Buckeye engineers take top spots in campus business pitch competition
The Business Builders Club (BBC) fosters entrepreneurship at Ohio State through programs like IdeaPitch, which enables students to present their ideas for a chance to win seed funding for their business.
Twenty applicants submitted executive summaries for a variety of ideas for products, apps and services. From there, the top eight teams were chosen to create a presentation to pitch their idea, including the problem they intend to solve, revenue model, target market, launch plan, potential to be profitable, etc. A panel of judges, composed of Columbus-area entrepreneurs, were there to ask questions and rank the pitches on these criteria.
First-year mechanical engineering major Cameron Leids won first place and $2,000 with Dot Bot, an idea originally submitted by him and his team to the College of Arts and Science's Ideafest competition earlier this year. Dot Bot is a fun and intuitive battle robot that teaches kids how to code by connecting to a mobile app that uses lines of code to control the robot instead of a traditional remote. It uses a coding language designed for children called Scratch and has different difficulty settings for when the kids get more advanced, giving the Dot Bot no age limit.
“We are passionate about this idea because we believe that all children should learn how to code,” said Leids, a member of BBC since the beginning of 2015. “It is becoming a very important skill and in the future we believe it will simply be necessary for everyone to have at least a little coding knowledge.”
Alex Koenig, a third-year materials science and engineering major, placed second and earned $1,500 with TecVest, a cooling/heating vest designed for motorcycle riders and powered by the motorcycle itself. Because his current jacket overheats so easily, Koenig doesn’t always wear it while riding. However, after his jacket saved him from serious injury during an accident this fall, he wanted to find a solution to the overheating issue so that more people would always wear jackets.
Two juniors in industrial design from the Titan Mixer Bottle team took third place with their patented mixing technology that is getting close to production. The team, which has been raising seed money on Kickstarter, received $1,000 for their third-place finish.
Entrepreneurial resources such as NCT Ventures, Entrepreneurs Organization, SunDown Rundown, Fast Switch and Rev1 Ventures sponsored the event.
IdeaPitch occurs each fall through BBC, but they are considering hosting another IdeaPitch event this spring, along with other endeavors such as IdeaBox, Emerging Entrepreneurs Competition and the Startup Career Fair. Further details will be available on the BBC website as the events get closer.
These community events give students the opportunity to showcase their ideas and receive money to pursue their goals.
“If you think you have a good idea, you should always pursue it,” said Leids, who is working on a second business as well called BucketsOSU, an app created to make buying and selling between students easier. “This is the age where it is time to take risks and see what you can do. I was amazed at the number of great ideas at this event.”
Written by Jenn Shafer
