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Business Plan Competition Showcases Students Leveraging AI in Businesses

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Five award winners posing for a photo with their awards during the Gillespie Business Competition.

OXFORD, Miss. – The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at Ole Miss held its annual Gillespie Business Plan Competition, awarding $70,000 in cash prizes to student ventures. This year, 46 teams participated; 12 of those teams were post-revenue, and 16 were formally incorporated, reflecting the quality of student ventures and the sustained support they receive through mentorship.

Three participants stood out for their cutting-edge technology ideas. EpoxIQ, Pitch Decimator, and Automatic AI each won competition awards for their AI-driven services.

EpoxIQ was founded by Jacob Keating to help contractors boost conversion rates and close deals faster by bridging the imagination gap. The platform offers AI-powered visualization specifically designed for the epoxy flooring industry, enabling contractors to instantly generate realistic renderings of a client’s space. The software is gaining significant market traction, highlighted by a current collaboration with a large-scale flooring company in the Midwest that is integrating the tool directly into its sales pipeline. EpoxIQ earned a runner-up award and a $1,750 cash prize.

Pitch Decimator was created by Abhirup Chatterjee and functions as a high-stakes “adversarial sparring partner” designed to stress-test business pitches through rigorous logical cross-examination. Unlike passive AI assistants, it utilizes a specialized debate-coach persona to aggressively identify structural gaps, logical fallacies, and weak evidence. Additionally, it provides real-time “logic health” scores and clinical critiques to transform vulnerable presentations into airtight, investor-ready arguments. Pitch Decimator also received a runner-up award and a $1,750 cash prize.

Automatic AI, developed by Julien Bourgeois, is the company behind Ball AI, an AI-powered basketball training platform. Users can turn their smartphones into real-time shooting coaches with Ball AI, which tracks live workouts and delivers instant, personalized coaching insights. Currently available on the App Store, Ball AI serves 5,000 monthly active players and 86 active coaches and trainers. In March 2026, the company closed a $400,000 pre-seed funding round to scale nationally. Automatic AI secured second place in the competition, earning a $10,000 cash prize.

Special Awards

  • Amy and Alex Knight Family CIE Award ($2,500): Drape
  • Edward G. Francis, Sr. Entrepreneur Award ($2,500): Marell
  • Veteran/Military Dependent Award ($2,500): Itty Bitty’s Bakery
  • Thomas W. Colbert–Community Bank Innovation Award ($5,000): Interbeat Industries
  • Stephen E. Rowell Entrepreneur Award ($5,000): ParthenonPro
  • GenTeal Apparel Consumer-Facing Award ($5,000): Garrett Wayne
  • Melanie and Doug Wilson Salesmanship Award ($5,000): ERTZU

Gillespie Competition Awards

  • Runner-Ups ($1,750 each): EpoxIQ, MEDNETIC, Pitch Decimator, ZUNO
  • Third Place – Lynn and Ron Samuels Award ($5,000): Marell
  • Second Place – Charles R. Doty Award ($10,000): Automatic AI
  • First Place – Melanie and Doug Wilson Award ($20,000 plus office space at Insight Park): Munchies Chicken and Waffles

We are excited to support our entrepreneurs in their innovative business plans.

By

Abby Yuan

Campus

Published

April 28, 2026

School

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