VCU Venture Creation Competition undergraduate winners Lindsay Hawk and Jake Greenbaum with VCU Vice President of Research Frank Macrina. Photos by Michael Thompson.
Some members of the black and gold got a little extra green last week.
Teams of entrepreneurial VCU students competed for funding for their business ideas as part of the school’s fourth annual Venture Creation Competition held April 15.
The students made their pitches to a panel of local businesspeople as they vied for the top prize of $4,000 and $3,000 worth of legal services from the law firm Cooley LLP. The competition was funded with $25,000 from the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources.
Nazgol Norouzi with VCU Vice President of Research Frank Macrina
Nazgol Norouzi took home top honors in the graduate division for N203, which developed Onion Chef, a device that peels and chops onions in a way that cuts down on time and the vegetable’s odor. Norouzi said she and her team have been working on the product for nearly a year and hope to license it to a company.
“I’ll probably put (the prize money) toward two 3D designs to get them into the hands of a manufacturer,” she said.
In the undergraduate division, Lindsay Hawk and Jake Greenbaum placed first with Urban Choice Mushrooms, a mushroom farming operation in Scott’s Addition.
“It was probably because of our passion,” Greenbaum said of the judges’ decision.
He said the prize money would go into operating the farm.
Picgift – an app that helps people buy gifts – took second place in the graduate division and got $3,000. Indie Lab RVA, a nonprofit science laboratory, also received $3,000 for second place in the undergraduate division.
The third-place winners were ViV Design Group in the undergraduate division and Dwelling in the graduate division. ViV hopes to make an asphalt alternative that would retain water and redirect storm water runoff. Dwelling raises awareness about tiny homes through an active website. They each received $2,000.
Four other teams received $1,000 each and are still in the idea stage: Makeup Mavens and Flick-it in the undergraduate category, and Check Up and Baby K’s from the graduate side.
Makeup Mavens is an app that matches popular makeup trends to people’s individual faces. Flick-it aims to solve programming issues with light sources. Check Up helps diabetics monitor their behavior using mobile technology. And Baby K’s makes single-serve cups of baby formula and a quick-cooling bottle system.
The 10 finalists were whittled down from a pool of 30 graduate student business proposals and 22 undergraduate proposals. The VCU da Vinci Center hosted the competition in Snead Hall at 301 W. Main St. A total of 147 graduate and undergraduate students participated, more than double the 86 participants last year.
This year’s judges were:
Craig Corrieri, Morton Consulting
Mark Morton, Morton Consulting
William Daughtery, Dominion Resources Center
David Gallagher, Dominion Payroll Services
Graham Henshaw, New Richmond Ventures
Christian Idiodi, Snagajob
Darrell Jervey, Worth Products Group
Dick Menendez, Anapse Resources
John Mills, Cooley LLP
Tom Powell, Wells Fargo
Scott Tolleson, Newport Board
Eric Whittleton, Rigaud Consulting
Saba Zafari, Health Diagnostic Laboratory
VCU Venture Creation Competition undergraduate winners Lindsay Hawk and Jake Greenbaum with VCU Vice President of Research Frank Macrina. Photos by Michael Thompson.
Some members of the black and gold got a little extra green last week.
Teams of entrepreneurial VCU students competed for funding for their business ideas as part of the school’s fourth annual Venture Creation Competition held April 15.
The students made their pitches to a panel of local businesspeople as they vied for the top prize of $4,000 and $3,000 worth of legal services from the law firm Cooley LLP. The competition was funded with $25,000 from the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources.
Nazgol Norouzi with VCU Vice President of Research Frank Macrina
Nazgol Norouzi took home top honors in the graduate division for N203, which developed Onion Chef, a device that peels and chops onions in a way that cuts down on time and the vegetable’s odor. Norouzi said she and her team have been working on the product for nearly a year and hope to license it to a company.
“I’ll probably put (the prize money) toward two 3D designs to get them into the hands of a manufacturer,” she said.
In the undergraduate division, Lindsay Hawk and Jake Greenbaum placed first with Urban Choice Mushrooms, a mushroom farming operation in Scott’s Addition.
“It was probably because of our passion,” Greenbaum said of the judges’ decision.
He said the prize money would go into operating the farm.
Picgift – an app that helps people buy gifts – took second place in the graduate division and got $3,000. Indie Lab RVA, a nonprofit science laboratory, also received $3,000 for second place in the undergraduate division.
The third-place winners were ViV Design Group in the undergraduate division and Dwelling in the graduate division. ViV hopes to make an asphalt alternative that would retain water and redirect storm water runoff. Dwelling raises awareness about tiny homes through an active website. They each received $2,000.
Four other teams received $1,000 each and are still in the idea stage: Makeup Mavens and Flick-it in the undergraduate category, and Check Up and Baby K’s from the graduate side.
Makeup Mavens is an app that matches popular makeup trends to people’s individual faces. Flick-it aims to solve programming issues with light sources. Check Up helps diabetics monitor their behavior using mobile technology. And Baby K’s makes single-serve cups of baby formula and a quick-cooling bottle system.
The 10 finalists were whittled down from a pool of 30 graduate student business proposals and 22 undergraduate proposals. The VCU da Vinci Center hosted the competition in Snead Hall at 301 W. Main St. A total of 147 graduate and undergraduate students participated, more than double the 86 participants last year.
This year’s judges were:
Craig Corrieri, Morton Consulting
Mark Morton, Morton Consulting
William Daughtery, Dominion Resources Center
David Gallagher, Dominion Payroll Services
Graham Henshaw, New Richmond Ventures
Christian Idiodi, Snagajob
Darrell Jervey, Worth Products Group
Dick Menendez, Anapse Resources
John Mills, Cooley LLP
Tom Powell, Wells Fargo
Scott Tolleson, Newport Board
Eric Whittleton, Rigaud Consulting
Saba Zafari, Health Diagnostic Laboratory