SUU Hosts High-Stakes S4 Competition
Published: May 31, 2022 | Author: Kenzie Lundberg | Read Time: 3 minutes
Southern Utah University’s Larry H. and Gail Miller Center for Entrepreneurship hosted its highest-stakes entrepreneurship competition, S4, in April. The winner of S4 takes home $10,000, as well as a mentor from SUU’s Entrepreneur Leadership Council for the summer. The goal of the competition is to take a solid business to the next level over the course of the summer.
“S4 is an incredible opportunity for student entrepreneurs to not only pitch their business for big cash prizes but to make incredible network connections and get feedback from successful entrepreneurs on how to work through the problems they are facing,” said Matthew Matheson and Shadrac Reyes, this year’s winners. “Winning this competition has made all the difference. One of the biggest challenges we were facing was having the capital to print our first 1000 games. With the prize money, we now have enough money to order our first set of games.”
In contrast to other speed pitch competitions hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center, S4 is invite-only and all students currently have income-generating businesses. Students present to the Entrepreneur Leadership Council as well as a small cohort of friends of the program.
In the first round, students share the current status of their business, with the intention of determining who has the most developed businesses. Three are selected for the second round, and those students present their most daunting business challenge, along with how they plan on addressing that challenge.
This year’s winner, Crypto Games, LLC, is owned by marketing major, Matthew Matheson and computer science and programming major, Shadrac Reyes. Their flagship game, Crypto Whales, is a fun crypto spin-off of Monopoly Deal and Cover Your Assets. In the game, players compete with family and friends to collect the most cryptocurrency and become the largest “Crypto Whale” while avoiding other players' attacks and successfully navigating various market events.
Both Mattheson and Reyes are quick thinkers and natural problem solvers. With the goal to start a business, they registered for entrepreneurship classes for the spring 2022 semester to help. In a few short months, the team has built a successful business and will be launching Crypto Whales through Kickstarter this summer. The two have been working hard to promote and build capital for their business and won the Opportunity Quest competition hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center earlier this year.
“The most important part of starting a business is just getting started,” said Mattheson and Reyes. “Don’t let all the unknown prevent you from taking that first step. Starting a business is like cliff jumping. You don’t know exactly how or where you will land but you know there is water waiting for you at the bottom. The hardest part is to just jump off the edge. You’ll figure out the rest from there.”
Other winners included marketing major Brandon Acajabon, with his business INXSON and business management major Cameron Dougherty with Eco Lawn of Southern Utah.
SUU’s Larry H. and Gail Miller Center for Entrepreneurship is housed within the Dixie L. Leavitt School of Business and is designed to benefit students from all majors. The Center works to teach students how to run, start, and exit a business through experiential learning and mentorship.
Tags: Entrepreneurship School of Business