17 area teams were awarded more than $350,000 in cash and in-kind prizes at the 2019 McCloskey New Venture Competition on Friday, April 12.
Resonado and Vital View Technologies split the $50,000 McCloskey Grand Prize, which is awarded to teams founded by Notre Dame students or alumni. Frost Control Systems and Game Changer split the $50,000 Startup South Bend-Elkhart/Elevate Ventures Grand Prize, which is awarded to the top community based teams.
Altogether, $209,500 was awarded as cash and $160,000 was given as in-kind prizes such as banking, tax, legal and intellectual property support.
Teams presented before a panel of nationally-known judges and 600 attendees in the Dahnke Ballroom at the University of Notre Dame stadium. Charles Adler, co-founder of Kickstarter; Rick Smith, co-founder and managing director of CrossCut Ventures; Matt Strottman, alumnus, COO of In-Q-Tel; Paul English, CTO of Lola.com and co-founder of Kayak, GetHuman and Boston Light; Courtney Kingston, founder of Kingston Family Vineyards; John Tabis, alumnus, founder and CEO of The Bouqs Company and Tim Connors, alumnus, founder of PivotNorth Capital served as this year’s final round judges.
The McCloskey competition began in 2001 with $30,000 in awards and 70 teams. Now in its nineteenth year, the competition gave out more than $350,000 in prize money and attracted a record 175 teams in 2019.
Teams from the South Bend-Elkhart community could also compete for prizes, with more than $100,000 being available to them.
“We were very pleased with how McCloskey went this year,” said Karen Slaggert, director of the McCloskey competition and director of student entrepreneurship at the IDEA Center. “Each year the quality of the pitches at McCloskey increase and this year was no exception. The teams did a fantastic job during their presentations and the panelists were very engaged with them throughout.”
Following is a listing of the awardees; descriptions appear below.
| Award | Description | Recipient 1 | Recipient 2 | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McCloskey Grand Prize (tie) | $50,000 cash award (tie = $25,000 awarded to two teams) | Resonado ($25K) | Vital View Technologies ($25K) | $50,000 |
| Startup South Bend-Elkhart/Elevate Ventures Grand Prize (tie) | $50,000 cash award (tie = $25,000 awarded to two teams) | Frost Control Systems ($25K) | Game Changer ($25K) | $50,000 |
| Marshall County Prize for Greatest Social Impact | Total of $25,000 awarded to teams demonstrating greatest social impact | Vital View Technologies | $25,000 | |
| IrishAngels Award | Opportunity to present to the IrishAngels; estimated value $25- $250K | GameChanger | Frost Control Systems | $25,000 |
| Schurz Communications | $20,000 cash award | Otter Therapies | $20,000 | |
| IOIPay Best Woman Owned Startup | $10,000 cash award for best woman owned business | Dermadiagnostics | $10,000 | |
| Elevate Ventures Pitch Award | Opportunity to pitch to Elevate Ventures’ Community Ideation Board | Viewtique | $20,000 | |
| Kem Krest/South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership Minority Owned Startup Award | $10,000 cash award for best minority owned venture | Tembo AI | $10,000 | |
| Lavrock Best Graduate Venture | $10,000 cash award for best graduate venture | The Ugly Company | $10,000 | |
| Equifund Best Undergraduate Venture | $10,000 cash award for best undergraduate venture | Xstudia | $10,000 | |
| RSM US, LLP Prize for Accounting, tax and related services | $10,000 in in-kind accounting, tax, and/or consultative business services | Frost Control Systems | $10,000 | |
| Research Like a Champion Award | $12,000 cash award for best innovation in cancer research | YeSSGenomics | $12,000 | |
| First State Bank Business Banking Award | $3,000 cash; up to $2,000 in banking services | Royal Flush | $5,000 | |
| Sutherland Family Award for Best Presentation | $5,000 cash award | Resonado | $5,000 | |
| Michael Best & Friedrich LLP IP Prize | 1 prior art search, best biotech invention | YeSSGenomics | $3,000 | |
| Palo Alto Software Award – Best Written Undergraduate Plan | $1,500 cash award | Resonado | $1,500 | |
| Palo Alto Software Award – Best Written Graduate Plan | $1,500 cash award | Tembo AI | $1,500 | |
