The potential of a new energy bar captures top prize in annual business plan competition

Two boyhood friends who have crisscrossed the country marketing an energy bar they created won the $25,000 top prize in the annual business plan competition at Rutgers Business School. 

Josh Dubler and George Mihaileanu were in high school when they started experimenting with recipes in their kitchens to “revolutionize eating,” especially on-the-go eating for athletes and busy people. Later, they enlisted the help of food scientists to perfect the bar, which they are selling now under the name CDN Bar.

The judges were impressed with their well-choreographed pitch, their story-telling, and the tasty nutrition bars made from peanuts and dates that they handed out during the competition.

“I like the hunger,” one judge remarked when Dubler and Mihaileanu had finished their pitch. “I see it! I feel it.”

Six teams shared the $50,000 prize money provided by the Community Foundation of New Jersey, which assumed sponsorship of the competition several years ago from the Sales Executive Foundation of New Jersey.

The competition has helped to launch a number of businesses, including the popular Playa Bowls chain. As they have in the past, the judges focused on the viability of the business plans and awarded the contestants based on the potential of their start-ups to advance to the next level. 

Mihaileanu, a Rutgers engineering student, and Dubler, a senior at the University of Michigan, said they would use the prize money to start building a team to help them continue marketing the nutrition bar. 

The two have sold 4,500 bars to date, pitching its simplicity – no artificial ingredients – and good taste. They told the judges about recent milestones, including being added to a list of vendors approved to do business with Rutgers University and having multiple influencer agreements “in the pipeline.”

Two other participants tied for second place. Anis Alamov, a Rutgers Business School junior who founded Aquarium Haven, and Anjo Therattil, a Rutgers School of Engineering student who developed LockGuard, a high-tech security device, targeting the college dorm and apartment market. Both student entrepreneurs received $10,000 to help take their ventures to the next stage.

LockGuard, which was a finalist at Rutgers Shark Tank, is on track to launch its product later this year. Aquarium Haven is a digital store that sells high-end decorative fish aquariums for the manufacturers. 

The remaining participants presented business plans for nascent companies that addressed carbon removal, neighborhood redevelopment and purposeful interior décor.

Long-time judge John Wilson was joined by Mayuresh Pandit and Richard Romano Jr., a developer and former AT&T produce manager whose father helped to start the annual competition more than 20 years ago. (Richard Romano was the former president of the Sales Executive Club of Northern New Jersey Foundation and a member of the Rutgers Business School board of advisers). Two first-time judges joined the panel this year: Kristin DiFoglio, Rutgers Business School’s associate dean for advancement, and Anton Kogan, who has twice won the competition for plans to grow his company, Emma’s Premium Services.

View scenes from the competition and more details about the contestants and their business ideas in the slideshow: