12 Finalists Dazzle In BIG IdeaBounce Contest

The ideas poured in from student entrepreneurs in every corner of the world, from PhD candidates and MBA students to undergraduates. They were often backed by thoughtful analysis, competitive research, and go-to-market strategies that would put a smile on any angel investor’s face. And those ideas dazzled in every field, from telemedicine and cheaper food delivery to support of fisheries and water bottles for surfing wetsuits.

All told, 167 founders and founding teams entered our BIG IdeaBounce competition sponsored by Washington University’s Olin Business School, the winner of our 2022 ranking of the best MBA programs for entrepreneurship. WashU Olin’s BIG IdeaBounce® powered by Poets&Quants pitch contest was open to all current undergraduate and graduate school students or any prospect interested in a graduate business school degree.

A dozen of those contenders have become finalists who are now competing for three slots to present in person on Washington University’s campus in St. Louis in early March. The winner, to be chosen by a panel of judges, will receive $50,000 in funding from the Olin Business School. P&Q is also inviting our audience to vote for their favorite team and idea. You can watch their two-minute elevator pitches and read about their business plans in the following profiles.

‘WE WERE SHOCKED BY THE VOLUME AND QUALITY OF ENTRIES’

Doug Villhard of Washington University’s Olin Business School

“For a first-year contest, we were shocked by the volume and quality of entries from across the U..S and the world,” says Doug Villhard, academic director for entrepreneurship at Washington University. We received entries from all the top-ranked universities. And the student business ideas ranged from conceptual to some already generating revenue.”

Many ideas target specific markets from a memory box for those living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia or an ingenious power source for cyclists to keep them safe and connected. Some are highly complex, requiring sophisticated engineering and design; others are smart, yet simple ideas to address market gaps. All are well thought-out, heavily researched, and staffed with teams that can implement the dreams of their founders.

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“I love seeing the entrepreneurial spirit alive and well out there in the next generation,” adds Villhard. “I can’t wait to see who wins this year and how much bigger we expect this competition to become in the years ahead. These are exactly the types of students that are attracted to our MBA program at WashU Olin and I’m sure the other top programs as well. The entrants are smart, hard-working, and have the right type of hustle that top VCs and employers could only hope to find.”

INSPIRED BY HER FATHER’S DEATH

A fifth-year Phd student, Courtney Burris’ idea was inspired by her father’s death

Several were inspired by personal events. Courtney Burris, a fifth=year Phd student at the University of Buffalo, lost her father last May after a battle with cancer. Before his passing, he lost his ability to bathe himself. That caused Burris to work on developing something called The Aiding Arm. It is a clip-on shower chair attachment with a patented two-lever system that moves a removable showerhead along a track front-to-back and side-to-side, bringing the shower to the user.

It was firsthand experience that propelled Dr. Linda Wu to come up with her idea. A pediatrician and a member of the faculty at Washington University’s School of Medicine, she is working on a telemedicine startup called MiDoc that is an at-home medical device that allows physicians to remotely conduct lung and heart physical exams. The payoff: The product promises to improve healthcare access, affordability, convenience, and quality.

Not every idea is brand new. PedalCell Co-Founders Adam Hokin (CEO) and Vishaal Mali (CTO) founded their startup in 2015 as college freshmen. Their product is a bicycle power source that converts a cyclist’s motion into continuous charge for lights, smartphones, GPS, and other essential USB devices.

Hokin is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, while Mali invented the company’s core IP and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s McCormick Engineering School in Computer and Electrical Engineering. The pair have put together a formidable team that includes a chef marketing officer with half-a-decade of online marketing experience, a mechanical engineering veteran with experience at SpaceX as well as Apple, and a China-based member with 5+ years of Asian supply chain operations experience.

MAKING, CURATING AND SELLING APPAREL WOMEN WOULD ACTUALLY WEAR

Jessica Landzberg (at right), Stanford MBA ’23, poses with Pareto co-founder Olivia Bordson.

Like Hokin and Mali, Jessica Landzberg and Olivia Barden also go way back. Co-founders and owners of Pareto, the self-described retail nerds met eight years ago as students at Washington University. In high school, the worked on the floor as store managers. In college, they worked in-house for brands and retailers like Madewell, Band of Outsiders, and Target. After graduation, the pair spent a combined 7+ years at McKinsey serving 15+ retail brands across functional topics like merchandising, digital marketing, and pricing.

Currently a Stanford MBA, Landzberg and her co-founder have launched a direct-to-consumer, women’s apparel brand that makes the best version of the clothing women would actually wear, what they describe as a farm-to-closet supply chain. Pareto was born from a frustration with the retail industry’s focus on more – more product, more often. And for what? But the pair have found that women are wearing 20% of their closets, 80% of the time, wasting time and money sifting through endless new product. Their goal: To make, curate and sell less apparel that would be worn.

Check out our profiles on the top 12 finalists and watch their elevator pitch videos by clicking on the links in the table below.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: We are a property tech amenity that provides free food delivery for tenants in higher end residential apartments

Challenge: Food delivery is too expensive. At the same time, the one-to-one food delivery model creates a system that underserves both delivery drivers and restaurants alike. The average delivery from one of the well-known third-party delivery services (UberEats, DoorDash, GrubHub) normally charges 60% on top of the cost of the delivery when considering delivery fees, service charges, higher priced menu items, and a reasonable tip for the driver. Despite a market jump in food delivery during the pandemic to $42 billion a year, the price of delivery hasn’t decreased despite heightened demand (in fact, most have observed that the overall prices have increased to make the delivery ecosystem more sustainable to all players). With an increase in demand, we found a solution to leverage the unit economics of delivery to eliminate those high additional fees.

