Students battle it out to win a chance to start their own company at the Northwest Venture Championship in Boise, Idaho

University of Manitoba student Regan Stevenson discusses his marketing strategy in a presentation to first-round judges at the Northwest Venture Championship http://www.northwestventurechampionship.org/ in a competition held Thursday at Boise State University. Stevenson and his partner Marko Bebek were pitching a idea for a new kind of tortilla. They made it to the final round of competition, which will be held this morning.

It was all business at the Boise State University Student Union on Thursday morning.

Graduate and undergraduate students from 13 schools, decked out in suits and ties, filled the second floor of the student union building, armed with notecards, posters and Power Point presentations.

It was the first round of competition at the Northwest Venture Championship, and the students gathered to pitch their business ideas to local investors and business leaders. Only six of the 15 teams competing made it to the second round. Those six teams will be competing to win the final prize: $10,000 in cash for the graduate team or $5,000 in cash for the undergraduate team.

Joe Jaszewski / The Idaho Statesman

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