick Boucher |
| SwiftScore | Longfellow Middle School | Vivi Andersen |
| Swiss Kitchen Tool | Longfellow Middle School | Arthur Wellenstein |
| Switch It Water Bottle | Longfellow Middle School | Maeve Kaufman |
| The Daily Routine | Longfellow Middle School | Mya Hansen |
| The Greencube | West High School | Erik Buinevicius |
| The Health Band | Longfellow Middle School | Audrey Hardman |
| The PockeTop | Neenah High School | Courtney Corrente |
| The Vital Monitor | Longfellow Middle School | Ximena Cavazos |
The Wisconsin YES! contest is produced by the Wisconsin Technology Council. Major support is provided by WEA Trust, Intrepid Charitable Partners, The Boldt Company, UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, and the Wisconsin Technical College System.
Contest partners include theDepartment of Financial Institutions, Department of Public Instruction, the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, Make a Difference Wisconsin, Project Lead the Way Wisconsin, STEM Forward, Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers and Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials.
Modeled after the successful Governor’s Business Plan Contest, Wisconsin YES! is designed to teach students how innovation in science and technology fields can be developed into plausible business plans. It is an opportunity for students to explore the connections between science, technology and entrepreneurship, and for educators and judges to cultivate an interest in these arenas. Visit www.wisconsinyes.com to learn more.
;
