$85,000 awarded to students’ new ventures
May 26, 2016 – Like pig farmers, entrepreneurs — when handed pigs — should make bacon. That’s according to John Gabbert, CEO and founder of PitchBook and Foster School alumnus (’96), who got his entrepreneurial start as a pig farmer in a small town. He told his entrepreneurial story and encouraged students as the keynote speaker of the UW Business Plan Competition awards dinner.
“The real value of this competition is the experience of thinking about the business, analyzing the product, and figuring out what it takes to bring a company to market,” Gabbert said.
More prizes, more winners, and more judges made for a bigger-than-ever year at the UW Business Plan Competition. With $85,000 awarded in seed funding, more than 300 judges and the addition of several new prizes, the nineteenth year of the BPC was truly outstanding.
The UW Business Plan Competition, run by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in the UW Foster School of Business, offers students with an entrepreneurial spark the opportunity to turn their ideas into viable startups. In the 19 years since the BPC began, 1,371 business plans have been submitted to the competition. More than 4,400 students have participated and $1.3 million has been awarded.
Congratulations to this year’s winners:
$25,000 Grand Prize
Sponsored by the Herbert B. Jones Foundation
JikoPower
Michael Jooste, Ryan Ahearn Marene Wiley; UW Foster School of Business, UW Political Economy, UW Mechanical Engineering
At JikoPower, thermoelectric generators harness wasted energy and convert it into electricity to charge cell phones, LED lights, and other small devices. By doing this, JikoPower is able to provide safe, sustainable energy to people around the world.
$10,000 Second Place Prize
Sponsored by WRF Capital
Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business
Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.
$7,520.16 Third Place Prize
Sponsored by Friends of the BPC
MultiModal Health
Brian Mogen, Lars Crawford, Tyler Libey, Dimitrios Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering, UW Neurobiology, UW Computer Science & Engineering
MultiModal Health develops connected platforms using affordable sensing and analytic technology to understand and improve health for everyone.
$5,000 Fourth Place Prize
Sponsored by Fenwick & West
Engage
Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; WSU Bioengineering
Engage develops medical technology for developing countries with a shortage of resources, initially through the product SafeShot to reduce the spread of bloodborne diseases.
$5,000 Big Picture Prizes
Created to reward student teams in the BPC for their exceptional work in several distinct categories, the $5,000 Big Picture and Best Idea prizes are selected by a special group of judges during the Investment Round.
AARP Foundation Prize
Targeted for teams that best address the challenges faced by low-income seniors: affordable age-in-place housing, affordable healthy food, increased income, and the impact of isolation on physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Winners of this prize will be considered by AARP for follow-on investment.
MultiModal Health
Brian Mogen, Lars Crawford, Tyler Libey, Dimitrios Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering, UW Neurobiology, UW Computer Science & Engineering
MultiModal Health develops connected platforms using affordable sensing and analytic technology to understand and improve health for everyone.
UIEvolution Internet of Things (IoT) Prize
Recognizes a business venture that has incorporated new products or services that contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem—devices, vehicles, infrastructure and/or other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to collect and exchange data to create new consumer experiences.
Safe-Fur
Ipolitas Dunaravich, Ashley Smith, Javier Schialer; UW Foster School of Business
The world’s first self-recharging implantable GPS, created to effectively help recover lost or stolen pets.
WinWin Tri-Sector Prize
Awarded to a for-profit venture with a product or service that creates a win-win-win in the private, public and social sectors. An example of this is Coinstar, which processed $37 billion in coins for consumers, collected $75 million for nonprofits, and saved over $2 billion for the US Mint—creating a win for all three sectors.
Engage
Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; WSU Bioengineering
Engage develops medical technology for developing countries with a shortage of resources, initially through the product SafeShot to reduce the spread of bloodborne diseases.
Wells Fargo Foundation Clean Tech Prize
Goes to a venture with products, services, or processes that harness renewable materials and energy sources, dramatically reduce the use of natural resources, and cut or eliminate emissions and wastes.
Ionic Windows
Anthony Moretti, Ian Hochstein; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business
Ionic Windows provides membranes to flow battery manufacturers that enable a 25 percent capital cost reduction, making grid-scale renewable energy economically viable.
$2,500 Best Idea Prizes
REI Best Retail Innovation Idea
Recognizes a venture that generates value through the delivery of goods and/or services, with an emphasis on customer service.
Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business
Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.
eBay Best Marketplace Idea
Targeted for teams creating a commerce or payments platform for communities of buyers, sellers or businesses.
Scholarship Junkies
David Coven, Emily Majors, Mikael Hernandez; UW Mechanical Engineering, UW Chinese Language and Literature, UW Communications, UW Applied Physics
Students helping provide free, top quality support for anyone striving to fund their college success.
Accenture Best Consumer Product Idea
For a venture that offers a compelling new consumer product, focusing on a well-defined market.
Coulomb Sea (formerly Smart Charger Pro)
Yanbo Qi, Yutian Qian, Samson Smith, Niccolo Fortes, Nannan Jiang; UW Chemical Engineering
The Smart Charger Pro offers customers a smarter and customizable way to charge their electronic devices; utilizing flexible rates, a quicker charge or a longer life per charge and improved battery health can be achieved while reducing battery waste.
Smukowski Family Best Sustainable Advantage
Recognizes a venture that has incorporated best practices toward resource reduction while bolstering profitability/cost containment.
Aquapel
Di Sun, Mariko Howard, Adam Zhu, Jenny Wang, Bruno Out, David Zerby; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Mechanical Engineering, UW Japanese, UW Political Science, UW Foster School of Business
Aquapel patented technologies create a self-cleaning system for solar panels by creatively manipulating water droplets movement on the panel’s surface. By doing this, we eliminate labor cost, minimize water usage, and cut back the payback time by 25 percent.
Perkins Coie Best Innovation/Technology Idea
Targeted for a venture that has a new application for a current technology, a disruptive technology, or an idea that represents a substantial improvement in a product or process.
CadaVR
Ryan James, Mark Laughery, Ahmad Aljadaan; UW Biomedical and Health Informatics, UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering
CadaVR is a virtual reality platform to help teach students anatomy and physiology. We like to call it a living cadaver lab because it gives students a hands-on learning experience like a physical cadaver lab, and will simulate things that a physical cadaver lab cannot, such as the heart beating normally and pathologically.
Cambia Health Solutions Best Health/Healthcare Idea
Recognizes a venture that offers new solutions or approaches to address health outcomes and/or improve the quality or efficiency of healthcare delivery.
Z-ion+ Technologies
Marvin Mecwan, Ruying Chen, Sabrina Kamran, Marleny Santos; UW Bioengineering, UW Pharmacology, UW Foster School of Business
Z-ion+ technologies utilizes patent-pending technology to make non-stick, long-lasting, durable coatings that can be applied to any vascular medical device to prevent complications due to blood clots.
DLA Piper Idea for the Future
For a venture that has a long-time horizon, but is worth waiting for.
MetRS
Christopher Joyce, Ryan Delacruz, Colin Johnston, Omeed Faghih; UW Biochemistry, UW Foster School of Business, UW Pharmacy
MetRS has discovered new antibiotics that have great potency against drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA and Staph. If approved this drug could save approximately $27 million in healthcare costs and 55 lives daily.
