Three teams of budding student entrepreneurs will get to push their visions for purpose-driven technology forward as the winners of the spring 2018 ImpactX (formerly ICAT) Demo Day pitch competition, which took place on April 23, 2018.
A total of $10,000 was split among the top three teams by the panel of judges, which for the first time included a CofC alumnus, Hunter Stunzi ’07, founder of lending firm SnapCap. The ImpactX tech startup accelerator program provides business, computer science and liberal arts students with opportunities to create their own impact entrepreneurship projects.
ImpactCents logo
The winning team – ImpactCents– developed an app that gives everyday people an opportunity to finance microloans by having small transactions, such as grocery bills and restaurant purchases, rounded up to the nearest dollar with those extra cents then disbursed as loans in places where they can make an important difference. The team includes biology major Chad Ross, historic preservation and community planning major Megan Masters, marketing major Tily Milburn and computer information systems major Grayson Stiglbauer. In addition to taking first place, the team also won a trip to New York and the opportunity to present their concept at the United Nations later this year.
So far there have been 296 preorders for the ImpactCents app and 10 local businesses have agreed to match the donations that the team amasses. Interest choices for users to select from will be drawn from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The other two winning teams at ImpactX Demo Day include:
Second place: Pollpit, a digital town hall app. The civic-oriented app provides each participating elected official a page that’s locally focused and the app will enable users to send comments to those officials. The goal is to educate, engage and empower citizens by allowing elected officials to poll their constituents through the platform. The team has been working with Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg to pilot the app.
Third place: The app Optimum Track was designed to help college students who are having trouble picking a major. It’s a questionnaire-based platform that matches students with their optimal major. The app also delivers information on degree outcomes. The team plans to work with career centers and guidance counselors with the goal of selling the app to colleges and high schools around the country.
Read more about ImpactX here.
Featured image: ImpactX team members Megan Masters, Grayson Stiglbauer, Tily Milburn and Chad Ross.
