Summer Special Edition
2026 HCC Business Plan Competition
Winners & Graduates Celebrated!
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In this Issue:
2026 HCC Business Plan Competition - Celebrating All Involved!
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Winners - Top Five Finalists Awarded Seed Money
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Graduates - All Graduates Awarded In-Kind Prizes
- The Competition Journey
- Celebrating - Competition Alumni, Champions, Trainers, Advisors, Judges, Partners, Family & Friends
- Digital Yearbook - The Journey
- Awards Ceremony - Photo Web Album
- Our Sponsors
- Platinum, Gold, Silver & Bronze
- In-Kind Sponsors
- Sponsor Spotlights coming soon!
HCC Entrepreneurial Initiatives Wins SBA Community Partner of the Year Award
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2026 Awards Ceremony & Reception Celebration
We celebrated all teams and their advisors on June 4th, after four months of training and advising, with thirty-one teams graduating from the competition. Seed money was awarded to the top eight teams.
The program started with these entrepreneurial champions thanked and those present addressed the crowd: Dr. Maya Durnovo, Associate Vice Chancellor, HCC District, Dr. Zachary Hodges, President, HCC Northwest, David Regenbaum, HCC Entrepreneur in Residence, Trustee Dave Wilson, HCC District VI, Dr. Andrea Burridge, Vice Chancellor of Strategy, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, HCC District, and Nasr Khan, EVP, Chief Lending Officer, Wallis Bank.
Next, came a celebration of the competition's 19th Anniversary with recognition of past leaders, trainers, judges, advisors and competition alumni by Sandra Louvier, Director of the Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship.
Austin Tenette, HCC Entrepreneur in Residence, and Sandra followed with a review of the 2026 HCC Business Plan Competition journey, with recognition of partners, sponsors and alumni speakers.
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Then came a celebration of our 2026 graduates and announcement of in-kind prizes valued at $117,000 awarded to all graduating teams.
All of this built up to the announcement of our three one-minute video winners and then our five finalists, and the awarding of $30,000 in seed money to the top eight teams!
| | Congratulations to our Winners! | | |
1st Place - $12,000 - KOG & Company
Khaliah O. Guillory
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2nd Place - $8,000 - BrainBuzzed Tutoring, INC.
Patience Edwards
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3rd Place - $4,000 - Cranky Carrot Juice Co.
Francesca Costa & Freddy Escobar
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Honorable Mention - $1,500 - Say Goodbye Corp.
Diane King
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Honorable Mention - $1,500 - Sheer-Rise Consulting Services
Feyisetan Akeredolu
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Congratulations to our
Three One-Minute Video Winners!
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One-Minute Video Winner - $1,000
FreshTails Mobile Dog Grooming - Peregrine Chapman
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One-Minute Video Winner - $1,000
Curious Vibezz - DeLisa Jones
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One Minute Video Winner - $1,000
Tyed Together Network, Tyvarion Malone
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2025 HCC Business Plan Competition
Graduating Teams & Advisors
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Congratulations to our
2026 HCC Business Plan Competition Graduates
The goal of the HCC Business Plan Competition is to empower all teams accepted into the competition training and mentoring and through the opportunity to build that into the refinement and polishing of written plans that are submitted in May.
Thirty-one teams were chosen to compete in the competition. From February through May, all 31 teams met rigorous competition milestones: completed all six competition training sessions, participated in one-on-one advising with their advisors, and met deadlines to submit written plans, presentation slides and one-minute videos in May! We celebrate a 100% Graduation rate!
Congratulations to our
2026 HCC Business Plan Competition
31 Graduating Teams
| | 2026 Graduating Teams & Their Advisors | | |
We congratulate and present below, all 31 Graduating teams and their advisors!
At the awards ceremony, we also called up to the stage all graduating teams who were present to celebrate their accomplishments and award their certificates.
| | Oops we are missing some on stage photos! We found we had numerous unusable photos of those taken of the 26 graduates that attended the competition awards ceremony and came up to the stage to be awarded their graduation certificates. This was due to some mechanical difficulties with the camera used by our photographer that day. Apologies to our grads! Look in our group picture and other pics in the Digital Yearbook to see more of the 26 grads that were there that day! We did a call out to all the grads to ask for any missing photos that may have been taken by family & friends. We will add them to our Digital Yearbook if we get more! | |
Year Around Efforts - Proposed, startup and existing entrepreneurs are supported with year around efforts related to the competition through activities offered by our Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship. We provide training and opportunities for entrepreneurs pre and post competition, recruiting, networking and ecosystem resources and connections.
