Shark Tank meets TU at the Big Idea Pitch Competition. Budding entrepreneurs brought their best and brightest ideas to the stage last week at the 2024 Big Idea Pitch Competition in front of a panel of judges. Hosted by the Dept. of Management and the Venture Club, the competition featured 10 ideas pitched in rapid fire by eager, entrepreneurial TU students.
Ideas were judged by their scalability, creativity, and presentation by judges Adeola Ajani (CEO of Fem Equity), Molli Chang (Business Analyst at StarTUp), and Greg Vetter (author and CEO of Tessemae’s All Natural).
One of this year’s judges, Molli Chang, is a former student and top-3 winner of the Big Idea Competition and returned to share her experience and expertise with current participants. She shared how gratifying it was to see her former classmates get up on stage and pitch their big ideas. “It was amazing to see how far they’ve come, how far they’ve grown,” Molli said. “It warmed my heart to reconnect with professors and classmates.”
Here’s a rundown of the top three winners.
First Place
Name: Camila Hoyos
Idea: SynchroSound, earbuds that translate dozens of languages in real-time. The product innovation was founded to address the imminent issue of language barriers. Through the earbuds, the device will translate the language of the person speaking through the call. The product is intended for multinational corporations, tourists, health care providers, and people who want to learn different languages.
Second Place
Name: Bria Reeves, Jordon Brinkley, Albery Arriaza, Lauren Fulmer, Jonathan Yohannes, Ryan Scho
Idea: S&F Watch, a crime-reporting app for campus communities. The idea is an innovative safety platform that streamlines how students connect with campus authorities. It enables quick, discreet reporting, real-time notifications of potential threats, and alerts for nearby incidents — empowering users to stay informed and safe on campus.
Third Place
Name: Alexander Schafer
Idea: Sprout with Us, a subscription service for sustainable baby clothes. About a year ago, his brother and his wife decided to have a child. The idea was created to solve the financial strain caused by consistently buying clothes for their quickly growing child.
This past December, ten teams and 48 students participated in the Department of Management’s Fall 2022 Live Strategy Case Competition sponsored by McCormick & Company. The McCormick & Co. judges named three winning teams. Students from the winning teams received monetary scholarships for their innovative strategies.
The sponsoring company presented students with a case study about digital engagement, popular culture and social media trends. The case challenged students to “capitalize on consumer trends and develop a digital engagement strategy that further engages the consumers and enhances McCormick’s brand presence and engagement.”
Taking first place in the competition was Team CASIS, a five-member team including Amanda Lien, Clarence Smalley, Ian Harvey-Thomas, Sierra Silkman and Samantha DeLeon.
Members from the first place team, Team Casis, pose with McCormick & Co. executives and CBE faculty.
In second place came The McCormick Club, a five-member team including Carly DiGiacomo, Noah Hagan, Hamza Mushtaq, Richard Slemaker and Taran Thielmann.
Digital Enablers won third place with members Dylan Mayer, Sam Ray and Nicholas Wynn.
The first-place team, Team CASIS, was made up of students from a variety of majors allowing them to draw insight from several disciplines. When asked about the team’s winning strategy, Sierra Silkman their professor, Dr. Koushikee Dutta, for her help with preparing the team for success. “Dr. Dutta [taught us how] to do a comprehensive analysis of the company including internal, external and financial analysis. We used that information to come up with a strategy that we thought would be representative of the company… making sure we hit on all their key strengths.”
Members from the second place team, Team, pose with McCormick & Co. executives and CBE faculty.
Each semester, the upper-level MNGT 481 Strategic Management course offers students the opportunity to compete in the Live Strategy Case Competition to test the knowledge and skills they have gained during the class and throughout their academic careers. It is an excellent opportunity for students to practice presentation skills in a real-world environment, as well as allowing students to network with businesses local to the Towson area.
“This event is not only high impact, experiential, and an amazing learning experience for our graduating students, but it also highlights the best and the brightest in our college marking the beginning of the journey into their professional careers,” Dr. Filiz Tabak said. “None of this could have been possible without the participation of McCormick. We are very grateful to McCormick top executives for their time throughout the semester.”
In total, 310 students across 10 sections of the MNGT 481 capstone course worked on the McCormick case. Students across all sections are divided into teams and given the duration of the semester to research and prepare a written report and presentation. Teams present to their classes and the winning team from each class section goes on to present their case to executives from the sponsoring company.
Members from the third place team, Digital Enablers, pose with McCormick & Co. executives and CBE faculty.
Three McCormick & Co. executives participated in the competition as judges and provided students with invaluable feedback and a plethora of thoughtful questions. “We valued and enjoyed our time supporting TU’s Live Strategy Case Competition,” said Ryan Charlier, McCormick & Company’s Vice President of Finance. “The energy and the thought the students brought to their recommendations was evident in their presentations and provided a great perspective into the minds of one our important and growing consumer bases.”
Senior Genevieve Tchoubfong, a Business Administration major with a concentration in Human Resource Management, presents her team’s case to the McCormick & Co. judges.
When asked what advice they would give to future participants of the Live Strategy Case Competition, members from the first-place team shared two key tips: know your material and have fun.
“You’re here for a reason,” Ian Harvey-Thomas said. “They value you as much as you value them. Knowing your material is all you need. This is your strategy, your research. You know it.”
“The key is having fun,” Sierra added. “We’re very diverse, which helped our team. We had all different majors that came together so we came at it with different perspectives. We have diverse backgrounds as individuals–athletes, people working full time, different personalities. We were able to mesh well, and we worked hard. It was a lot of fun.”
Interested in learning more about or becoming a sponsor for the Department of Management’s Live Strategy Case Competition? Visit our website for more information.