Solution: Through a proprietary carpooling model, we address all of these problems at once while cutting fees, tipping, and costly surcharges entirely. What we are providing as a solution is a property tech amenity that provides free food delivery for tenants in residential apartments. Property managers and building owners pay a subscription to our service, and everyday we’ll send 3-4 different restaurants to deliver to all the residents who place orders for lunch or dinner. Tenants pay for the cost of the food, and nothing else. When the food arrives at one’s building, it’s placed on a centrally located Budeli shelving unit where it’s ready for pick-up.

The tenants of the building will see the restaurant options associated with their building for that day, and these options rotate daily. They’ll place their order by the stated cut-off time for lunch or dinner via Budeli’s website or mobile app, and all the tenants will have their food delivered at the delivery time to a shelving unit located in the building’s lobby or tenant center. As an example, as opposed to one restaurant/driver dropping off one order 20 times, they’ll drop off 20 meals at one time. Consolidating the orders eliminates the hefty service charges, allows the drivers to make more money, and allows the restaurants to have higher profit margins on the food they make. Likewise, property managers can use this as a value-add amenity to help differentiate their property.

The Market: The market has jumped during the pandemic from $25 billion to $42 billion a year. What was once a novelty treat has now become more ingrained into our food consumption culture. The majority of food delivery consumers are aged 15 – 40 years old. With a focus on this younger market, we look to provide a service to those living in mid- to high-rise residential apartments with only a few dining options within walking distance. Through our customer verification process, we surveyed over 100+ consumers of food delivery, and found that over 85% would sacrifice options and “on-demand” of their delivery options in favor of saving money on charges and tips. On the primary revenue generation side (property managers paying the service subscription), our customer verification has found that mid- to high- rise apartments are in “a war over amenities” to differentiate themselves at the top of the market.

Competition: Other food delivery services will compete in an adjacent space, but no one is leveraging a unit economics model to eliminate all fees through carpooling to a singular location. The UberEats and DoorDashes of the world are predicated on providing on-demand service, which is conducive to neither a carpooling model nor a timely transition to one. We wouldn’t position ourselves as a 3rd party food delivery service, but rather a property tech amenity that provides food delivery to apartment tenants that saves both money and the environment.

Value Creation: We already have customer traction. Three buildings have agreed to be paid subscribers for our upcoming summer launch of the Budeli pilot, and we have 5 other buildings who will launch following the pilot itself. The properties will be the bulk of our revenue, and the price to subscribe is starting at $500 a month.

As for social and environmental impact, that will be a key differentiator from our service to other 3rd party delivery options. Our main value proposition will be the environmental sustainability of this delivery option (simply put: our service will deliver 20-meals by 1 driver, as opposed to 20-meals delivered by 20 drivers). From a social perspective, this is a sustainable approach to the food delivery ecosystem. Drivers will be paid a higher one-time fee for delivering in bulk, and restaurants will be charged a 15% margin on the food (which is about 10-20% lower than the larger players in this space, giving restaurants greater profitability during these hard times within the food industry).

The Team: There are three co-founders in total, and we incorporated as a Delaware C-Corp in 2021.

Carlos Bello (CEO): Former fine-dining chef (professionally trained at International Culinary Center) turned strategist in the food delivery space. Worked on the strategy team at Foodsby (a food delivery company for commercial real estate buildings), and has one more semester for his MBA at Georgetown. Will be working fulltime upon graduation at the end of this semester.

Thornton Ellis (CTO): Spent last 5-years working as a software engineer at Drizzly (recently acquired by Uber). Will be working fulltime come this summer when both co-founders graduate MBA program.

Jinsung Bach (CFO): Spent years after graduating Dartmouth working at Banc of California. Has built out the profitability model for Budeli, so that we’re profitable from day one. Will be working fulltime upon graduation at the end of this semester.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: Tylmen uses sizing technology to help people shop for apparel online with confidence by automatically choosing the best fit clothing for them.

Challenge: Fashion is the number 1 shopped category online, but because we shop online without the luxury of a fitting room, we’re 3x more likely to return the clothes we buy. This return cost is pricey for retailers, costing them between $200-$300bn annually. Returns often end up in landfills and contribute greatly to carbon emissions while online shoppers face the difficulty of buying clothes online with confidence.

Solution: Our mobile app allows shoppers to have a stored sizing profile with us, all done through a self-recorded video, which allows them to shop confidently without the stress of choosing the right size. Tylmen’s virtual mall automatically chooses the best fit size for customers, creating a much more desirable and sustainable online shopping experience, one that results in fewer returns.

Market: Our target market is gen z, aged 17-26, who shop frequently online, are passionate about sustainability, and are active on social media. This demographic has a growing interest in technology such as VR/AR and sizing technology in order to help them shop online making them more willing to adopt our solution than older demographics.

Competition: The vast majority of our competitors focus on surveys and plug-ins to brands’ site/online check-out processes. This has been a great strategy for those companies to get acquired, however, we carry a passion to bring a universal approach to sizing. That means, as an online shopper, you can come to our mobile and shop anywhere online and not have to worry about choosing the wrong size, whereas our competition is very segmented. We’ve learned that consumers tend to shop at the same stores online for this reason which is why we’re different because we’re bringing a universal approach to a centralized platform.

