GPS Tracker Wins Pitch Competition

A team of aspiring entrepreneurs won the 2017 SELF Business Pitch Competition with Spot, a tiny GPS tracker that users can attach to car keys, smartphones or other items they don’t want to lose.

“Our technology allows you to track certain items through GPS on our app and website,” presenters told a panel of judges at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “What sets it apart is its size. Spot is the smallest GPS tracker to date, and in the form of essentially a sticker, you can put it on anything.”

The competition was part of the third-annual Ed Snider Enterprise and Leadership Fellows (SELF) program presented July 16-28, 2017, by the Smith School’s Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets in partnership with the Undergraduate Office.

The residential program, designed for rising high school juniors and seniors, included workshops on customer discovery, design thinking, personal finance, marketing and other business topics. Participants also did teambuilding activities and site visits.

Second place in the pitch competition went to In the Loop, an app designed to provide incoming freshmen an easy transition into college. Third place went to Chaya, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide women and children living on the streets of India with resources for a better standard of living.

The winning team included Amod Mathur from Severna Park, Md.; Jack Wright from Short Hills, N.J.; Ajay Ramesh-Babu from Shanghi, China; Robert Weitzman from Weston, Conn.; and Aniya Donald from Laurel, Md. They each received 3Doodler printing pens that can draw 3D images in the air.

Second-place winners received Arduino Starter Kits, and third-place winners received Rocketbook erasable notebooks.

Pitch competition judges included Arya Choudhury, chief technology officer at Shady Grove Fertility; Dan Cowens, CEO of Snag A Slip; Kristen Fanarakis, CEO of Senza Tempo Fashion; Nicholas Peterson, vice president and wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch; Kalpesh Raval, chief technology officer and cofounder of VitusVet; Dietrich Ruehlmann, senior global product manager at Medtronic; and Daniella Taveau, a global regulatory and trade strategist at King & Spalding.

Overall, the SELF program served 29 students from Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. International participants came from Italy and China.