In June 2012, Fast Company dubbed Charleston “Silicon Harbor” and the College of Charleston School of Business is helping it live up to that name. In the last quarter of 2012, students developed three different tech start-ups that placed them at the top of entrepreneurship competitions.

Business Administration Major Matthew Welch recently placed third at Atlanta Start Up Weekend, an intense 54-hour event that focuses on building a web or mobile application. Welch’s work in Atlanta resulted in Giftgad.com, a site that helps Facebook users shop for friends by categorizing their posts and interests resulting in gift ideas.

Senior Darren Boulton came in as a top 5 finisher at the Charleston Chamber’s Perfect Pitch competition for his start-up, Preddictive. Preddictive is a website that allows users to read articles online and “predict” what will happen next – thus giving them bragging rights when they predict a result or trend.

In October 2012, Boulton and Senior Alex Parker were also part of the team that won the UC-San Diego Rady School of Management Student Venture Open. Boulton and Parker, the only undergraduates competing, presented their business plan for a cancer therapy drug in development by SphingoGene, a company founded by Dr. James Norris of MUSC.The team was organized and coached by College of Charleston Professor Kelly Shaver. Boulton and Parker will now go to the world renowned Global Venture Labs Investment Competition, the self-described “Superbowl” of business plan competitions.

Boulton says he owes much of his success so far to the time spent in Shaver’s New Venture Planning class, which teaches students how to create a business plan from scratch. “This was my favorite class that I’ve taken at the College. We learned about the business plan of course, but the real value came in the presentation of the plan.”

Alumni of the College of Charleston are also contributing to Charleston’s top 10 ranking as one of the fastest growing cities for software and Internet technology, according to the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.

Ben Silverstein ’10 (Business Administration) says his business concept was born when he planned a bus trip from New York to Boston and discovered a hole in the marketplace. “There are multiple bus lines from New York to Boston, but I didn’t know which is the cheapest or best. I use Kayak every time I fly, so I assumed there would be something like that for buses. But there wasn’t!” From that need, Silverstein created bustripping.com, a site to help travelers find the best bus rates. “Starting a business is no easy task, and I needed a lot of help from a lot of different people to figure out how to take this idea and turn it into a real business.”

Silverstein sent his business plan to David Desplaces, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies. “He played devil’s advocate, asking me the same questions investors would ask. That helped me figure out how to take my idea and put it on paper in an easy to understand way.”

Desplaces says, “The relationships with these students extend beyond their four years at the College. We provide coaching and mentoring in an open and supportive environment. We help develop the plan and help build the platform to launch it. I have volunteered to be on boards. I have pointed current and former students towards investors.”

“The most important thing I ever did at the College was join the School of Business’s Enactus Project and become part of the presentation team,” Silverstein says. “If you mess up, the judges don’t tell you that you messed up, you just deal with the consequences and fix it on the spot. That kind of training is the best way to prepare yourself for real life.”

For more information, contact David Desplaces at 843.953.6446 or desplacesd@cofc.edu.