Value Creation: When customers shop online, they have imperfect information because they lack the luxury of a fitting room. This leads to a difficult user experience, not knowing the right size to choose, a costly operation for brands, as they incur huge losses in revenue due to returns, and the environment suffers greatly with increased C02 emissions and more waste in landfills. Tylmen’s app will benefit all parties involved by creating a convenient shopping experience with fewer returns and less pollution. We get paid for every purchase we’re responsible for. We will also be able to track the life cycle of that order and determine how effective we are in reducing return rates, which is the mission of our company.

The Team:
Bill Qin, marketing, behavioral economics, international background
Veronica Hsu, marketing, business administration/management, and research development
Ryan Wu, coding, CS major
Fred Hua, coding, CS major, and winner of San Francisco hackathon
Vishal Agarwal, coding, CS major, experience in full-stack development and deploying apps to the app store
Jami Nicholson, marketing, an economics major, and popular Youtube blogger

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: For fisheries, OnDeck is a monitoring tool that satisfies regulatory needs using AI instead of humans to automatically quantify catch; revolutionizing marine conservation while cutting costs by a factor of 10.

Challenge: Fisheries support the livelihoods of 10% of the world’s population, generating as much as $400 billion USD in revenue annually. Fish provide more than 2.9 billion people with 20 percent of their animal protein needs, and are an irreplaceable source of nutrients to many coastal communities. Despite the importance of the world’s fish stocks, two thirds of fish stocks are currently in decline, threatening the global economy and billions of livelihoods. Quantifying the number of fish taken from the ocean is critical to fisheries management, however it is not currently possible to measure this at scale.

Currently, the industry uses human observers on board a small percentage of fishing vessels to monitor what goes on at sea. These observers operate in challenging and hostile conditions where they are frequently threatened by the crew, and research has found that their collected observations can contain significant misreporting. These human observers cost between $500-$800 per day, paid for by the captain of the ship.

Recently, cameras have been installed on some boats to replace human observers. These cameras (known as “electronic monitoring”) film for entire fishing trips, which vary in length from 1-8 weeks. Once the vessels return to shore, reviewers watch the footage and manually identify the amount and types of sea life brought on board. This is extremely expensive and slow, creating a significant delay in reporting.

Solution: The majority of tasks performed by human observers or reviewers can easily be automated. Leveraging modern software technology, specifically machine learning and computer vision, we will automate the counting of fish in the videos recorded by existing electronic monitoring hardware. Our idea is to develop a software product which can automatically analyze video footage of fishing trips, measuring the number and types of fish caught as well as identifying bycatch when it occurs.

Our solution has many advantages over the manual analysis being used currently. Automated monitoring is nearly instantaneous, much faster than manual review which can take hours to days. By virtue of its speed and the inherently low marginal cost per product of software, automated monitoring will be far less expensive than manual review. Likewise, the increased speed and decreased cost will allow for comprehensive monitoring of a far larger portion of global fishing activity, which will be integral to improving the sustainability of the fishing sector in the coming decades. Finally, we note that human observers are subject to human error, which can lead to inaccuracy and bias. We believe that automated monitoring software can achieve >95% accuracy with minimal bias. This level of accuracy is well within reach of existing computer vision algorithms.

Market: There are currently over 1,400 fishing vessels with electronic monitoring (EM) systems on board today, and this number is expected to grow to 25,000-50,000 by 2028. With this explosion of EM, automation is critical to enable the review of this huge volume of data. Globally, approximately $1.5 billion USD is spent on fisheries observations annually, with at least $400 million USD spent on manual review.

Our first customers would be the established observing companies in North America. There are approximately a dozen observing providers in North America, the biggest of which are all trying to make the shift to EM. Our software would accelerate this shift and revolutionize their workflow. We have a budding partnership with the dominant observing provider in Canada to deploy our software on EM systems across Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

After 2-5 years of working with established observing providers and proving the efficacy and accuracy of our automated review software, we could become our own certified fisheries observing company. This would enable us to sell our monitoring solutions directly to fishers, facilitating vertical integration.

Competition: There is no software company developing the solutions needed for the fishery observing industry. Academic researchers have developed and proven the capabilities of computer vision technology for our use cases, but there has been no attempt to bring these solutions to market.

The four biggest observing companies in North America (Integrate Monitoring Inc, Archipelago Marine Research, Saltwater, and A.I.S., Inc.) are making slow attempts to add some automation into their workflow, but they do not have the in-house technical capabilities to develop true computer vision or AI. These four competitors are also our main customers. We have already developed a working relationship with Archipelago Marine Research, and they are eager to purchase automation software from OnDeck Fisheries AI.

Value Creation: The potential for value creation is twofold. First and foremost, by improving global fisheries monitoring capabilities, our idea has the potential to revolutionize the management of fish stocks all over the world. Better measurement of the number of fish being taken from the ocean will help to guide policies to increase the sustainability of global fish stocks. Likewise, automated bycatch detection will aid in identifying fishing practices with significant collateral damage and thus reduce the damaging effect of fisheries bycatch on endangered species.

