Three environmental studies students at Acadia University won $6000 to help launch their business Highway 101, a mobile food truck that serves healthy produce sourced from local farms.

Emilia Ganslandt, Gillian Hollebone and Alisha Christie won first place at the LaunchBox Start It Up program last month, in which 16 teams developed business solutions to solve industry problems in just 28 hours.

Start It Up is a two-day workshop that takes its participants through a Lean Canvas Model to solve an industry problem. At the end of the workshop, teams present their ideas to a panel of judges with a chance to win cash prizes totaling $10,000.

The workshop was coordinated by the Acadia Entrepreneurship Centre, which manages LaunchBox.

Findlay MacRae, the Executive Director of Acadia Entrepreneurship Centre said the competition is designed to challenge participants to build on their entrepreneurial skill sets including problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication.

The second-place team won $3500 for its solution to connect students to retired seniors who want to stay in their homes and need help maintaining their property.

Third place, $500, was awarded to a team for their solution Cultiv8, an app designed to harmonize a work/life balance.

Over 50 participants took part in the program, which is open for anyone to attend. The teams included Acadia students and alumni, community members, four students from Horton High School and a very entrepreneurial 12-year-old.