Past Recipients: April 2005
Requests totaling $66,902 were received from ten applicants. Seven recipients (all students) were selected and their awards totaled $38,632. The seven projects funded are listed below:
Start-up Funds for Student Companies
Spotswap -- $10,000 award
Spotswap, an entrepreneurial venture by second year MBA students Brennan Anderson and Will Copenhaver, was originally submitted in the fall under the name Parking Revolution. The students used the $1500 awarded then for research to refine the proposal. The venture’s intention is to establish an all-inclusive national online marketplace for parking inventory through the use of an online forward auction market. The revised business plan was a winner in the Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network’s VERGE Business Plan competition and the Babcock School’s Escalator Competition.
Function Technologies, LLC -- $2500
Undergraduate students Charles Beck and Josh Hemphill requested $10,000 for their venture. The committee believed it needed more development but had enough merit to receive a $2500 award to spur additional research. The venture is based on a web-based software application named GreekWorks developed by Charles Beck for his fraternity. The application includes features such as calendars, list serves, directories, and online payment systems. The applicants believe the software will be very appealing to many other fraternities and sororities.
Stuffed Robots -- $1500
Freshman Bill Brown and Jessica Vogel requested and received $1500 for travel to locate a manufacturing partner for their venture. The venture designs, makes, and sells large toy robots that are made of fabric and stuffed. Brown and Vogel have already had a great deal of success with the venture but are manufacturing the robots themselves by hand. The company's website is: http://www.stuffedrobot.com.
Computer Game Development-- $8536
Senior Chandler Carruth and Math graduate student Anthony Pecorella (B. S. ’04) received their full request for $8536 to design, create and sell a computer game with a storyline inspired by Shakesphere’s Romeo and Juliet. The committee was impressed with the recipients’ extensive knowledge of computer games, both from a design perspective and a programming perspective. Carruth and Pecorella also secured two recent business school graduates, Daniel Niccum ’04 and Will Clough ’03, to advise them on the organizational, distribution and advertising aspects of the project.
NEGYTNA: Solutions for Aquaculture -- $10,000
A nine-student team headed by Biology major Sarah Yocum ’05 worked with their faculty adviser, Dr. Ray Kuhn, to develop and market diagnostic reagents that allow fish farmers (primarily catfish farmers) to monitor the health of their fish. The team believes it has developed the first commercial test for monitoring fish infections which were estimated to cost the aquaculture industry approximately $135 million in 2004. The Chambers Fund Committee funded the full request of $10,000, a substantial part of which is for website design and maintenance. The site will be the primary method for sales of the diagnostic kits developed by the company.
Pink Moss -- $5000
The committee funded the full request of $5000 for this project which is being developed by sophomore Alden Speake. The company Ms. Speake hopes to establish seeks to capture the collegiate and high school level preppy niche market (thus the company motto, “Pink Moss: Defining the New Preppy”). Pink Moss hopes to fill a gap in the preppy market by offering a “one stop shopping” outlet along with informed advice concerning the lifestyle and issues the preppy shopper faces in his or her daily life. The Pink Moss business plan has the company serving as an intermediary between the sellers and buyers of preppy products. The company’s website is: http://www.pinkmoss.com
Art Internet Website Development -- $1096
This award was an addition to the award for Rebecca Boswell made in November 2004 (see above description). Ms. Boswell requested the funds in order that she might purchase the sophisticated lighting equipment needed to produce high quality photos of her art. The photos are needed for her marketing efforts using the website.
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