Secondly, this project has the potential to be highly profitable. Current fisheries monitoring requires paying by the hour for human observers to either observe on fishing vessels in real time, or manually view hundreds of hours of video footage for each fishing trip. With this current business model, the marginal cost of observing additional fishing trips is high. Our proposed automated electronic monitoring software, however, would reduce marginal costs of increased monitoring to essentially zero. Thus, we will be able to undercut the pricing of traditional monitoring services, allowing us to quickly scale up to reach a large section of the market.

Team: Our team members’ respective credentials showcase our collective business acumen (A. Dungate), scientific research expertise (M. Leighton), and software development experience (S. Dyanatkar).

Specific skills and experience that will be integral to the successful development and implementation of our vision include, but are not limited to:
– Product management experience (A. Dungate)
– Contacts and network within the fisheries sector (A. Dungate)
– Scientific research expertise (M. Leighton)
– Proven history of securing federal grant money (M. Leighton)
– Experience with machine learning and computer vision (M. Leighton)
– Software development experience at a major global software company (S. Dyanatkar)
– Previous experience in the development of innovative new technologies synthesizing software and hardware (S. Dyanatkar)

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: Cartik is a socially responsible business with the goal of repurposing plastic waste in Africa into sustainable textiles for the global market.

Challenge: In July of 2021, Science Dev Net highlighted the story of Abubakar Sani, 39, a plastic bottle picker in Lagos, Nigeria, who spends mornings risking his health in toxic waste dumps to earn a living. Stories like Abubakar’s are not uncommon across Africa as they illustrate the toll of the mountains of mismanaged hazardous plastic waste. In 2015, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported that five African countries (Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria and Morocco) are among the top 20 nations with the highest mismanagement of plastic waste. Together, they produce 0.31 and 0.97 million tonnes of plastic annually. According to the Afri-Plastics Challenge, only 12% of plastic waste is recycled in Sub-Saharan Africa – with the majority either burned or dumped – huge quantities enter rivers, streams, lakes and eventually the ocean.

The fashion industry heavily depends on cotton production, yet it’s a problematic crop. According to the World Wildlife Fund, it takes up 2.4% of arable land globally while requiring 24% of all pesticides and 11% of all agriculture water usage. Circular economy organizations like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation are now demanding the fashion industry become socially responsible in its use of cotton by pursuing alternatives such as plastic. Public and private sectors are actively searching for innovative ways to tackle this crisis. Notably, the most popular African textile, wax print, is made from cotton and it is not yet manufactured using recycled plastics. Cartik has a combined solution addressing these three opportunities.

Solution: Launched from a study-abroad dorm room in 2013, the fashion brand Cartik began as a wax print handbags and accessories business. Wax prints are colorful, vibrant textiles that are made from cotton plants which were introduced to Africa in the 19th century. Our student founder worked with local artisans in Ghana and Togo to produce goods marketed and sold in the U.S. As demand for Cartik’s products grew, while becoming aware of the impact the fashion industry had on the environment, the team began researching innovative ways to become a sustainable, green, ethical brand.

We reimagined the production of wax prints that not only addresses the plastic pollution crisis but reduces industry dependence on non-organic cotton – which relies upon insecticides and pesticides – and other green benefits. Our solution is developing eco-friendly wax prints using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic to repurpose and reduce dump waste as textiles for quality sustainable backpacks, handbags, and accessories. The production of recycled polyester (rPET) requires less energy than fibers such as nylon and it generates fewer CO2 emissions. As a bonus, Cartik’s green wax prints will also tell Africa’s story through new designs, patterns, and symbols that reflect the continent’s rich culture and diversity. Wax print textiles hold significant value in Africa and are an integral part of African culture and society.

Market: The global eco fiber market size was valued at USD 40.58 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6% from 2020 to 2027. Eco fibers are gaining popularity in designer apparel and garments. Annual sales volume for wax print textiles are 2.1 billion yards with an average production cost of $2.6 billion and retail value of $4 billion. Durable textiles with properties such as high resistance against acids and alkalis at high temperatures and minimum moisture retention have increased the demand for synthetics made from polyethylene.

Moreover, the use of polypropylene in the textile industry is adding positive growth to the market. Increasing demand for sustainable apparel from the fashion industry coupled with the growth of e-commerce platforms is expected to drive the market through 2028. Accordingly, analysts expect these trends will propel the growth of the technical application segment in the market for textiles. Cartik’s go to market strategy begins with B2B sales to mega brands and corporations that manufacture lifestyle and goods such as apparel, furniture, accessories, and outdoor gear, such as Nike, Adidas, Patagonia, The North Face, Ashley Home stores and Williams Sonoma.

Competition: Cartik’s competition falls into two categories. The first group is wax print manufacturers, the leading wax print producer for Africa is Vlisco Group that produces 70 million yards of the textile each year. They’ve been producing wax prints for the African market since 1846; and Chinese textile manufacturers who specialize in producing cheap imitations of wax prints created by Vlisco Group. In China, the leading manufacturer of wax prints is Qingdao Phoenix Hitarget. They distribute across sub-saharan Africa, the U.S. and Europe. The second group comprises brands that make accessories from wax prints. These are brands that can be found on e-commerce sites such as Etsy or Amazon. Unlike Cartik, all of our competitors currently use or source cotton in their textile production or goods manufacturing. According to the World Wildlife Fund, growing cotton also requires significant amounts of resource-intensive water and dangerous pesticides.

