Written by Mara Brak
Introduction
I am Mara Brak, a senior Design and Innovation major. I was honored to be selected to be a finalist in the 2025 Wolverine Venture Battle. As soon as it was announced that my business idea, Mom, made the cut, I registered my team for Financial Projections, the VentureU business seminar by Professor Ken Smith ‘84.
This seminar was incredibly helpful to my team when we were creating our three-year financial plan. We started out with little to no experience, but after Professor Smith walked us through potential costs and the spreadsheet, we became experts. Mom was projected to not just break even, but profit by our second year.
What Is the Wolverine Venture Battle?
The Wolverine Venture Battle is Grove City College’s version of Shark Tank. Students across all majors battle it out, pitching their business ideas (and their financials) to a panel of judges.
What Are Financials Projections All About?
Financial Projections is required for all WVB finalists to attend and is heavily suggested for anyone considering ever opening their own business. It covers how to brainstorm the start-up costs for undergoing such an enterprise. Professor Smith provides students with worksheets and step-by-step instructions on how to create a physical list. These skills are easily transferable to LivePlan, the financial planner used to create the three-year financial plan that is presented and submitted to the judges at the Wolverine Venture Battle.
A Behind the Scenes Look at Financials
This year, I had the opportunity to attend the 2026 Building Your Venture Finances business seminar. As soon as we walked in the door, we grabbed two worksheets. The room quickly filled with those in the process of starting their own business, finalists in the 2026 WVB, and those simply interested in educating themselves on financials.
Once we sat down and the meeting started, Professor Smith set the stage, asking what costs we need to think about to open a cookie shop in Grove City, because “Grovers love cookies too.” The first worksheet was split into three sections: Start-up Costs (One-time), Revenue Streams (Monthly Estimates), and Operating Expenses (Monthly). When starting a cookie shop, there are many costs that you need to worry about before you launch your business. That’s where planning start-up costs will ease that worry. Maintaining a business comes with costs as well, such as the ingredients for cookies. It is also important to think about revenue streams, or the touchpoints where our income will come from.
He gave us the opportunity to brainstorm before revealing his own, filled-out sections with estimated costs and assumptions included. Rent, advertising, catering, hourly wages, and insurance are just a few to consider.
Costs build up quickly. For a start-up business, it is wise to attempt to keep the costs down for anything that is not completely necessary. Bootstrap as much up as you can.
For example, Mom was primarily an app. By designing the app and launching it in-house, my team would have been able to save a lot of money on our short-term financial plan. We would have needed someone to code the app into existence, so that was one sizable chunk of money we would end up parting with.
The second worksheet was an Excel spreadsheet split into five sections: start-up costs, revenue streams, operating expenses, summary (total revenue, total operating expenses, net income) and cash flow (total start-up costs, average monthly net income, and months to recover start-up costs).
He gave us ten minutes to fill it out. Professor Smith said that, in his own time, he was able to fill out both worksheets in only 22 minutes. That’s even less time than some people take for a lunch break!
Takeaway
If you have truly thought about starting a business and have strategized how to go about it, you should be able to fill out worksheets like this without breaking a sweat. This interactive session truly helps students break down their idea to get an idea of what their business financials look like and accurately reflect their projections.
What To Do Next
Go see this year’s finalists battle it out on stage on April 24 at 1:00 PM in Sticht Auditorium! All finalists are eligible to win cash funds as well as in-kind services that will fuel their future growth.
The list of this year’s finalists:
- Asset‑Based Intelligence
- Claritas Arts Academy
- Common Ground
- Ringless Automation
- Medicap
- Scanvas
- Sovereign
- TRADE
Want to see what a full WVB student finalist pitch looks like ahead of April 24? Watch my team’s final pitch of Mom here to get a feel for what’s in store for the finalists.