做厙TVs third annual House of Hawks competition brought entrepreneurial students before a panel of alumni judges to pitch their business ideas for $2,000 in cash prizes.
Contestants were each given 90 seconds to present their business ideas before taking questions from the audience.
This years first-place winner, Andrew Cooney 21, won $1,000 to jump-start his business venture of Birdseed Houses. Cooney also won the $250 Peoples Choice prize, as voted on by members of the audience.
Cooney was inspired by his and his girlfriends annual tradition of decorating gingerbread houses. Instead of letting the houses sit and eventually be thrown away at the end of the season, Cooney thought there could be a more sustainable method of decoration that was just as fun and even more useful.
Ill market this product to families who are looking for an environmentally friendly alternative to gingerbread houses, Cooney said.
Instead of candy, each component Cooneys houses would be made of foods that wild birds eat. Kits would include the structure, decorating material (seeds, corn, berries, grains, etc.), binding material and a hanger apparatus.
I thought it was a great idea for families to do together not just around the holidays, but year-round, judge Sarah Blagg 03 said.
Jordan Harnum 20 and Isaiah Reiprich 20 took home the second-place prize of $500 for Keneme, an online platform that allows live-stream gamers to interact and play games with their fans.
Bryce Butler 21 won the $250 third-place prize for his app Plus1, a social networking site connecting parents who have children with disabilities.
Other participants were:
- Samantha Locandro 20, marketing, William Mackrides 20, marketing, and Andrew Vollenberg 20, economics, NooN, a subscription-based makeup and skincare service with a sustainable emphasis.
- Lukas Yurasits 22, physics, mathematics and computer science, Alanna Connolly 21, biology, and William McNish 21, management, Custom Sole, a custom insole company that utilizes 3-D modeling and a subscription plan to ensure customers receive the best fit possible for their shoes.
- Brianna Mahn 23, broadcasting and marketing, Worth the Weight, a company that specializes in attractive and targeted weighted workout clothing.
- Aly Kenawy 20, finance, VoiceBox, a social media website that focuses exclusively on spoken word audio rather than photos and text.
Alongside keynote speaker Bryan Majors 10, other judges were John Rendina 86, Sarah Blagg 03, and Dylan Furlano 14.
