Michigan Tech student entrepreneurs win pitch competition

Innovative ideas are the focus of the Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition held annually at Michigan Tech, and they were not in short supply among this year's winners, either.

 

Student entrepreneurs have 90 seconds to pitch a new business to judges in the competition. This year, the winning entry was Clean It Up, a service that would clean up online content and profiles for students to make them suitable for viewing by employers or schools.

 

The very appropriate motto of the company, a concept from accounting student Nikoli Wiens and chemical engineering student Zach Eckert, is "Don't let one crazy weekend ruin your life forever." It won $1,000 in seed money.

 

The second place winner, FairShare, getting $500 in seed money, is saving students from trouble of a different kind. The idea of Abhilash Kantamnemi, a graduate student in computer science, FairShare is a plug-in device that calculates individual electric power usage, such as in an apartment shared by roommates. 

 

Taking third place was Flashion, a mobile app that could take a photo of a fashion item like a pair of shoes, and bring up info on where to buy it or how much it costs.