October 23, 2023 (Eau Claire, WI) –  

Mocktails, a new non-alcoholic canned cocktail, wins Startup 48, Eau Claire’s own business jumpstart competition weekend!  A group of UWEC students have been named the winning team of Startup 48. The business idea was launched on Friday night and the team worked all weekend, then provided a final business pitch on Sunday evening to a panel of local judges.

The student founders of Mocktails, drafted a business plan and pitch which outlines hypothetically starting production and distribution of a unique, non-alcoholic cocktail. The business is in concept phase now, but we hope to see its launch into our market in the future.

Over the weekend, 32 individuals met at WIN Technology to begin a weekend-long journey to learn how to create a lean business and prepare to launch into the marketplace.  Five dynamic teams formed and worked tirelessly to create business models, verify market need and find their value proposition all based around an initial 60 second business idea pitch. Strangers converged over these pitched ideas and worked together to prove if the idea was viable, starting with clearly defining a problem they’d like to solve.

The judges selected Mocktails to be the winner, as the business idea that could be most likely find success.  Other exciting and viable ideas pitched included; entertainment connection & suggestion app, café & brewery, crowd-funded property investment app and a digital platform for fighting.

In addition, the Mocktails team now qualifies to advance to the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament, a statewide pitch competition vying for startup capital of up to $25,000 in April 2024.  

Startup 48 is an annual, weekend-long business startup learning experience and competition. Local entrepreneurs and industry experts act as mentors throughout the weekend to assist and re-direct teams when needed, all with the goal to cultivate new business ideas and leaders in the Eau Claire area.

Several community partners make this event possible, including WIN Technology, JAMF, UWEC Entrepreneur Program, Prevail Bank, Chippewa Valley Developers Group and Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corporation.  Financial sponsors are critical and include WiSys, Applied Data Consultants, Co-Lab, Royal Credit Union, WEDC, Security Financial Bank, HyVee and Erberts & Gerberts.

To learn more about the event, visit www.Startup48.co