Announcing the Student Ventures to Compete at Pitch Dingman Competition 2023 Finals

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is excited to host Pitch Dingman Competition 2023 Finals in one week. On April 18 at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center, ten finalist teams will be pitching their businesses for a chance to win a piece of over $100,000 in prize money.

These ten teams were selected from a pool of over 100 student applications and 65 venture applications. They have been narrowed down through two competition rounds by a panel of expert judges. All finalists have been participating in workshops and advising sessions throughout the past weeks to help strengthen their business pitch.

Congratulations to the following teams from each of our four tracks who will be advancing to the final round of the competition:

The Main Street Track is for small businesses with revenue ($1,000 minimum) and initial customers, but not focused on scale. From the Main Street Track, the teams who will be pitching at the finals round are as follows:

1. Around the Block – Gabrielle McLaughlin ’23 (Finance and Business Management), Joelle Anselmo ’23 (Journalism and Business Management)
   Around the Block is an apparel company that invokes nostalgia and camaraderie in the university community through our one-of-a-kind designs. The company prioritizes sustainable processes and philanthropic initiatives.
2. NotUrAverage Candles – Courtney Johnson PhD ’23 (Bioengineering)
   NotUrAverage Candles is a coconut wax candle company that illuminates the world of science through fragrance.
3. Room 242 – Kang Ewimbi ’24 (Entertainment Industry)
   Room 242 is an independent artist services company designed for college musicians. From living space and record label services to intuitive artist data and events, Room 242 provides not only a pathway to the career every new artist wants but the creative community every artist needs.

The David and Robyn Quattrone Tech Track is targeted to students with scalable, tech or tech-enabled ventures that already have traction (revenue, users, investment and/or grants, customer interviews, etc.) but no minimum revenue is required. From the Quattrone Tech Track, the teams who will be pitching at the finals round are as follows:

1. Lingo AI – Pranav Shikarpur ’23 (Mathematics and Computer Science), Ian Costello ’22 (Finance and Computer Science)
   Lingo AI is an AI-powered multilingual content tool designed to help content creators launch language-specific channels with no extra work/cost to the creator. This helps content creators reach untapped global audiences on platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, and Tiktok.
2. Sustainabli – Kevin Tu ’23 (Physiology and Neurobiology and B.S. Economics), Telon Yan ’23 (Mechanical Engineering), Oliver D'Esposito '26 (Computer Science)
   Sustainabli provides avenues for research institutions to reach sustainability goals by making labs greener.
3. WISE Cities – Marie Brodsky ’24 (Mathematics), Katherine-Aria Close ’23 (Graphic Design & Environmental Science)
   WISE Cities is a women-run startup creating accessible technology for seniors experiencing social isolation to connect with their communities. The platform allows seniors to easily discover local groups and resources and gives community centers, city departments, and businesses the opportunity to share their services with this typically hard-to-reach audience.

The Idea Track is an idea-style challenge for students who do not yet have a developed venture. Students must have started their venture after June 1, 2022, to be eligible and cannot have made more than $1,000 in lifetime revenue. From the Idea Track, the following finalists have already pitched their businesses as part of the round two event and the winners will be announced live at Pitch Dingman Competition 2023 Finals:

1. Kaalmi – Matthew Foulk ’23, Paige Alban ’24
   Kaalmi creates a tangible solution to help those struggling with anxiety and panic disorder by helping them reconnect with their five senses.
2. Spray – Connor Hartzog ’23, Mari Ortega ’24, Jason Fotso-Puepi ’23, Ajitesh Kaladi ’25
   Spray is an augmented reality (AR) street art application that allows people, such as artists and creatives, to compose murals on real-world physical surfaces. Spray will provide users the tools to beautify their world through immersive art.
3. Stylversity – Seun Sule ’23, Ezi Nwodim ’23
   Stylversity is an app that serves to bridge the gap for college students seeking beauty services on campus in order to optimize their college experience while building connections and community.
4. Tessen – Celine Liptrot ’24, Kilian Liptrot ’23
   Tessen designs and produces protective covers for large, high-quality lenses in the photography, scope, drone payload, and optical sight markets. Using a new, innovative, and patent-pending iris design, Tessen’s “Lens Blade” product allows anyone to use their large-high-quality glass optics in the field without having to ever remove their lens caps from their device.
5. Travsy – Joyce Tijani ’22, Dami Adigun ’23
   Travsy is a platform that connects travel agents and travelers to book full vacation packages including accommodation, flights, activities, and transportation. We help busy and technologically challenged customers with disposable incomes travel by removing the pain points of the process such as the hard-to-navigate booking of activities and transportation.

The All Stars Pilot Track is for previous winners (within the last three years) of select University System of Maryland entrepreneurship competitions including the Bulldog Pitch Competition (BSU), Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition (UMBC), Pitch Dingman Competition (UMD), and Rise to the Challenge (UBalt). From the All Stars Pilot Track, the teams who will be pitching at the finals round are as follows:

1. AlgenAir Inc – Dan Fucich, PhD ’20, Kelsey Abernathy (University of Maryland)
   AlgenAir develops living technology to improve the health and wellness of building occupants. AlgenAir’s first product, the aerium, is a consumer natural air purifier that uses algae to reduce carbon dioxide indoors.
2. Exclusiveekicks LLC – Johnathan Russell (Bowie State University)
   Exclusiveekicks is an after-market specialist business, providing you with 100% authentic, limited, and sought-after sneakers. Exclusiveekicks provides personalized customer service and pop-up events for millennial, & Gez Z fashion-forward clients and entrepreneurship development programs for the youth.
3. Meridian Health – Aishwarya Tare ’22, Deep Mehta (University of Maryland)
   Meridian Health is building a conversational LLM to connect 18-26 year olds to mental and physical healthcare near them, and collecting data on their health outcomes. By beginning with college campuses, Meridian Health can ensure that the next generation of adults are healthy and are properly "onboarded" into the healthcare system as they independently manage their healthcare for the first time.
4. Haven Cloud – Mahmoud Shalby, Faheel Kamran (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
   Haven is the world's first B2B decentralized and privacy focused cloud storage platform. Haven eliminates ransomware and data breaches for companies in high data sensitivity industries such as healthcare, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

The Dingman Center would like to thank all other students that applied to this year’s competition. The caliber of applicants was a testament to the University of Maryland’s current ranking at #7 in the country in undergraduate entrepreneurship education and made it very difficult for our panel of judges to decide which teams should advance. For a full list of teams that pitched at the second round of the competition, see the Dingman Blog. All teams that advanced to the second round of the competition will receive a cash prize of $500 as well as $6,500 in AWS Activate Credits.

Register to attend the Pitch Dingman Competition 2023 finals event.