Value Creation: Cartik creates value in four key areas: environmental, economic, social, and public health. On the global stage, developing eco-friendly wax print textiles meets the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 13 regarding sustainable development goal of climate action. Converting plastic waste into recycled polyester can be one aspect of fighting precarious environmental issues such as plastic waste pollution in Africa. The business would affect positive outcomes such as: Environmental: reducing plastic waste dumping in landfills; Economic: add revenue to the local and national economies through two revenue streams. Our first revenue model allows us to sell our sustainable wax print textiles to mega brands whose Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) priorities align with our ethical and sustainable mission. The second revenue model gives us an opportunity to return to our roots of selling wax print handbags, accessories and backpacks. However, this time, with our eco-friendly approach. Social: added job creation on the African continent at various levels for those with formal education to individuals like Abubakar Sani; and lastly, Public Health: vastly reducing the number of plastic bottle picking people exposed to toxic pollution. Additionally, we create value by offering to recycle any Cartik backpack or accessory by allowing customers to return the unwanted items back to us for repurpose so they do not end up in a landfill.

Team:
Carmen Attikossie – Founder & CEO
Carmen founded Cartik during a study abroad trip to West Africa in 2013. She is currently the Sr. Small Business Development Manager at Local First Arizona. Prior to LFA, she spent 2 years working in entrepreneurial education for the African Leadership University in Rwanda. It was during her time in Africa that she was exposed to the plastic waste problem on the African continent and felt compelled to find a creative solution.

Ara Nashera – Chief Operating Officer
Ara is passionate about social businesses, technology and learning how people are evolving as they rely on smarter innovations that impact their day to day lives in arts & culture, business, health and education. From working in a tech focused startup that built a USSD based crowdfunding platform for feature phone users. He went on to co-found Impact Hub, the first community owned co-working space that focused on impacting young people running social enterprises in Kigali, Rwanda.

Dr. Ericka Ford – Chief Research Officer
Textile engineer and an assistant professor at the Wilson college of textiles, the leading textile engineering school in the USA. Erica is an expert in the fields of polymer and fiber science with more than 5 years of experience working on textile processing.

ADVISOR – Crystal Houston
Startup business coach, social impact entrepreneur and scholar focused on innovation and disruptive technologies in media. Co-founder of Citefull app, a 2020 SXSW Pitch finalist promoting trusted news using blockchain and AI. Co-founder of enterprise B2B2C SaaS influencer app, get get.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: MiDoc is an at-home medical device that allows physicians to remotely conduct lung and heart physical exams, revolutionizing the patient-provider telehealth experience and improving healthcare access, affordability, convenience, and quality.

Challenge: There are 3 issues with in-person doctor’s office appointments.

1. Patient’s perspective. Long waits while in agony from feeling ill: wait until the doctor’s office is open or has an available appointment, wait in traffic during the commute, and wait in line at the office. Additionally, there are patients with poor immune systems, or other obligations (i.e. parents that can’t find a babysitter) that restrict them from leaving their homes.

2. Healthcare system’s perspective. Cases that could be easily resolved with an office appointment are instead treated at an emergency room (ER), resulting in rising healthcare costs and overcrowded ERs. By one estimate, $32 billion is wasted annually in ER visits. Additionally, there are rural patients that don’t have access to in-person physicians that are often left unseen and untreated.

3. Provider’s perspective. Tediousness of note writing, inefficiencies due to late or missed appointments.

Currently, telehealth is only able to replace the conversational component of the doctor’s visit. With current technology physicians are unable to perform a physical exam, and thus do not know the full health status of their patients. This restricts their ability to make a proper diagnose and treat patients, resulting in ineffective care. For this reason, patients may still have to go into the doctor’s office due to inconclusive telehealth consults. Lastly, the lung and heart exams are the most important to a physician (as it relates to many primary complaints and medication side effects) and this vital information is not available via telehealth (phone or video).

Solution: The MiDoc helps address these issues by bringing the third dimension of telehealth: the physical exam. MiDoc is an at-home wearable product that the patient (consumer) wears like a vest, equipped with sensors which are able to perform a remote heart and lung exam: an at-home version of the stethoscope. It can also convey electrocardiogram (EKG) readings, which evaluates the electrical health of the heart.

By using MiDoc, physicians will be able to use the physical exam information gathered to support them in the making the proper diagnosis, leading to more effective treatment of their patients. Additionally, this will lead to more complete home-care telehealth visits, resulting in less referrals to a doctor’s office, easier access to rural patients or ones that cannot leave their homes, improved access to doctors, easing the stress on the healthcare system/ERs, and reducing costs. Lastly, MiDoc can auto-import patient exam data into the electronic medical record (EMR) saving physicians time in note writing, leading to increased efficiency for medical practices allowing them to see more patients and improved quality of life for doctors, especially important given the national shortage of physicians.

MiDoc will revolutionize healthcare by closing the last mile and providing at-home offerings to improve the patient-provider experience, bringing improved access, convenience and affordability to healthcare.

Market: McKinsey estimates that telehealth service utilization rates are 38x higher than pre-pandemic (as of July 2021). Additionally, in the first half of 2021, $14.7Bin VC investment went into the digital health space. There was an estimated $3.2B in telehealth provider revenue in 2020 with an 8.3% 2020-2025 projected annual growth rate. And finally, McKinsey estimated that of the multi-trillion-dollar healthcare market, $250B is poised to shift to virtual care. The takeaway is that the telehealth industry is young, growing rapidly, and there is strong investor appetite.

