By Parisa Burton
Staff Writer
The College’s Mayo Business Plan Competition kicked off its last round on Wednesday, March 29 with three remaining finalists: H.E.R. for you, Kinetic Art Display and CrystalCost.
This year’s competition began with 11 teams. From this count, six teams were picked to revise their business plans and advance to the semifinals in February. Three were eventually chosen to revise their plans again and compete in the finals.
Each team had 30 minutes to pitch their proposals and could be interrupted by the judges at any time for questions.
“It’s the College’s very own shark tank,” said Herbert Mayo, finance professor and competition founder.
The rules for participants are flexible. It is not limited to business students, and there is no constraint on what the business plans can be. The only requirement is that the team must consist of two to four students.
“I established the competition about 10 years ago,” Mayo said. “College is a good time to start thinking about the process of starting a business and the competition gives finalists an incentive to execute it once they get out there.”
H.E.R. for you was the first place winner of the 2023 competition. Senior marketing major Molly O’Brien and senior communications major Katrine Olsen were awarded with the grand prize of $30,000 for their winning proposal.
According to O’Brien, Olsen had been looking to participate in the competition since her freshman year and has been drafting ideas since. The partners ultimately chose H.E.R. for you at the end of Oct. 2022 and have been working tirelessly to perfect their plan and pitch since.
“H.E.R. for you is a women’s health and wellness empowerment app whose mission is to educate, inspire and transform the lives of young women with chronic health conditions through non-medical interventions and a supportive community,” said O’Brien.
Olsen and O’Brien both have the burden of living with chronic health conditions (CHC) and struggle to find a community of women who could offer personalized support and recommendations.
The two ladies wanted to create a resource for women in similar circumstances who struggle in managing their chronic health conditions. H.E.R. for you is designed by and for women to help the greater than 50% of women diagnosed with chronic health conditions who feel lost.
The partners will utilize the prize money to speak with investors, experts in the field and app developers to get their idea off the ground.
“It feels so rewarding to be acknowledged by the [College] community for our hard work and achievement,” O’Brien said. “We have put in countless hours to prepare for the competition and to win feels great because of how passionate we both feel about our product and business.”
This year’s second place winner was CrystalCost, created by a team of three students: Venkata (Pooja) Singamneni and Nitya Devisetti, both sophomore biology majors, and Hajer Ali, a junior biomedical engineering major. They were prized with $20,000.
“CrystalCost is a 3-tier all integrated approach to lowering healthcare costs, which allows customers to save on all aspects of their medical expenses rather than just one, beginning with the individual patient and expanding to systematic savings,” said Singamneni.
The idea stemmed from CEO Nitya Devisetti after her mom was diagnosed with a rare health condition and her family suffered unbearable healthcare costs. The idea evolved with the help of CMO Pooja Singamneni and COO Hajer Ali who are all equally concerned about increasing affordability and accessibility in healthcare.
The team plans to dedicate their winnings to advance the development of CrystalCost to make it a reality.
The third place winner of this year’s competition was Kinetic Art Display, taking home $10,000 in prize money. This team includes four students: senior finance major Madison Donohue, senior mechanical engineering major Reid Carrico, senior mechanical engineering major Tyler Federoko and senior mechanical engineering major Nicholas Moriello.
“Kinetic Art Display is a means of giving life to the valuable items showcased around the world,” Donohue said. "The product is a rotating display case which rotates multiple individual units allowing the spectators to view all sides of an object while having plenty of time to read any and all writing on these items displayed.”
The inspiration stemmed from the school of engineering, which uses display units in Armstrong Hall to showcase student achievement. The team imagined something that would provide greater compactability and bring life to the achievements, and from there they created the innovative display case.
The team will use the prize money towards applying for a patent, which is one of the first steps needed to start the business.
Mayo has seen a multitude of majors participating in the competition throughout the years, from accounting, computer science, engineering, English and more. Different majors typically work together to utilize each other's strong suits.
“Teams of two are usually more successful than larger groups because it is easier for them to stay in touch for business post graduation,” Mayo said.
Mayo has witnessed the hard work of participants since establishment and feels the prize money provides a real chance for students to flourish in their businesses. Other students with business ideas should not be hesitant to propose their plan in upcoming years.
