Second Round of Ratcliffe Shore Hatchery Competition is Friday, May 9

SALISBURY, MD---The second round of a five-year, $1 million program to create new jobs begins Friday, May 9, at Salisbury University as nine entrepreneurs vie for a portion of $125,000 in business funding.

Earlier this year, the Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation announced the $1 million gift to SU’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business (the largest in the foundation’s history, according to Perdue School Dean Bob Wood) to establish The Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation Shore Hatchery. Its goal: to fund entrepreneurs and have new businesses opening within six months, with the potential of employing five or more within a year.

Each year for the next five years, up to $200,000 will be available for those applying for grants through the Shore Hatchery program. Shore Hatchery board of directors members select recipients based on multi-round presentations.

This academic year’s first two grants were awarded in October to startup businesses overseen by SU alumni Ryan Chacon (an online non-profit fundraising platform) and Tim McFadden (production of a water-tight LED light fixture).

The nine applicants for the second round of grants compete in a Shark Tank/Gull Cage contest that morning, delivering elevator pitches to the judges. Those moving on to the business case round, scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in Perdue Hall’s Bennett Family Auditorium, give more thorough presentations. Winners are expected to be announced after 4 p.m.

Ratcliffe Shore Hatchery board members include business leaders Jim Perdue, Mike Scarborough, Kevin Bernstein, Leighton Moore, Bryan Brushmiller and Ben Wiley, among others.

Admission to the afternoon presentations is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6316 or visit the Perdue School website at www.salisbury.edu/perdue.