Our team utilized the most recent US census data to determine a target market. Our potential market is total US persons with internet, which represents 225M people or roughly 69% of the US population. From there, we identified individuals with high telehealth potential, which we broadly categorized as homebound individuals (parents with dependents, senior citizens, and immunocompromised persons) and then rural patients, which reduced our available market to 100M people or roughly 33% of the US population.

Next, we utilized a recent market study from McKinsey to estimate the interest of US consumers in telehealth, which was estimated at 40%. Thus, that leaves us with an actual target market of 40M in the US.

Lastly, we drilled down to our actual market by estimating roughly 10% future market share, leaving us with an actual market of 4M US consumers. We further drilled down between rural and urban consumers which, per the US census, is around an 80/20 split in favor of urban.

Competition: MiDoc faces several competitors, both online and in-person options. First, the in-office doctor’s visits are the standard, but a patient may have difficulty travelling to the doctor’s office, which is a problem we aim to solve. In-home options include doctor house calls (these are rare and expensive), and home nursing (which deliver nursing care, so they’re in a different space as patients still need a physician).

All of these groups may be served by Telehealth, which could be considered a competitor. However, Telehealth has no ability to do a lung or heart physical exam, and lack monitoring methods as mentioned in the Problems section. Thus, it does not overlap with MiDoc as MiDoc is trying to solve the problems and limitations of Telehealth.

A competitor is Heal, an all-in-one mobile service that seeks to match people with various in-home health offerings. These include house calls, Telehealth, and Telehealth with remote monitoring services. However, their remote monitoring services are limited to heart rate and blood pressure only (basic vitals), but no physical exam.

Lastly, Eko has a product like ours (Eko Duo) that can remotely transmit heart sounds (but not lung sounds) and EKG data to doctors. However, this device requires the patient to place it at the proper positions on their chest to get an accurate reading, which is difficulty as patients are not medically trained professionals. MiDoc is a simple vest that users wear and all the sensors line up at the correct locations (ergonomically efficient).

Value Creation: Financial Sustainability:
Revenue Drivers: primary go-to-market would be through partnerships with existing telehealth providers (e.g. Teladoc, Heal). We would sell MiDoc (one-time revenue transaction) plus share of revenue / subscription fee (continual revenue transaction), providing multiple revenue streams. As a benefit, there is natural overlap between our target markets.

Pricing: looking at multiple pricing scenarios and ultimately modeled our pro forma financials using a $500/unit price, which provides a gross margin contribution of 50%. Our variable costs sit at $250/unit comprised of $180 in raw materials and $70/unit manufacturing. One ER visit could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, if an effective MiDoc telehealth visit could prevent one ER visit, then the customer already received a return on the money spent on the device.

Impact of Insurance: Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services has added reimbursements options during the pandemic to support telehealth services and there is possibility for expansion. Thus, although the broader medical device manufacturing industry might be seeing some pricing pains, devices in the telehealth space might be an exception. Private insurers have largely broadened coverage for telehealth services in response to COVID-19. (Sources: IBISWorld, DHHS)

ESG Benefits of Improved Telehealth (broadly):
– Environmental: Digital healthcare reduces need for patients to needlessly travel (emissions), medical centers can scale down as demand shifts online (resources and land used).
– Social: Increases access to quality care for marginalized, underserved, and rural patients through enhance affordability and convenience. Healthcare money saves could be used to spend on other social services.

Team: The team is composed of three members: Dr. Linda Wu, Lili Hostetler, and Michael Newbold.

Dr. Wu is a pediatrician and a member of the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine. She has firsthand experience with the difficulties described in the problem section and thus came up with the idea for MiDoc. Her medical knowledge and connection within the medical community will lead to early and comprehensive feedback to guide the direction of MiDoc. She also has over four years of professional experience as a human factors engineer, which will support the design and implementation of MiDoc and ensure the product is ergonomically sound and easy to use by all patients.

Ms. Hostetler has a background in Biomedical Engineering and experience building similar medical devices. She is currently pursuing a masters in Biomedical Engineering and can gain access to lab space and support from professors to help in the design of MiDoc. She also has a network of engineers and computer programmers that could be recruited to join MiDoc as supplemental team members. Lastly, she is pursuing an MBA and will be able to support the financial and marketing aspects of this product.

Mr. Newbold has a background in accounting with 6+ years of experience in the consulting world, especially innovative start-up products. He is currently an Innovation Investment Strategy Manager at EY. He is responsible for all the financial, marketing, and customer relations for MiDoc.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: Healthy snack that provides key nutrition for pregnant and nursing women, supporting moms at each stage of motherhood. Only snack in the market with no sugar added, dairy-free, organic, and with clean ingredients.

Challenge: Before, during, and after becoming a mother, women have specific nutritional needs and face uncomfortable symptoms or ailments. Now more than ever, mothers feel pressure to breastfeed given the proven health and developmental benefits of breastfeeding for newborns. 8 out of 10 moms begin breastfeeding, but only 2 out of 10 continue after a few weeks due to milk supply issues

Modern, busy moms don’t have much time to meal prep to satisfy all their nutrition needs. Pregnant women suffer from nausea and food aversion, and nursing women struggle with keeping up with their baby’s appetite. There are snacks in the market that solve these issues, but all of them are high in sugar and not healthy (mostly cookies). IMA is a convenient, healthy, and crave-able solution.

