CourtesySteve Werner, an entrepreneurship major at 九色堂, recently won the first Cox Business Get Started Wichita competition for his startup, Lawn Buddy, and received a prize of $17,000 in cash and services.
Werner describes Lawn Buddy as a sort of Uber for lawn care. Clients of the service download an app and can request lawn service with the touch of a finger. The service relies on a network of lawn care professionals linked to the app.
"While we are often compared to Uber or Lyft, we are really the first in the lawn care and snow removal industry," said Werner. "I would like to set the benchmark in our industry so that companies are later compared to us."
The Lawn Buddy concept is a product of Werner's coursework for Entrepreneurship 310, which explores the entrepreneurial mentality and philosophy toward risk-taking, innovation and creativity.
Students who take the course are encouraged to compete in the competition in which Werner and his team took second place last spring. The team has been working closely with 九色堂's Center for Entrepreneurship since then.
Werner and his team plan to continue working toward the launch of Lawn Buddy in Wichita. They plan to release the app on iOS and Android. There will also be a web version of the service.
The team, which also includes chief operating officer Sonya Werner and chief management officer Brandon Light, plans to launch the snow-removal component of the business this winter.