| Startup Showcase 1st Place | $1,000 cash award for first place, “Best Venture at Startup Showcase” (audience voted) | The Ugly Company | $1,000 | |
| Startup Showcase 2nd Place | $500 cash award for second place, “Best Venture at Startup Showcase” (audience voted) | Puente | $500 | |
| Plug and Play Tech Center Camp Awards | $50,000 in in-kind services plus $25K investment (offered to 3 teams) | Dermadiagnostics | YeSSGenomics | $100,000 |
| HAX Accelerator Award* | Consultation session plus first round interview for investment consideration for top hardware startups* | * | * |
*HAX Accelerator Award: Accelerate Analytics, DeLIve, Dermadiagnostics, Frost Control Systems, Greener Globe, Output Sports and Vital View Technologies
Summaries of Teams That Won Awards
Accelerate Analytics
Team Leader: Ralph Moran BS 2020
Contact e-mail: rmoran1@nd.edu
Team Members: Tyler Uher BBA 2019, Anthony Razzano BS 2020, Bethany Boggess BBA 2019, Richard Stefanik BS 2020
Accelerate Analytics pivoted and is now called Owl. Owl is an in-home companion camera designed to assist those elderly who wish to age independently in their later years. It is designed to be discreetly ceiling-mounted, much like a smoke alarm, and will house our own computer vision technology, tailored specifically to the task of human fall detection. The value for our customer is two-fold: we provide immediate contact to emergency services in the event of a fall, and we also provide peace of mind.
DeLive
Team Leader: Nathaniel Hanson BS 2019
Contact Email: nhanson@nd.edu
Team Members: Patrick Fine BBA 2019, Zachary Kousens BS 2019, Quinn Foley BS 2019
DeLive is an encompassing solution for critical medical supply delivery. Our product integrates with a 911 emergency management to send patients urgent medical devices, such as a defibrillator. Our system receives requests, locates the nearest supply UAV, schedules a dispatch, plans appropriate flight routes, and safely deploys the required medical supplies to the site of the emergency. DeLive develops our software and hardware in-house with a passionate team who care about leveraging technology for good. We are “Lifesaving Technology, DeLivered.”
Dermadiagnostics
Team Leader: Eydis Lima ESTEEM 2018
Contact Email: elima1@alumni.nd.edu
Team Members: Christopher de Haydu, Junchi Lu PhD 2020, Tianyuan Cao PhD 2020, Colin Black MBA 2020, Katie Adlaka BS 2019, Audrey Shannon SMC 2019
Dermadiagnostics’ mission is to provide customers with a noninvasive platform for detection of gynecologic malignancies such as cervical cancer. Our product, diapatch – a patch for early detection allows physicians and healthcare professionals to test in a noninvasive, sensitive way. And delivers same-day analysis, with simple patient-centered results.
Frost Control Systems, LLC
Team Leader: Bradley Tener BS 2017
Contact Email: btener@frostcontrolsys.com
Team Members: Emma Gettinger BBA 2019
FCS manufactures and installs road weather systems to keep our roads safe. Following the Flint Lead Drinking Water Crisis, road salting/deicing has faced major criticism due to the environmental impact and cost. We install the equipment that allows cities to reduce usage safely in warmer areas of the city, increase/maintain usage in colder areas, and preemptively deal with weather hazards at high priority locations such as hospitals, schools, hills, and bridges. We’re currently have contracts spread across three states and are expanding operations in 2019.
GameChanger
Team Leader: Dave Jaeckel
Contact Email: dave@sengoproducts.com
Team Members: Hannah Dopico BBA 2021, Kalule Guwatudde BBA 2020, AJ Baker BS 2022, Tommy Hartle BS 2021, Danny Malloy BBA 2022, Joe Hirshorn BBA 2021
Sengo, LLC’s GameChanger™ product line offers eco-friendly solutions for the sporting and entertainment industry. Our first product, the GameChanger™ Tray is an innovative combined food and drink carrier that stores in venue cup holders. The patent-pending tray is made from 100% sustainable plant fibers, compostable in 90 days, and is positioned ahead of the global market transition towards single-use green products. The tray is a triple win: it increases concession and ad revenue sales, reduces plastic disposal costs and environmental impact, and improves the fan experience.