Solution: Snacks on the market are traditionally high-carb, high sugar. Also, the pre and postnatal vitamins or teas are not crave-able, or enjoyed when consumed. IMA blends is healthy, organic, convenient, with no sugar added (sweetened with stevia). It has few, clean ingredients that are proven to help at each motherhood stage, and packaging appeals to the mom consumer (disposable and convenient). Product can serve as either a snack or a meal (potentially breakfast). The product has enough protein, carbs, and healthy fats that can serve a balanced meal or snack.

Market:
Total Market: $3 Billion
Serviceable market $422 million

There are approximately 3.6 million babies born each year in the United States, each with a mother with the potential to breastfeed. Approximately 83.9% of infants have ever been breastfed, so that leaves us with 3.02 million mothers. Approximately 46.4% of Americans have a household income of $50,000 or more per year, bringing the total number of nursing mothers in that segment to 1.4 million. We estimate that 5% of this population will have an allergy to eggs or almonds, key ingredients in our blend, which means that 1.33 million women are in our segment and able to consume our product. Approximately 60% of consumers buy direct-to-consumer products like IMA Blends, bringing our target segment to 799,000 nursing mothers. Lastly, approximately 63% of consumers care about their food being made with “clean” ingredients, bringing our target segment to 503,000 women each year who could potentially be the core consumers of our product.

If we assume that these women consume lactation products for 210 days in a year, spending $3.99 per day in the subscription, we are anticipating a serviceable addressable market of $422 million.

Competition: IMA is the only organic snack especially formulated for mothers that has no sugar added! Most competitors offer cookies, shakes, teas, or pills (supplements). IMA Blends offers a variety of options including microwavable mug cakes and bars that offer nutrition with healthy ingredients in a crave-able, convenient way.

Value Creation: Product is comprised of clean ingredients, using environmentally friendly cardboard packaging.

Team: [All UCLA Anderson MBA students]

Alejandra Perez: CPG (Food and Beverage) Marketing and Sales Experience, The Wonderful Company, Chemical Engineer
Jessica Rodriguez: Strategy experience, Consulting at BCG, University of California, Berkeley
Ashley Huang: Operations experience, Bain & Company
Jesse Meza: Market Research and Branding, Procter and Gamble
Nick DeSantiago: CPA, Finance and Strategy expert, University of Arizona

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: Pareto is a direct-to-consumer, women’s apparel brand that makes the best version of the clothing you actually wear using our industry-leading, farm-to-closet supply chain.

Challenge: Pareto was born from a frustration with the retail industry’s focus on more – more product, more often. And for what? The focus on more is creating a lose, lose, lose situation. For women. For brands. For the environment.

WOMEN are wearing 20% of their closets, 80% of the time, wasting time and money sifting through endless new product. According to the Business of Fashion and McKinsey’s 2019 State of Fashion report, the average person buys 60% more clothing today compared to 15 years ago.

At the same time, BRANDS are producing double what they did 20 years ago, while struggling to move through inventory profitably (for example, Allbirds recently went public without ever being profitable). Coordinating eight plus seasons of new launches per year, planning endless promotions to move through inventory, distributing inventory to an ever-growing store footprint, etc. is proving challenging to do profitably.

All the while, the ENVIRONMENT is suffering, with 40M+ tons of textile waste added to landfills every year. The industry contributes to an estimated 10% of global carbon emissions, and the need for constant newness at a low cost comes at the expense of low pay and horrible working conditions (for example, forced labor on the cotton farms in Xinjiang, China)

How can the retail industry continue to operate this way when all three stakeholders are losing? We’ve set out to define the new normal. We’ve set out to show the world the power of fewer, more purposeful – for women, brands, and the environment.

Solution: At Pareto, we’re challenging the need for more in the retail industry. Pareto is a direct-to-consumer, women’s apparel brand that makes the best version of the clothing you actually wear. We obsess over identifying the pieces that should be in the core of every woman’s closet – the pieces she’ll reach for day after day, year after year, no matter the trends of the season. Then, one piece at a time, we perfect every detail. Each piece fits well, is extremely versatile, will last for years, and is made responsibly. We launched in August 2020 and have four pieces in the market (t-shirt dress, crewneck sweater, tank top, field jacket).

This all is made possible by our domestic, traceable, farm-to-closet supply chain. From the cotton farmers in Texas to the seamstresses in California, we work directly with every hand that touches our product. Most apparel brands only have visibility into the last stage (i.e., their cut & sew factory). Working directly with every partner is the only way to make the best product quality decisions and most responsible decisions. Think farm-to-table becomes farm-to-closet.

Our approach is defining a new normal for the industry – one where all stakeholders win. WOMEN spend less time searching and more time living. We (as a BRAND) simplify our operating model to what truly matters – making amazing product while building a profitable business. The ENVIRONMENT can stop paying the price, as we address “sustainability” holistically, tackling both how clothing is made and the quantity of clothing made.

Market: While the brand has proven to have broad appeal across ages and backgrounds, our primary target market at this time is women, ages 23-35, living in urban or suburban areas, college educated, and earning >$50K per year. We estimate our target audience spends ~$10B on apparel each year (which is growing at a rate of ~2-3% / year). This is based on an estimated 8.3M women in the US spending ~$1.2K on clothing per year. Our target market will continue to grow as we expand into men’s, children’s, and international markets.

Within our target market, we are seeing four key customer archetypes (outlined below). In the near-term, we are doubling down on the mission-seeker archetype in order to be efficient and effective with our marketing efforts.

