Rave-nation.com, an online retail business run by UW junior Shawheen Amirkhizi, won first place in the John P. Ellbogen $30K Entrepreneurship Competition last week.
Shawheen Amirkhizi’s business, Rave-nation.com took first place at the Ellbogen competition, receiving $30,000 in support.
Rave-nation.com is an online retailer of unique products related to the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene. The company sells a wide variety of rare clothing and accessories that cannot be found at physical retail outlets.
These unique products are popular among ravers, bar and club goers, and during holidays such as Halloween or Fourth of July.
For Amirkhizi, taking first place in the competition was a bit of a shock.
“I know I have a business with a lot of potential, but I was unsure if I could truly convey this to the judges. I am so excited to have won, but would not have been too bummed if I lost,” Amirkhizi said. “Throughout the competition I put countless hours into studying my business and gathering helpful information. This process really made me analyze a lot of what I am doing and helped me to better understand what I need to do to take Rave-Nation.com to the next level, a win on its own.”
Pollution Control Technologies, LLC took third place, led by Rodolfo Monterrozo and Kaspars Krutkramelis. This company sells mercury and other pollutant control systems for coal-fired power plants as well as industrial boilers.
“Basically the difference between our company and other companies is that we create materials at the site, whereas most companies send the materials to the power plant companies,” Monterrozo said.
The advantages of on-site material production include substantial savings in transportation costs as well as versatility offered to their customers during production. As a result, these systems can be built to fit the specific needs of clients, according to the process at hand so that they are always in compliance with current and future regulations.
“Yes, we could have prepared a little bit more because there were times when we were not sure who would answer what questions and as a result we were a little hesitant. We had a great experience with this competition and definitely learned a lot,” Monterrozo said.
Second place winners, Ky[E]nterprise & Logistics, were unavailable for comment.
