Four teams will advance to the Showcase in April to compete in front of a panel of investors for seed money. Teams include an inspirational clothing line, electric motorbike, business card app, and soil sampling robotic rover.
Each fall, students interested in participating in the StartUp Showcase, Fairfield's annual shark tank-style entrepreneurship competition, take part in several workshops and events designed to help them develop their business ideas. Events include the Elevator Pitch Contest and the Business Model Workshop where students form teams, recruit mentors, and further develop their business plans.
After participating in StartUp events during the fall semester, and going through the qualifier round in December, the teams with the best pitches advance to the Showcase in April where they’ll compete live in front of a live audience and investor panel of alumni and local business professionals for seed money to start their businesses.
This year the Dolan School is pleased to announce the following 2018 StartUp Showcase teams:
Belle’s Community is an inspirational clothing line that aims to build a community to empower female adolescents. Belle’s Community is a B Corporation, a for-profit business dedicated to social issues.
EZ E-Bikes is a transportation company designed to alleviate the stress of finding and maintaining transportation for college students through assistive electric motorbikes, which are also pedal operated and can collapse for easy storage.
FlyCard aims to replace paper business cards with an app that will allow people to share their business cards digitally from their mobile devices.
Land Maverick is a robotic rover designed to conduct small-scale, accurate, and fast soil sampling for the agricultural industry.
This year two alternate teams who pitched in the qualifier round will join the Showcase teams over the next few months to further develop their business plans during weekly workshops. The two companies are Alpine , a grocery shopping app, and Bliss , a company that aims to help hospital patients manage pain through technology. In the workshops, students will learn all aspects of further refining their business plans and will hear from relevant guest speakers. New this year, Brian Harniman ’94, co-founder and managing director of Brand New Matter, who has over 18 years of online commerce experience driving traffic and transactions to websites, will serve as a StartUp coach for the teams through weekly one-on-one meetings via Skype.
Don’t miss the action live at the Showcase when teams pitch for seed money in front of a live audience at the seventh annual Fairfield StartUp Showcase on April 26, 2018 at the Quick Center. Register to reserve your seat.
Can't make the Showcase? You can catch the action live on Facebook.
For more information about entrepreneurship opportunities at Fairfield visit fairfield.edu/entrepreneurship .
