A mobile app that lets you rate your restaurant experience and allows restaurant owners to access that information. A type of blanket for your bed that wraps around the mattress and won’t fall off. A website that lets you shop around for different study abroad services and pairs you with a professional to help you through the process.
These ideas, along with many others, were presented Tuesday night at The Proving Ground, USC’s entrepreneurial challenge that awards students with the best ideas for products or companies. Eight different teams of students competed for money and other benefits, judged by a panel of six business professionals.
Among those teams were the students representing Grumble, a mobile app that gives restaurant owners the ability to track customer satisfaction by hour and day. The app was presented by four students, but many other “Grumble Ambassadors” were in attendance at the event in matching orange logo T-shirts.
When asked by a judge if the name of the app carries a negative connotation, the team pointed to their panda logo and said even if it does, the panda surely doesn’t.
Yousef Ibreak, a third-year finance and economics student, also assured judges that the app would be launched soon.
“I guarantee that we will have this app in the market within one year,” Ibreak said.
Grumble’s competition in the SCRA Technology division was SAGE Energy Solutions, described as a “clean energy venture using fuel reformer technology and catalytic materials to convert transportation and fuels into liquefied petroleum gas on demand.”
Kai Mayeda and Sungtak Kim, both chemical engineering graduate students, explained the concept in terms easier to understand, saying they created a “fairy dust” that converts regular fuel into propane. With those chemicals and a “dorm-room refrigerator sized” converter machine, military personnel would be able to have propane on the go. After the presentation, one judge asked, “I’m sorry, what does the box do again?”
SAGE Energy Solutions ultimately won their division of the competition and were awarded $15,000 to put towards developing their idea further.
The Fluor Innovation division also saw heavy competition between a foreign language and law training service and a product that allows you to avoid making your bed.
The first competitor, Legal Immersion, was presented by Dustin Griner, a fourth-year international MBA and law school student. Griner began his presentation by saying, “This will revolutionize the education industry.”
After working with Guilherme, a Brazilian attorney, Griner said that he realized there was a need in the Brazilian market for English language and law education. He said he believes Legal Immersion fills that need in the market by connecting Brazilian attorneys with American attorneys who will teach them. Griner said those American attorneys would teach for free in exchange for the opportunity to reach out to international clients.
Legal Immersion ultimately lost the $15,000 prize to ZzzSock, described as “an innovative bedding product that eliminates the everyday hassle of making your bed.” ZzzSock was presented by Jeff Blethen, a first-year international business and finance student.
“By a show of hands, how many of you enjoy making your bed?” asked Blethen. After no one in the audience raised their hand, he said, “I thought so.”
Blethen described his product as “a Snuggie for your bed;” it slips over and covers the mattress and zips closed. After being asked about potential competitors in the market, Blethen said he would like to obtain design and provisional patents for his product. He would also market ZzzSock to a specific market and wants to obtain university and Greek licensing for logo use.
“My target demographics are children, college students and young professionals,” said Blethen. “Basically people who are lazy and like to sleep.”
The Maxient Social Impact division also pitted two competitors against one another for $15,000.
ReligionShare, a way for users of specific religions to connect with each other on social media, beat out Greenfarm, a sustainable land management credit venture that uses crowd funding and sponsorship to conserve land.
The final competition was for Fan Favorite. Two teams that didn’t make it into the other divisions but were the most popular were given the chance to compete for $1,000, with the audience’s cheering determining the winner.
BattleFit, a mobile fitness app that encourages users to compete against each other, lost out to SaleAbroad, an online concierge service for students interested in studying abroad. Andrew Kovtun, a third-year international business and economics student, said he hoped to fully launch SaleAbroad by August of next year.
Dean Kress, founder of USC’s Proving Ground and an entrepreneurship instructor, said the competition encourages and nurtures the innovative entrepreneurial spirit at Carolina.
“Some people say you can’t teach entrepreneurship, but I say you can sure as hell encourage it, and that’s what we’re doing here,” Kress said.