Mizzou Law student wins entrepreneur competition, $15,000 in seed funding

Published on Nov. 30, 2023

Updated on July 26, 2024

On top of his responsibilities as a law student, parent and president of the University of Missouri Graduate Professional Council, Mizzou Law 3L Parker Owens sets aside time for one of his favorite hobbies: Lego.

However, Owens does more than just play — in July, he created Parker’s Brick Builds, a business which offers custom Lego kits to retailers and online to individuals.

Owens said that he has enjoyed Lego since he was a child, so making the leap to creating his own models was a natural progression.

“I grew up building with Lego, so I decided to make my own models,” he said.

Owens’s current offerings include a catapult, a piano and a school bus — as well as branded kits for Mizzou and Veterans United.

a photo of parker owens giving his business pitch during the competition with a slide of his business details behind him — Parker Owens, 3L, won first place and $15,000 in seed funding in the MU Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator competition.

Though Owens has only been in business for less than six months, his creations are already being successfully sold across the state and country.

“I was at a grand opening in a store in Mission, Kansas,” Owens said. “I think they sold out nearly half of my piano kit in the first day.”

This semester, Owens participated in Mizzou’s Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator, a multi-stage competition to win up to $15,000 in seed funding. On Tuesday, Owens competed in the Entrepreneur Quest finale, where he took first place.

He plans on using the prize funding to build up inventory.

“Winning the competition will allow me to go live with the e-commerce portion of the business early next year,” Owens said. “I’ll also use the seed funding to get some more equipment to make custom products for companies that buy my kits. Also using this grant, I’ll be able to increase the number of stores that I sell to, necessitating some employees. I hope that I can be doing more of the management and design side while the order fulfillment is done by others.”

The future for Owens, and Parker’s Brick Builds, is bright. After he graduates from Mizzou Law in May, he will join Appleby Healy Attorneys at Law, PC in Ozark, Missouri. He plans to continue Parker’s Brick Builds alongside practicing law.