We offer fourteen events from January through June that are specifically dedicated to each year of competition applicants and contestant teams.
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Our Digital "Yearbook" Lets PIctures Recap
our History and this Year's Journey
This Year's Competition Journey - Pics of 2026 competition activities including prerequisite trainings, virtual and onsite training sessions, our referral partners, our trainers, judges and sponsors, in addition to the big buildup that led to the awarding of certificates and in-kind prizes, all then leading to the awarding of announcement of seed money awarded to our winners!
Competition History - Alumni & Celebrations of Years Past - Quick Pics of past winners, graduates, sponsors, leaders and partners, celebrating our 19 years.
2026 Digital "Yearbook" - The Journey
Photo Web Album
| | Thanks to All Who Make it Possible | | |
Who Makes it Possible? - This is a collective and collaborative effort by dedicated individuals and internal and external partners.
At the ceremony, now and again throughout the year, we thank our:
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Competition Trainers & Lead Advisors: David Regenbaum, Austin Tenette, Landi Spearman, Karen Sharp, Nannette Ray, Jennifer Dale, Sandra Louvier, Lyndsey Brantley, Tiffany Williams and Arneisha Sadler.
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Competition Advisors - 30+ volunteer advisors offered their time, experience and expertise to contestants from late February through May; and they came from all over the Houston entrepreneurial ecosystem, including from our sponsors, partners and alumni. We thank: Sam Cannon, Sheila Patterson, Tennille Johnson, Terrence Hurley, Tiffany Williams, Tim Jeffcoat, Tommy Calzadias & Weltonia Harris, Ava Nava Cardoso, Anthony Lopez, Austin Tenette, Barbara Reiff, Chrisnatha Derosier, Clay Spitz, Clive Defty, Constance Jones, Daniel Luu, Diego Medrano, Dr. Bridget Ross, Dr. Princess Mokolo, Jennifer Dale, Jim Nordhaus, Jose Olalla Hevia, Kevin Rosenberg, Kevin Yancey, Lalitha Raman, LaTisha Venters, Leeanne Aguilar, Marco Ruiz, Michelle Chenault, Michelle He, Mike Fadden, Mike Nickel.
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Competition Judges: Marianne Plant, VP Regional Underwriting Manager, Wallis Bank, Gary Henderson, EVP, Executive Director of Government Guaranteed Lending, Stellar Bank, Oscar Martinez, Executive Vice President - Sales Manager, Frost Bank, Harry Leach, Regional Manager Houston, Capital CDC, Courtney Taylor, SVP, Regional Community Development Manager-Texas, The Huntington National Bank; and Nannette Ray, Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Board, Faith In Business Foundation.
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Sponsors: Platinum: Wallis Bank; Gold: Stellar Bank and Frost Bank; Silver: Capital CDC, Ed & Aleida Rios and Huntinton National Bank; and Bronze; Permit Us Now, Faith in Business Foundation, and Vertical Web.
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In-Kind Sponsors: Houston West Chamber of Commerce; True Color Graphics; Vertical Web; Three Brothers Bakery; TNR Advisors & Management Consultants LLC; B2G Victory; The Cannon; Harris Jones Staffing & Recruiting; Austin Business Strategies, LLC; The Us Space and Twice Media Productions.
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Community Partners: Small Business Administration; SCORE; The University of Houston SBDC and SURE programs; City of Houston Mayor's Office of Business Opportunity; Liftoff Houston Startup Competition; the Houston Area Urban League; and the Management Districts, Chambers and others who collaborate with us and refer entrepreneurs to our programs.
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Internal Partners: at HCC District and across the HCC System. Special thanks to our Entrepreneurial Initiatives partners: HCC Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, Centers for Entrepreneurship at HCC Southeast, Southwest and Central; and HCC Corporate Training and Development; and HCC Northwest and the West Houston Institute.
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Competition Alumni - who advised 2026 teams and to those who came to the awards ceremony to offer words of inspiration and encouragement, Tiffany Williams (2016), Derrell Noris (2019), Arneisha Sadler (2020), Constance Jones (2021), Tennille Johnson (2021), LaGina Harris (2021), Cameron Hunt (2025) and Chidi Oguegbu (2025). Alumni also participated in our training sessions including Lyndsey Brantley, (2019), Simone Steele (2024) and Ying Yi (2025).
2026 Digital "Yearbook" - The Journey
If you haven't already, you can find
pics galore of people and entities we thank
in our Digital Yearbook!
| | Our Awards Ceremony is an inflection point for the 2026 graduates to celebrate their accomplishments and then forge ahead. They are called upon to evolve & implement their plans to make them a reality, while they overcome obstacles and achieve successes along the way! | | We Thank Our 2026 Sponsors | | |
Thanks Again to ALL involved!
