Young Entrepreneurs Set to Compete in 2022 SEC Student Pitch Competition

March 28, 2022

Libby Martin from the University of Missouri presents during the 2019 competition at Auburn University.

By: SEC Staff
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Student entrepreneurs will deliver their best presentations to a panel of regional judges in the upcoming SEC Student Pitch Competition, being hosted April 3-4 at the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business.

The sixth competition will feature teams with products that range from video gaming to medical devices to pet care to environmentally conscious companies. It will include two preliminary rounds and one final round featuring the top three teams from the prelims.

Established in 2015, the SEC Student Pitch Competition provides teams of SEC students at the undergraduate or graduate level a platform to showcase their ideas for ground-breaking products and services to a panel of judges – including SEC alumni – who work primarily in the business sector.

A summary of competing teams and their products follows.

University of Alabama — Dalton Morris and Hunter Cejka

Reboot Reforestation is committed to restoring and monitoring natural habitats across the Southeastern and Western United States. With innovative drone technology and seedball formulas, Reboot Reforestation has restored longleaf pine, grassland and cover crops, providing services to private landowners, conservation organizations and land trusts.

University of Arkansas — Jessica Kolde, Ontario West, Tom Pears and Vlad Shostak

Tribal+ is a digital streaming and interactive sports media platform that operates in a two-sided marketplace focusing on the end-user (i.e., subscribers) and the customer (i.e., universities). The model is a 50:50 operating profit share with universities in financial need while engaging students and alumni of underrepresented athletics programs.

Auburn University — Jesse Stewart, Brooke Hopton-Jones and Sydney Pham

Virgo by 2153 is a plugin that lets users earn real money playing their favorite video games. Developers can integrate Virgo into their games with just a few lines of code. The product helps creators boost their revenue, increase player satisfaction and gain valuable, data-driven insights into players’ in-game spending habits.

University of Florida — Mohit Patil and Parth Shah

Abilitare empowers the disabled community with hands-free access to computers and phones. The Abili head mouse is a head-wearable sensor that allows the user to control a computer mouse cursor using head motions instead of hands – suitable for all computers and smartphones.

University of Georgia — Spencer Parker

Micro Hydro designs and builds residential scale hydropower solutions that economically convert homes on active waterways to renewable electricity.

Louisiana State University — Emmaline Miller

Split Culture enables science to work smarter to answer critical, biological cellular communication questions. This superior patent-pending technology, developed at Louisiana State University, achieves 10 times the results, at the current market price.

University of Mississippi — Brea Givens

Froomie is an end-to-end student housing platform that enables college students to find roommates and lease off-campus rental properties. Froomie’s creators understand the pain points of both students and property managers and set out to revolutionize the renting and co-living experiences.

Mississippi State University — Timothy Wunrow

Untriggered is a podcast streaming service that uses artificial intelligence to identify and filter “trigger sounds” in podcasts, helping individuals cope with Misophonia disorder. Untriggered has a neural network built and is collecting training data for a spring beta launch.

University of Missouri — Jack Murray

Murray Kennel Company is redefining the traditional dog crate with an innovative space-saving design. It is the first of its kind and will revolutionize urban living with pets.

University of South Carolina — Stephan Voelk, Max Wile and Parth Vashi

Spuradix is a carbohydrate and menthol oral rinse that activates the brain circuits responsible for helping individuals feel more energetic and less fatigued. The company’s mission is to help athletes worldwide fulfill their potential and exceed personal expectations.

Texas A&M University — Jeswin Vennatt and T.J. Falohun

Olera, Inc., is designed to help with the sometimes-overwhelming responsibilities of caring for an elderly family member. To address the growing problem of finding trustworthy nursing homes, in-home caregivers or elder law attorneys, Olera, Inc., has created a mobile app that matches family members with quality professionals.

Vanderbilt University — Max Mona and Adam Jace

ESG Impact is a business-to-business, software as a service (SaaS) web application that assesses, educates and integrates environmental, social and governance best practices in private markets – both generally and in the industry. Mainly, ESG Impact works with private equity and venture capital funds to track their ESG portfolios’ performance.

The SEC Student Pitch Competition was first held in conjunction with the SEC Symposium in 2015 and Texas A&M University took home first place. Other competition winners include the University of Arkansas in 2017 and 2018 and Mississippi State University in 2019. The 2020 competition was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Auburn University won first place.