2019 Gustie Entrepreneur CupHighlights
First place - $5,000 and an automatic advancement to the semi-finals of the Minnesota Cup went to Alijah Nelson '19 for D-Up.
Second place - $3,000 went to Arthur Parens ‘19, Brandon Pogue ‘20, and Joe Siebels ‘20 for HeartWatch.
Third place - $2,000 went to John Campisi ‘21, Weston Lombard ‘21, and Christian Johnson ‘21 for School Shark.
Briana Hartmann '19 was drawn as the lucky winner of the $300 after there were no correct predicted winners.
TwigIt Jake Krull, Brady Miller, Spencer Tollefson, Benjamin Rengel
Minnesota, “The State of Hockey,” is rich with hockey players of all ages and hockey enthusiasts. Tens of thousands of kids play hockey in Minnesota, a large majority of whom use non-recyclable carbon fiber hockey sticks, which break at a relatively high rate during the intense game of hockey. Our plan at TwigIt is to manufacture unique furniture and other practical household products such as tables, BBQ sets, picture frames, cutting boards, and more with these broken “twigs,” while providing an environmentally friendly and convenient solution to the excess of broken hockey sticks in Minnesota.
School Shark Weston Lombard, John Campisi, Christian Johnson
School Shark, LLC is a peer-to-peer sales platform that allows college students to buy and sells textbooks amongst each other on campus, as well as across different campuses. What School Shark offers is the opportunity for students to escape the cycle of overpaying for textbooks with little to no resale value. The financial burden that textbooks are on college students is alive and well today, with no plan of resolving the issue in sight. School Shark aims to bring our solution to the college student and allow them to escape the cycle that the textbook industry has created.
The Thinking Tank Jacob Lamb, Eli Grabanski, Amber Lange
Our idea is a language arts-based supplemental learning center called The Thinking Tank available for all students. Many students lose interest in language arts at a young age, resulting in students having poor reading, writing, and oral communication skills. This problem carries over to the professional world, with employers spending $3.1 billion annually on remedial writing training. This resource would help students maintain interest and build subject competency by forming an individualized curriculum for each student/group. We provide tutors and workshops for students in both individual and group learning settings, with monthly cost depending on the frequency of sessions attended.
Campus Cab Lilly Hartman, Alexandra Anderson, Briana Hartmann, Kendall Thompson, Tierney Winter
Gustavus uses an outdated and inefficient system for its Safe Rides program. Integrating Gustavus log-in profiles and GPS location services to create an app interface for students to request Safe Rides will create a safer, more efficient and modern platform that will serve to better benefit students and save the College time and money. This system can be scaled to other campuses that would purchase the software and then integrate their own student network log-ins. Once the software is proven, it can be scaled to larger campuses and smaller to personal carpool networks and ride shares.
D-Up Alijah Nelson
D-Up is basketball’s first mobile robotic defender. Its key feature is the autonomous player tracking ability that allows it to follow player movement or, in other words, play defense. The defender offers more realistic basketball training than stationary objects like cones and chairs. D-Up solves the problem of one-on-one solo basketball training. With the push of a button, you play a game of basketball with a robot.
Heart Watch Brandon Pogue, Arthur Parens, Joe Siebels
For a one-time payment, we have an app that allows the notifications received from smartwatches to be directed to numerous other people when an irregular heartbeat is detected. This would be used to provide faster care if someone were to have a heart attack or similar health issues. In doing this it would allow for those people to reach out to the wearer to ensure they are okay, and—if needed—call emergency services to help them. This is marketed toward those with heart issues as well as their family.
Hygenre Owen Fredrick, Theresa Easley
We are Hygenre, a small subscription-based hygiene company. We provide our customers with quality, name-brand hygiene products at an affordable, monthly subscription price. Our service allows customers to choose the hygiene products they would like delivered to their homes on a customizable, monthly basis. We offer a variety of name-brand products on our website which are cheaper than many retail stores. Our customers are busy college students, parents of college students, and young adults. As a company, Hygenre has a unique position in the hygiene market to sell subscription boxes with flexibility and efficiency to our customers.