Tag: entrepreneurship lab

The Fourteenth Annual Pace Pitch Contest

The Pace Pitch Contest was held on Thursday, April 19th, 2018, in the Bianco Room of Pace University, and we are proud to announce that our Seidenberg students achieved the first and the third places.

The contest started with a short opening speech by Prof. Bruce Bachenheimer, Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Lab. He explained basic pitching rules to all of the finalists and welcomed the judging panel for the contest.

Each of the nine finalist teams were provided with 3 minutes of time and 5 slides to present their pitch.

Finalists had to touch upon the following during their pitch:

  1. Business description – details of the venture and what it does
  2. Market analysis – characteristics of the market and description of its customers
  3. Product or service analysis – the specifics of the product or service
  4. Competition – identify current and potential competitors
  5. Marketing strategy – how sales will be achieved
  6. Operations – how the product or service will be produced and delivered
  7. Management – an assessment of the entrepreneur(s) and team
  8. Finances – an overview of the required resources and economics of the venture
  9. Investment proposal – the terms and conditions offered to investors
  10. Presentation – overall effectiveness of the actual presentation

The judging panel –

Danny Potocki, Founder, FINIS Ventures

Christine Roth, Economic Development Advisor

Jonathan M. Satovsky, Founder & CEO, Satovsky Asset Management, LLC

Sandy Wollman, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Westchester Angels

With this, started the 1st pitch of the night-

Quincy Doccy (BS in Computer Science), Weichao Hou (MS in Finance) and Avinash Mudduluru (MS in Computer Science) presented AngelEats – an online platform building a bridge between restaurants and non-profit organizations and giving food to people in need.

Followed by that was Arogyaa – a mobile application that maintains patients’ medical history, and which coordinates with different doctors and helps them collaborate with patients. Arogyaa was presented by Ankit Mohokar, Chinmay Deshpande and Shivani Gade all from (MS in Computer Science)

The next pitch in the list was Cuddlefish, presented by Sumeet Gujaran (MBA in Financial Management) and Jethro Widjaja (BBA in Finance). Cuddlefish is a blockchain based platform which aims to promote financial inclusion for all through microfinance funded by retail investors in developed countries.

Our next pitch is iCards, an app which seeks to revolutionize the game designed by the pitchers, fully integrating the best parts of the industry into a comprehensive, universal platform to trade, play, and collect cards. iCards was presented by Jen McCall (BS in Computer Science) and John Mulcahy (BS in Computer Science)

Now it was time for Redact– a legal organization that works with individuals who have been convicted of a crime to have their criminal records sealed. It was presented by Christopher Matcovich (full-time 3L)

RockBox was our next pitch presented by Zakiya Sims ( Bs in Computer Science) and Nathan Robinson, delivers handmade cocktails from all over the world to the customers’ doorstep. With monthly subscriptions, customers will be provided with the alcohol, bitters, mixers and fresh produce needed to create their own boozy beverage.

Next pitch Sylvian Hyde was presented by Jabari Chambers (MBA in Human Resources and Financial Management) and Sylvian Hyde. It’s an emerging luxury menswear brand founded and based in New York City. The company currently offers ready-to-wear men’s apparel as well as custom and bespoke design services.

WOTOPA is an online platform where campus students can buy, sell, donate, offer services and can build an inter-university network by exchanging ideas and collaborating via forums. It was presented by Haseeb Ur Rahman (Computer Science), Suman Saurabh (Computer Science) and Varad Raj Shere (Computer Science) and Dipika Sankhe.

And the last one, @Pace (Augmented Tour of Pace University)– a Business-to-Customer (B2C) software startup focusing on augmented reality (AR). The program allows users to explore Pace University via a mobile application. The pitchers were – Kenneth Okereke (Computer Science) and Stephanie Okereke (Computer Science)

After the end of our last pitch, now it was time for the judging panel to make their decisions.

Here are the results:

  • AngelEats – Quincy Doccy, Weichao Hou, and Avinash Mudduluru was awarded 1st prize of $1000
  • Sylvian Hyde – Jabari Chambers and Sylvian Hyde achieved 2nd position with a cash prize of $500
  • iCards – Jen McCall and John Mulcahy received 3rd place and prize of $250

 With so many amazing pitches, the 14th annual Pace pitch contest was a huge success. And now we are eagerly waiting for the 15th annual Pace pitch contest next year!

Seidenberg also swept the stage at the 13th Pace Pitch Contest – read all about it here!

Seidenberg students snatch first and second spot at Pace Pitch Contest

Another year, another incredible performance at the annual Pace Pitch Contest from Seidenberg students. We couldn’t be more proud of Rachel González, Andrew Ku, and Rohana Sosa for taking the top two spots in the contest.

The competition, now in its thirteenth year, challenges students to pitch their ideas with constraints based on the famous Elevator Pitch, the technique of giving a concise and compelling pitch in a very short period of time.

Finalists in the competition had three minutes to give their pitches, which they did on Thursday, April 20, 2017, in the Bianco Room at Pace University. During their presentations, they were judged on their ability to provide: a description of their idea; a market analysis; the specs of their product or service; identification of potential competitors; a marketing strategy; how they aim to produce and deliver their product or service; an assessment of their management; a finances overview; and an investment proposal.

Plenty of Seidenberg students and teams made it to the final round – here are the teams including some of our amazing entrepreneurs!

George Samuels and Arton Mirakaj presenting Atmosphere.

Arton Mirakaj (BA in Computer Science) and George Samuels (BS in Computer Science) presented Atmosphere, a VR mobile application that will be used to improve the health and care of aging populations – the same app that went on to win at the #WestchesterSmart Mobile App Development Bowl!

First place winners Rachel Gonzáles and Danielle Ran pitching Minute Mantra.

Minute Mantra is a health and wellness app that enables mindfulness and clarity, and was developed by Rachel González (BS in Information Systems) alongside Danielle Ran (BBA in Marketing with minor in Psychology).

Thanh Do, Phuc Pham, and Syman Li present charity app TouchDonation.

TouchDonation makes giving to charity simple and was created by Phuc Pham (BS in Information Technology with a minor in Quantitative Business Analysis), Syman Li (BBA in Hospitality) and Thanh Do (BBA in Finance).

Second place winners Andrew Ku and Rohana Sosa with their idea VAICAM Pi.

Seidenberg students Andrew Ku (BS in Information Systems) and Rohana Sosa (BS in Computer Science with minor in Computing Information Technology) created VAICAM Pi. VAICAM Pi is bundled as an Android mobile app, a Google Cardboard virtual reality (VR) headset, and a Raspberry Pi 3, equipped with a 360 camera and artificial intelligence to function as an older person’s own artificially intelligent security camera.

Ricky Harris, Mackenzie Dolishny, and Daniel Citardi pitching VR Discover, an app aimed to improve the lives of aging populations.

Finally, VR Discover – an app built for both Android and iOS, utilizes virtual reality to stimulate cognitive function, provide entertainment, and relieve restlessness stemming from sundowning for patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia – was built by computer science students Ricky Harris, Daniel Citardi, and Mackenzie Dolishny. This innovative app also made an appearance at the #WestchesterSmart Mobile App Development bowl, where the team won a prize.

When it was time for the judges to make their decisions, students from Seidenberg snatched up first and second place!

Rachel González and Lubin student Danielle Ran took first place, bagging $1,000 to use toward developing their mindfulness app, Minute Mantra.

Andrew Ku and Rohana Sosa won the second prize of $500 for their artificial intelligence security app, VAICAM Pi.

Rohana and Andrew receive their award with the contest judges

Speaking about her experience, Rohana Sosa remarked that she and Andrew “both had a great experience and a lot of fun being participants in the Pitch Contest. This gave us the opportunity to showcase our talents and apply our programming skills to a business setting. Having this experience is a stepping stone to further our learning process and achieve our educational goals. The contest provided an enriching and stimulating experience to test our ideas and see how impactful the our mobile app concept is.”

There were certainly a wealth of impactful apps and ideas presented at the contest. You can see all of the finalists at the Entrepreneurship Lab website.

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