Greener Globe
Team Leader: Daragh Fogarty ESTEEM 2019
Contact Email: dfogart1@nd.edu
Team Members: Jack Dooley , Cian Fogarty, Ross Cooke ESTEEM 2019
Greener Globe began as a school project and expanded into a growing, world-wide company focused on creating innovative devices to aid with water conservation, both in the home and in the hospitality industry. Our flagship products is Aquacica, a kinetically-powered shower head which changes the colour of the water according to a timer system, alerting the user to the length of their shower, and promoting water conservation. We are also currently developing Nera, an ‘Internet of Things’ integrated shower head, to provide real time data and water management for hotels.
Otter Therapies
Team Leader: Colton Karch ESTEEM 2019
Contact Email: jkarch@nd.edu
Team Members: Tony Molinaro ESTEEM 2019, Patrick Obrochta ESTEEM 2019, Reed Spivey ESTEEM 2019, Emily Link Carrillo ESTEEM 2019, Christopher Hume ESTEEM 2019, Brian Scott ESTEEM 2019
Otter Therapies is focused on bringing innovative at home occupational therapy solutions to parents of special needs children. Every parent has to juggle a lot when raising a child; throw occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and other medical needs into the mix, and life becomes hectic. Occupational therapy should be easy and fun for mommy/daddy and their child. After all, it’s about teaching a child their daily activities: eating, playing, and learning. Parents want to do what is best for their children, Otter Therapies enables them to do that.
Output Sports
Team Leader: David Gormley ESTEEM 2019
Contact Email: dgormley@nd.edu
Team Members: Peadar Timmins ESTEEM 2019, Jae Wook Yoo MBA 2020, Erica Steigauf BBA 2021, Amy Chen JD 2020, Clare Gaylord, McKenna Knapp BBA 2022
Output Sports is an end-to-end solution for athletic performance analysis and enhancement to radically change the way this performance is optimized. Using our own developed data analytics platform and algorithms, our vision is to shrink pro-sports analytics into wearables that will be brought to the masses. Our scientifically-validated wearable system is an I.P. protected venture with 5+ years of research underpinning it. We currently have deployed the technology across multiple renowned sports sites such as Leinster Rugby, Welsh Rugby Union, FAI and Bath Rugby.
Puente
Team Leader: Paul Anthony BBA 2015
Contact Email: paul@puente-dr.com
Team Members: Scott Coppa BA 2015, Hope Tambala, Michael Conroy BA 2019, Takunda Ushe BBA 2020
Puente Desarrollo Internacional (“Puente”) is a nonprofit organization using proprietary technology to power sustainable development initiatives in underserved communities. Our mobile data collection platform helps partner organizations and volunteers visually map a community’s most critical challenges and resources to illuminate pathways for efficient, lasting growth. By enhancing availability of actionable data in underserved communities, we help leaders at local and international levels to identify, prioritize unmet needs more efficiently.
Resonado
Team Leader: Brian Cho BBA 2019
Contact Email: bcho@resonado.com
Team Members: Erikc Perez-Perez BBA 2019, Christian Femrite BS 2019, Peter Moeckel BBA 2020
Resonado is an audio hardware startup specializing in the patented speaker technology which has the ability to replace all existing speakers in the world. Some of its key advantages include: 70% reduction in size/weight, 40% increased efficiency in energy, 30% reduction in cost, superior sound quality, design flexibility, scalability, better heat dissipation, etc. Resonado provides customized audio solutions to its B2B clients and currently has a total of 21 prospective clients in multiple industries including but not limited to Automotive, Home Audio, Consumer Electronics, etc.
Royal Flush
Team Leader: Jennifer Scher MBA 2019
Contact Email: jennscher@gmail.com
Team Members: Connor Curry BA 2020, Tianyuan Cao PhD 2020, John Bailey BS 2021, Soraya Hernandez BS 1997
Royal Flush is a higher end and cleaner alternative to the regular portable restroom choices. Royal Flush will provide a pay for premium bathroom experience that uses a self-cleaning mechanism while also utilizing an app that not only will direct you where to find Royal Flush, but also allows you to reserve a time so you don’t have to wait in line.
