A few years ago, Adam and Eric VanWagner were working at a company that rented refrigerators to college students when they realized they could build a stronger brand for themselves, offering an improved delivery process and superior customer service.

The brothers, then juniors in the university’s business school, launched MyFridgeRental in March 2010 and promptly began winning contracts from their previous employer.

The business has developed into a company that rented 2,100 units last year and has now also won the business school’s sixth annual Cupid’s Cup Competition at Hoff Theater on Friday, topping entries from three other student entrepreneurs.

The VanWagners were awarded a $15,000 prize for their business, which delivers compact refrigerators — often with built-in microwaves — straight to students’ dorm rooms and provides any necessary service and replacement during the rental period.

MyFridgeRental delivers to about 10 universities in and around the state, in some cases making arrangements with the schools to promote its service and installing the appliances in dorm rooms before students arrive and removing them after they move out.

Rental fees range from $139 a year for a regular compact refrigerator to $200 a year for a “micro-fridge,” with different models available at different universities, and the business has been profitable so far.

“Most of the schools we offer to only allow a microwave if it’s part of the micro-fridge unit,” Eric VanWagner, a senior marketing major, said of his company’s success — though he noted that this university’s dorms only allow standard refrigerator/ freezers in students’ rooms. “It’s safer and more energy-efficient than having separate appliances.”

The four finalists who competed in the Cupid’s Cup all had to have fully operational businesses that generated revenue of $5,000 or more. Then each company had to pitch their idea in private to the judges. The top two businesses then were called up on stage to present their businesses.

Under Armor founder and CEO Kevin Plank, a university alumnus, and six other business leaders and faculty members chose MyFridgeRental as the contest’s winner based on such criteria as growth potential, profitability, entrepreneurial energy and planned use of the prize money, among others.

The brothers also won the $2,500 Audience Choice Award, determined by students and other guests at the BB&T Business Invitational before the Cupid’s Cup; the attendees were issued fake money to distribute to contestants who they thought had the best business ideas.

“It is an incredibly clever idea,” university President Wallace Loh said of the refrigerator rental company at the Cupid’s Cup. “How come nobody has ever thought of that before?”

This university, however, is not among those that have partnered with MyFridgeRental to market the company to their student bodies.

“They’re very selective about who they create vendor agreements with,” Eric VanWagner said.

Anthony Moniello, an MBA student, won the $7,500 second place prize at the Cupid’s Cup competition, for High Life Entertainment, a company that promotes nightly events at restaurants, nightclubs and bars, and provides consulting services to various venues to help them boost their attendance.

The other finalists were 1 Cut Above, a men’s barbershop that donates a cut of its profits and the occasional haircut to charitable groups, and REDEX, which searches for unnecessary spending in other firms’ budgets. A fifth competitor, Alexander Harris of 207 Lobster, had to drop out of the competition after a car accident.

The VanWagner brothers said they plan to put their $15,000 prize money toward updating their website and simplifying the online payment process.

hicks at umdbk dot com