Student Teams Compete in ImpactX Pitch Competition

Seven teams of student entrepreneurs from the College of Charleston are hoping to make a perfect pitch as they compete in the ImpactX final pitch competition on April 23, 2018. The event will be held in room 115 of the Beatty Center beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Each team will propose a unique business idea to a panel of judges in the hopes of capturing a portion of the $10,000 business seed money. All business models created must contribute to one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The ImpactX tech startup accelerator program, formerly known as ICAT, provides business, computer science and liberal arts students with opportunities and resources to create, manage and execute their own impact entrepreneurship projects.

Chris Starr, associate professor of information management at the College’s School of Business, says ImpactX demonstrates the power of aligning academic study with experiential learning.

“ImpactX synchronized two courses (3 credit hours each) in entrepreneurship and in technology in lock step with each phase of a tech startup from identifying a problem that the team is passionate to solve, to delivering a working solution to the market that makes a difference while making a profit,“ says the professor.

The program, says Starr, helps students learn to think entrepreneurially, and act with intention, compassion, persistence and resilience.

Teams competing this session include:

Transfairancy – A proactive tool to help businesses to address pay inequities

Vestio – An application that uses voice integration to help people select their daily attire

OptimumTrack – a machine learning app to put you on tract for success in a college major

FitBank – A mobile platform that tracks employees fitness and rewards them for it

PollPit – An impact-driven, digital square that allows people to recognize and prioritize local issues within their community

CityScript – A prescriptive, artificial intelligence tool to help cities shape growth with citizen input

ImpactCents – An app that makes it easy for users to invest and make an impact around the world through microfinancing