The week of September 30-October 3 the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC) had the privilege of hosting three uniquely focused IdeaStorm competitions across the University of Iowa campus. The top four ideas selected by judges were awarded cash prizes at each competition, as well as a People's Choice award that was selected by students who attended the event.

Ramya Kolusu, University of Iowa senior, turned her dream of owning an ice cream business into a reality. With the help of the Founder's Club and her mentor, Keith Chiavetta, Kolusu opened up Sugar Fiend Sweets.

Mike Kuennen, a teacher at New Hampton High School, helped his students come to a solution by drawing on the lessons he learned through STEM Innovator created by the University of Iowa's Jacobson Institute. The group of high school students decided to start their own business, a portable drive-in movie theater, to give people something to do on summer evenings.

Rantizo today was announced the winner of the 2019 John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition and was awarded $40,000. The competition is a collaborative project of the Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers located at Drake University, Iowa State University, North Iowa Area Community College, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa.

ITS Custom Solutions & Integrations' is pleased to announce their improved SiteNow service, which has been rebuilt from the ground up using the latest from the open-source community to be more stable and secure than ever before. SiteNow offers much of the same functionality that made it popular on campus while sprinkling in new features site owners have been asking for.

Erica Cole founded No Limbits after losing her leg in a tragic car accident the summer before her senior year. She came up with the idea after the questions and stares about her prosthesis were getting too much to handle. Cole decided to turn the negatives into positives and gave people something to look at.

16 student-run companies from the University of Iowa pitched their business ideas last Friday as the 2019 cohort of the Hawkeye Startup Accelerator came to an end.

16 Iowa JPEC students worked with pass-through towns along the RAGBRAI route to help encourage riders to stop and explore the towns during their cross-state ride.

A group of entrepreneurs, the Mandela Washington Fellows, visited the Quad Cities. The fellows are a group of 25 people from countries in Africa who are learning new techniques and methods to bring back to their home countries.

African fellows participating in the Mandela Washington Fellowship at the University of Iowa are studying American business and economics through the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center.