Tembo AI
Team Leader: Anand Shah ESTEEM 2019
Contact Email: ashah1@nd.edu
Team Members: Tristan Cates ESTEEM 2019, Dan Kervick ESTEEM 2019, Chris Beaufils ESTEEM 2019, Jeevith Senaratne BBA 2019
At Tembo AI, machine learning to detects, in real-time, anomalous and suspicious pedestrian activity for law enforcement, intelligence, and private security applications. We build customized software solutions for each use case – stadiums and large game-day events, corporate headquarter buildings, active shooter situations in schools, and for crime monitoring in cities and downtown areas. This allows increased police and security response time to both individual crimes such as thefts, homicides, and assaults as well as to large terror attacks.
The Ugly Company
Team Leader: Ben Moore MBA 2020
Contact Email: bmoore22@nd.edu
Team Members: Dan McGue MBA 2020, Rebecca Stella, Karl Burns MBA 2020, Dan Weissenhofer BA 2020, Nishtha Kaushik MBA 2020, Kyle Devlin MBA 2020
The Ugly Company will profitably reduce food waste at the production level by creating new markets for produce that does not meet fresh market visual standards and is currently treated as waste. Ugly products will fulfill consumer’s desire to eat healthier and reduce food waste. Approximately 30% of all fresh produce is culled — The Ugly Company will help make farms more sustainable and profitable by creating new CPG markets for “Ugly” produce and by siphoning market share from unhealthy products.
Viewtique
Team Leader: Michael Cali
Contact Email: Mike@ShopViewtique.com
Team Members: Christopher Cali BS 2014, Camille Zyniewicz BA 2019
The modern shopper prefers to digitally discover and shop products. Local boutique retailers — representing a $21B industry in the US — lack the technology to be digitally accessed by their local shoppers and are therefore overlooked. Viewtique is an online marketplace that aggregates the shopper’s local boutiques products and services on one website. Viewtique equips the boutique owners with bespoke technology so that they can deliver their competitive value propositions digitally. After spending almost a decade in corporate retail, Michael Cali has developed a beta prototype to address the key needs of physical retailers and shoppers. Starting with local fashion boutiques in the South Bend-Elkhart, Viewtique helps drive traffic and sales with an experience that is 1) digital, 2) convenient, and 3) personalized.
Vital View Technologies
Team Leader: Christopher Cali BS 2014
Contact Email: ccali@nd.edu
Team Members: Shane Earley ESTEEM 2019
Vital View Technologies (VVT) aims to create healthcare solutions for the large and growing population with chronic health conditions starting with the most common and expensive heart condition, congestive heart failure (CHF). Home monitoring solutions are necessary to detect and manage CHF, but current solutions are cumbersome and not real-time resulting in poor quality of data, poor patient outcomes, and expensive hospital readmissions. VVT is building a real-time, non-contact CHF monitor that will result in higher quality data. VVT will deliver critical data to physicians, peace of mind to CHF patients, and reduce costs for hospital systems and insurers.
Xstudia
Team Leader: Mitchell Kokko BBA 2019
Contact Email: mkokko@nd.edu
Team Members: Brock Gallagher BBA 2020
Xstudia is leveraging digital technology to disrupt the storage industry, with a platform that connects students at University campuses across the country looking to store their dorm room items over the summer with fellow students on campus who are looking to make extra money helping fellow students move out of their dorm room. With several successful years operating out of the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s and over $60,000 in revenue, Xstudia has successfully raised growth capital and is now expanding nationally.
YeSSGenomics
Team Leader: Kate Beriont ESTEEM 2019
Contact Email: kberiont@nd.edu
Team Members: Steven Buechler, Christopher Cali BS 2014, Tristan Cates ESTEEM 2019
YeSSGenomics develops precision diagnostic and prognostic tests to help take the uncertainty out of treatment decisions in colorectal cancer (CRC). Its first test, ColotypeR™, will help medical oncologists determine the right treatment plan for an individual patient by accurately predicting its molecular subtype and determining how the patient will likely respond to various therapeutic agents. If successful, YeSSGenomics expects to bring to market the first diagnostic assay of its kind. CRC is the second deadliest cancer worldwide – YeSSGenomics exists to address this problem.
Originally published by at ideacenter.nd.edu on April 16, 2019.