Christina Henderson and Aimee Roberts have a question for you: Are you ready for a Montana-made 16-person pedal-powered party bike to chauffeur you around Missoula’s thriving beer scene?   The two MBA students at the University of Montana are betting you are.  They’ve prepared a business plan for the venture and entered it in the University’s highly-competitive 24th Annual John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition.

Zoo Bike and Brew was selected as a semifinalist and heads to the competition’s day-long final round tomorrow, May 16, attended by more than 250 business professionals and community leaders.  All
teams make an initial 90 second “elevator pitch” followed by first round presentations of 15 minutes each.

The field is narrowed to eight, then four during additional rounds leading to an awards ceremony at 9:15 p.m. Teams compete for thousands of dollars in prize money and have the opportunity to network with venture capitalists, early stage investors, investment bankers, economic developers, corporate executives, and successful entrepreneurs.

Christina and Aimee are working with Free Cycles Missoula and Home Resource to build the party bike with a design inspired by Missoula’s historic streetcars.  Billed as “part spin class, part pub crawl, part parade . . . . wholly awesome,” the two hope to have the business up and running in Spring 2014.  Stay tuned to their facebook page for more information and check our their promo video to get the perfect picture of what Missoula can look forward to: