SmartPitch 2012 Competition Winners

June 8, 2012 Tagged With: ,

Smart Pitch winners, finalists and partners from CUNY IVE, Baruch, Sunshine Bronx and IBM

 

Congratulations to the five teams who won the SmartPitch 2012 competition!  The creators of these ventures, chosen from over 200 entrants, will participate in  Entrepreneurship Bootcamp June 15, 2012 at Baruch College and Sunshine Bronx.  After completing bootcamp, the teams will have access to incubator space at Sunshine Bronx over the duration of the summer, and be paired with a mentor from IBM.  The students will also receive support from CUNY IVE and the Field Center for Entrepreneurship through various activities and workshops.  The winners of the SmartPitch 2012 competition are:

SmartPitch 2012 1st Place winner William Doyle-Capitman and CUNY IVE founder Stuart Schulman

1st Place – CoMotion ($1,000 prize): CoMotion, created by Baruch MBA (CIS and Marketing) William Doyle-Capitman, is a program that makes solo exercise fun by turning it into a team sport.  CoMotion allows users to create teams with their friends and use their favorite exercise tracking application to track progress as they undertake coordinated fitness missions.

 

2nd Place – U Bridge Me ($500 prize): Queens College CUNY computer science student Hang Pan is the creator of UBridgeMe, a service that helps to bridge the communication gap between teachers and students by breaking down language barriers existing in our educational communities. With UBridgeMe teachers can relay translated messages which can then be accessed by phone or computer. Students will also have online access to study materials and language tools to better help them understand the content.

3rd Place – Juice Me ($250 prize): Aminata Clason-Diop, an entrepreneurship student at Baruch, is the founder of mobile app Juice Me.  Juice Me is an innovative holistic health company that seeks to capitalize on two growing sectors: social networking and juicing. Juice Me consists of two platforms, an online community and a smartphone application that are integrated to help juicers in New York City network, find juice bars, exchange juice recipes, and live healthier lives.

4th Place – Dirt Works: CUNY neuroscience graduate student Eathan Janney and Emily Osgood, an urban planning graduate student at NYU, are the creators of Dirt Works, an organization that seeks to facilitate urban composting by collecting and transporting food refuse, improving the sustainability and efficiency of cities.

5th Place – Boutique Express: Matt Caruso (MBA Entrepreneurship and Information Systems) is the creator of Boutique Express, which provides consumers with a “fashion studio,” to try clothing on, order in store knowing the items will fit perfectly and pay as little as a third the cost of other boutique clothing shops.  This is accomplished through our partnerships with discount online retailers.

Meet the SmartPitch Finalists

June 5, 2012 Tagged With: ,

After three months of competition, the SmartPitch entrepreneurship competition is winding down, with the nine final teams set to present their businesses to a panel of judges tomorrow, June 6, 2012.  The final SmartPitch competition event will be held at 6pm on the 12th floor of the IBM building at 590 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.   Interested in attending?  RVSP here http://bit.ly/SmartPitchFinals2012.

During the SmartPitch final event, nine teams will have four minutes to present their business pitch deck to a panel of judges.  The top five teams will be awarded the SmartPitch Summer Incubator Program, which includes entrepreneurship bootcamp with Sunshine Bronx, mentorship with an IBM executive, office space at the Sunshine Bronx incubator and a stipend for their company.

Here are the finalists:

AstrologyMe: Baruch MBA Marketing and International Business candidate Shengnan Yang and Baruch MBA Marketing candidate Chukwunweike Chukwuma created AstrologyMe, a mobile app to help users better understand themselves and others through astrological charts and analysis. AstrologyMe aims to use astrology to help users make more meaningful connections with friends and possibly help them find a soul mate. The app also serves to build a community that provides a rich learning environment for those who are interested in astrology.

Boutique Express:  Matt Caruso (MBA Entrepreneurship and Information Systems) is the creator of Boutique Express, which provides consumers with a “fashion studio,” to try clothing on, order in store knowing the items will fit perfectly and pay as little as a third the cost of other boutique clothing shops.  This is accomplished through our partnerships with discount online retailers.

Dirt Works:  CUNY neuroscience graduate student Eathan Janney and Emily Osgood, an urban planning graduate student at NYU, are the creators of Dirt Works, an organization that seeks to facilitate urban composting by collecting and transporting food refuse, improving the sustainability and efficiency of cities.

