Student Entrepreneurs Win $20,000 at Gillespie Competition

Hosted by the UM Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the annual competition lets student entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to expert judges for a chance to win $20,000 and office space at Insight Park.

Forty-two student teams competed in the event, with seven teams advancing to the final round. Three finalists received $1,750 in funding, and the top three teams took home larger cash prizes.

Brett Doherty, a sophomore business administration major from Overland Park, Kansas, and McClain Schieltz, a sophomore business administration and sports management double major from Overland Park, Kansas, are the founders of Munchies Chicken and Waffles LLC, which claimed the Melanie and Doug Wilson first place prize.

“Every year, the Gillespie competition raises the bar, and 2026 was no exception,” said Clay Dibrell, CIE co-director.

"Congratulations to McClain Schieltz and Brett Doherty of Munchies for taking home the top prize. Their concept for a campus food truck business is exactly the kind of consumer-facing, innovative, viable and driven by real passion community-rooted venture that the Gillespie was designed to champion."

Doherty and Schieltz have been friends since kindergarten and enrolled as freshmen together at Ole Miss in August 2024. They entered the 2025 business model competition, where they placed third and received the Amy and Alex Knight award of $2,500.

"We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to engage with the mentors and judges,” Schieltz said. “Their insights have provided us with an invaluable roadmap for the continued growth of our business.”

The win came as a surprise, Doherty said.

“When third place was announced and it wasn't us, we assumed we’d taken second,” he said. “Then when we weren’t named second, we just looked at each other in total shock and excitement.”

Ole Miss senior Margaret Ellen Maturin, a mechanical engineering major from Lafayette, Louisiana and founder of Marell, won the Lynn and Ron Samuels Award for third place. Marell produces custom mahjong tile sets and other game play accessories.

"This competition was the first time I was challenged to think critically about every aspect of my business, from the financials to the story I was telling,” Maturin said. “It was an invaluable experience and one I’d encourage any student entrepreneur to pursue."

Julien Bourgeois, a junior computer science major from New Orleans and founder of Ball AI, placed second in the competition. Ball AI is a sports-technology app that leverages artificial intelligence to provide advanced analytics and performance insights for athletes and coaches.

"This result is good for the team, good for our investors and good for Ball AI," Bourgeois said.

Other finalists in the competition were:

• Abhirup Chatterjee, a senior business analytics and marketing double major from Madison, MS and founder of Pitch Decimator
• Ross Cohen, a taxation and data analytics graduate student from Oxford, MS; Thomas Archer, senior mechanical engineering major from Oxford, MS; and Charles Jackson, senior mechanical engineering major from Oxford, MS, all founders of MEDNETIC
• Nick Dufresne, a junior real estate major from Atlanta, GA and founder of Zuno
• Jacob Keating, a senior finance major from Aurora, IL and founder of EpoxIQ.