Special Thanks to all of our Sponsors and profound thanks for our long-term, year after year relationships!
You will see Sponsor Spotlights in upcoming newsletters!
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HCC Entrepreneurial Initiatives
Wins SBA Award for
Community Partner of the Year
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On May 6, 2026, Houston City College Entrepreneurial Initiatives and Dr. Maya Durnovo, Associate Vice Chancellor, Entrepreneurial Initiatives, HCC District were recognized and presented with the Small Business Adminstration Houston District Community Partner of the Year Award.
The award was presented by Mark Winchester, Director, SBA Houston District, and Jada Harris, President of SCORE Houston.
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Houston City College Entrepreneurial Initiatives. HCC District, was established to build and sustain the Houston business community through effective and relevant educational initiatives to help businesses grow in revenue, personnel and business opportunities. HCC Entrepreneurial Initiatives leads and coordinates all business and entrepreneurial initiatives by providing system-wide support, and leadership to fulfill HCC’s Strategic Agenda to “Cultivate and Entrepreneurial Culture Across the Institution.”
Dr. Durnovo thanked the SBA and SCORE and congratulated her entrepreneurial leaders and staff for outstanding work in delivering small business training and resources across the greater Houston area.
Two other HCC Alumni entrepreneurs also won awards on May 6: Dr. Beata Lerman Sinless Treats Chocolates, US. SBA Houston District, Small Business Manufacturer of the Year (and 2024 HCC Business Plan Competition Grad), and Bryant Coronado, Maps Flowers, Houston Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year (also alum of HCC Veterans Entrepreneurship program). Congratulations!
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Entrepreneurial Initiatives have grown by leaps and bounds at Houston Community College since 2008 when Dr. Zachary Hodges, President HCC Northwest and Dr. Maya Durnovo partnered with Newspring to start the HCC Newspring Business Plan Competition. In 2009, they brought in Sandra Louvier to launch our first Center, now called the Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship - HCC Northwest.
Since then, HCC has also launched and grown offerings through the HCC Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, four Centers for Entrepreneurship (HCC Northwest, Southeast, Southwest and Central) and through HCC Corporate Training and Development.
| | Signature programs include: HCC Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, HCC Business Plan Competition, HCC Small Business Success Series, HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling, Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, Hackathons, Inventathons, Patent Academy, NACCE STEM Camp for middle school students students, entrepreneurial offerings in Spanish and more. This includes a variety of additional offerings online and onsite across the HCC system. | | |
SCORE Houston was our first partner in 2009 and we partnered with the SBA shortly after. Each has remained a dedicated partner every year since. HCC Entrepreneurial Initiatives now collaborates with over 50 local, regional, national and global entrepreneurial ecosystem partners.
Thanks to all who make this possible! On behalf of all of our entrepreneurial programs and staff, we thank all of the entrepreneurs, partners, sponsors, volunteers, students, and HCC faculty and staff who have contributed to our efforts! Without your support and dedication to our programs, this award wouldn't have been possible!
| | Together we make possible a commitment to life-long learning, planning and continuous improvement throughout the lives of these entrepreneurs and over the progressive stages of their small businesses. This sets in motion impact for years to come in Houston's entrepreneurial ecosystem and economy!" Sandra Louvier | | |
About the Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship
HCC Northwest
OUR MISSION: To help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.
We do this by offering workshops, seminars, summits, classes and competitive training and advising, while also providing practical knowledge, resources and connections. We are also known for three Signature Programs: the Annual HCC Business Plan Competition, now in its 19th year; the HCC Small Business Success Series; and the HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling.
Our Center for Entrepreneurship is part of Houston City College Entrepreneurial Initiatives, HCC District.. HCC Entrepreneurial Initiatives was established to build and sustain the Houston business community through effective and relevant educational initiatives to help businesses grow in revenue, personnel and business opportunities. HCC Entrepreneurial Initiatives leads and coordinates all business and entrepreneurial initiatives by providing system-wide support, and leadership to fulfill HCC’s Strategic Agenda to “Cultivate an Entrepreneurial Culture Across the Institution.”
HCC Office of Entrepreneurial Initiatives has been honored with a number of prestigious awards. For more on awards in recent years; https://conta.cc/4nXEyuG
On behalf of all of our entrepreneurial programs and staff, we thank all of the entrepreneurs, partners, sponsors, volunteers, students, and HCC faculty and staff who have contributed to our efforts! Without your support and dedication to our programs, these awards wouldn't have been possible!
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