Demo Your Idea
Student entrepreneurs demo ideas at spring pitch competition
4:05 p.m., May 13, 2015--The University of Delaware’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship welcomed an audience of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to Demo Your Idea, the program’s biannual pitch competition, last week.
Ten entrepreneurial student teams from several UD colleges including the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Health Sciences and the College of Engineering competed for $1,000 in startup funding at the Horn Program’s Venture Development Center.
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Demo Your Idea asked students to not only pitch their best ideas, but to demonstrate their product or service. Participants had just two minutes to convince the judges that their idea was worthy of the prize.
Teams demonstrated ideas ranging from video-based weightlifting tutorials to meal supplements designed for disaster relief to buildings powered by energy produced from indoor bicycling.
First place was awarded to doctoral candidate Anvar Samadzoda, who used a tennis ball, plastic coils and very creative dance moves to help the audience understand his company, Receptologics.
In his two minutes Samadzoda explained the history of X-ray crystallography and his vision to crystalize human protein receptors for imaging more effectively. This would save researchers tens of thousands of trials.
After the first round of 10 presentations, the top three finalists were each given 30 seconds to persuade the judges one last time.
Samadzoda utilized his final few seconds to say that his project could “change the world and positively contribute to disease research and pharmaceutical development.”
The panel of judges included:
- UD alumna Kiersten Jones Schwendeman, regional manager of Kids First Swim School and founder of non-profit startup The Aster Center;
- Robyn Odegaard, CEO of Champion Performance Development; and
- Ken Grant, director of marketing for iChromatography/Analtech Inc.
When asked what he plans to do with the funding, Samadzoda said, “There is so much to do.”
“I’ll mainly use the money to complete the registration of my company and put up a website,” Samadzoda said. “My immediate objectives are to form a core team of dedicated individuals who are excited about receptors, and apply for additional funding.”
Other finalists included health sciences student Amira Idris of Vibrosocket, a vibrating sleeve for amputees to increase tissue activity, and entrepreneurship students Sean Carey and Matt Paul of Loop, a medical device app that allows emergency first responders instant access to patients’ correct medical information.
Pictures from the event can be found by visiting the Horn Program’s Facebook page.
Article by Chris Kilgus
Photo by Loren Flores