CoMotion:  CoMotion, created by Baruch MBA (CIS and Marketing) William Doyle-Capitman, is a program that makes solo exercise fun by turning it into a team sport.  CoMotion allows users to create teams with their friends and use their favorite exercise tracking application to track progress as they undertake coordinated fitness missions.

Kalel Educational Software: CUNY Economics student Nicholas Gentile is the creator of Kalel Educational Software, a company dedicated toward maximizing consumer satisfaction through accessible pricing and simplified user interfaces.  The company’s first project is a course management website in which students and teachers can continue class discussion and communications outside the classroom.

Green4Web:  Information architecture and HCI Baruch student Lex Dreitser is the creator of green4web, a company that provides small businesses with sustainable web solutions.  Green4Web uses carbon neutral servers on 100% wind powered servers to help reduce companies’ carbon footprint, community based software and local labor.

Juice Me: Aminata Clason-Diop, an entrepreneurship student at Baruch, is the founder of mobile app Juice Me.  Juice Me is an innovative holistic health company that seeks to capitalize on two growing sectors: social networking and juicing. Juice Me consists of two platforms, an online community and a smartphone application that are integrated to help juicers in New York City network, find juice bars, exchange juice recipes, and live healthier lives.

The Lazy Place:  The Lazy Place, created by Eugene Tarasov, offers midday rest facilities, providing a comfortable, private and secure environment for personal rejuvenation. Tarasov is a Baruch entrepreneurship student.

U Bridge Me:  Queens College CUNY computer science student Hang Pan is the creator of UBridgeMe, a service that helps to bridge the communication gap between teachers and students by breaking down language barriers existing in our educational communities. With UBridgeMe teachers can relay translated messages which can then be accessed by phone or computer. Students will also have online access to study materials and language tools to better help them understand the content.

If you’re interested in attending tomorrow’s event, RVSP here http://bit.ly/SmartPitchFinals2012.

SmartPitch Finalists Announced

May 31, 2012 Tagged With: , ,

Next week the SmartPitch challenge comes to a close as nine student teams pitch their businesses and compete for the final prize – a summer full of start-up business support and mentorship.  Over 200 students entered the SmartPitch Challenge, an entrepreneurial pitch competition for students launched in February and sponsored by IBM, CUNY Institute for Virtual Enterprise, Sunshine Bronx and Baruch College.  Over the past three months the teams participated in a series of milestone and mentorship events designed to fine-tune their business plans and ready them for the final competition.  The SmartPitch finalists are:

AstrologyMe – By: Shengnan Yang
Boutique Express – By: Matt Caruso
Dirt Works – By: Eathan Janney
CoMotion – By: William Doyle-Capitman
Kalel Educational Software – By: Nicholas Gentile
Green4Web – By: Lex Dreitser
Juice Me – By: Aminata Clason- Diop
The Lazy Place – By: Eugene Tarasov
U Bridge Me – By: Hang Pan

The nine teams will have four minutes to present their business pitch deck to a panel of judges.  The top five teams will be awarded the SmartPitch Summer Incubator Program, which includes entrepreneurship bootcamp at the Sunshine Bronx summer home in Vermont, mentorship with an IBM executive, office space at the Sunshine Bronx incubator and a stipend for their company.

The final event will be held Wednesday June 6, 2012 at 6pm on the 12th floor of the IBM building at 590 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.   Interested in attending?  RVSP here http://bit.ly/SmartPitchFinals2012.

 

 

Inside the IBM SmartPitch Roundtable

May 10, 2012 Tagged With: ,
By Santiago Perez
Field Fellow

 

 

The IBM SmartPitch Roundtable event on May 1st covered a number of valuable topics regarding IBM’s work to support entrepreneurship that is in line with its Smarter Planet vision.  Karen Parris, the VP of Industry Solutions for IBM’s Software Group, presented the long term vision of IBM for every day objects becoming immanently embedded with technology that interconnect into a colorful web of data ranging from where crime hotspots are developing to where pipelines are at risk of leaking to when your potted plant needs watering, all giving rise to the possibility of intelligent redesign of city living.

Rolando Franco, IBM Executive IT Architect

Executive IT Architect Rolando Franco then outlined the resources that IBM makes available to students and entrepreneurs, including access to a wide gamut of software, technical support (full list here). Current Challengers and alumni of SmartPitch then discussed their experience at the Sustainable Operations Summit, a phenomenal international conference on integrating solutions to social and environmental problems into mainstream business normalcy. Student attendants where sponsored by IBM, allowing them remarkable access to high powered professionals in the field.

 

Participants at the IBM SmartPitch Roundtable