1) THE MINIMALIST: She wants to reduce her closet to only what she wears on a regular basis (e.g., ~30 items)
2) THE TIME CONSTRAINED WORKING WOMAN: She works long hours and is passionate about progressing her career. She wants to look nice and feel confident in her wardrobe, while minimizing time spent shopping and energy spent getting ready in the morning
3) THE MISSION-SEEKER: She supports brands with missions that are disrupting the status quo. She wants to take steps to being a more responsible consumer
4) THE FASHIONISTA: She enjoys the hunt to find unique pieces, using fashion as a form of self-expression. At the same time, she recognizes that she needs core pieces that she can easily style with her more unique items

Competition: We make the best version of the clothing you actually wear – pieces that fit well, are versatile, last for years, and are made responsibly. While there are brands that are trying to tackle different parts of this vision (e.g., Reformation, Cuyana, Everlane), their long-term potential is limited because they do not have a fully traceable supply chain.

Our key differentiator is our farm-to-closet supply chain. This means we work directly with our partners at every stage – the cotton farm, spinning mill, fabric knitter / weaver, dye house, and cut & sew factory.

How is this different? Due to how fragmented and worldwide apparel supply chains are, most brands only have visibility into the last stage (their cut & sew factory).

Why is it valuable? Only being able to control decisions at 1 of 5 stages has vast negative product implications – unknown quality decisions, undisclosed working conditions, and untrackable environmental impact. Working directly with every partner, we’re able to make the best decisions at every stage. For example, from a quality perspective, we control elements like the length of the cotton fiber which impacts fabric strength and the stitches per inch which impact garment durability. From a social perspective, we ensure elements like our factories having fair pay and safe working conditions. From an environmental perspective, we ensure elements like our dye houses having high wastewater treatment standards.

Consumers today understand the importance of farm-to-table with food. The apparel industry will be next.

Value Creation: Since launching in August 2020, we’ve built a game-changing farm-to-closet supply chain from scratch, launched four incredible products (t-shirt dress, crewneck sweater, tank top, and field jacket), and built a community of amazing women looking to simplify their wardrobes and lives. During this time, we’ve proven that we have a competitively advantageous revenue model (driven by high customer lifetime value and broad customer appeal) and a sustainable cost structure (driven by low SG&A costs and higher than average gross margins).

A little over one year into the business, we’ve…
Generated ~$50k in revenue with limited inventory, $0 spent on customer acquisition, and $0 of outside capital
Shipped orders to a diverse set of women across 40+ states
Cultivated a highly loyal community, with over 30% of customers making 2+ orders
Experienced tremendous customer satisfaction, with a return rate of <5%, an average post-purchase product rating of 9/10, and raving five-star reviews
Achieved a gross margin of 40% across products with a clear path to 50% as we scale inventory buys
Built a network of amazing, domestic suppliers who are all-in on helping us advance our mission

From day one, we’ve committed to building the brand in a way that will drive sustainable, profitable growth, while making a dramatic impact on how the retail industry impacts our planet and people. We are extremely confident in our early indicators of success and are ready to pour gas on the fire and grow.

Team: Olivia and Jessica are the co-founders and owners of Pareto. We met 8 years ago as students at Washington University in St. Louis. We are so excited to be applying for this fantastic grant at our alma mater. Our diverse retail experiences across the P&L and deep love for the industry make us uniquely qualified to build a timeless brand of the future.

We are total retail nerds. In high school, we worked on the floor as store managers. In college, we worked in-house for brands and retailers like Madewell, Band of Outsiders, and Target. After graduation, we spent a combined 7+ years at McKinsey serving 15+ retail brands across functional topics (e.g., merchandising, digital marketing, pricing).

Jessica’s Background:
– Current MBA candidate at Stanford Graduate School of Business (Class of ‘23)
– Retail consulting at McKinsey, with a focus on digital marketing and tech-enabled retail experiences
– Planning and Finance at General Mills, J. Crew, and Band of Outsiders
– Co-founder and CFO of The Bear-y Sweet Shoppe, a pay-by weight candy store on the WashU campus
– Sales associate at Madewell and Brandy Melville
– Pareto Responsibilities: Product Development and Supply Chain, Finance, Website

Olivia’s Background:
– Consumer investing at PearlRock Partners (subsidiary of 84.51 / Kroger)
– Retail consulting at McKinsey, with a focus on using data & analytics to improve marketing and merchandising decisions
– Merchandising at Target
– Pareto Responsibilities: Marketing, Data & Analytics, Customer Service

We complement our small but mighty team with subject matter experts (e.g., legal, product design) and contractors.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: SurfStraw SurfStraw is the first water bottle for surfing wetsuits.

Challenge: I’m a lifelong surfer, and I can tell you from personal experience that dehydration is a huge problem for surfers everywhere. Surfing is a sport where you paddle several miles, and sweat for hours, without ever taking a drink of water. Based on hundreds of customer interviews with surfers and industry experts, we found that surfers view the task of paddling into shore to hydrate to be inconvenient and exhausting.

Solution: My Co-Founder and I invented the SurfStraw – a collapsible soft flask bottle with an extended straw that fits into all surfing wetsuits. Hundreds of customers have shared with us that the lightweight, ergonomic design allows them to finally hydrate while surfing, without adding any extra weight or discomfort. SurfStraw started with a Kickstarter campaign in July 2020, and raised $13,000. Today we’re in both e-commerce and some of the top surf shops on both the east and west coasts. In the last 1.5 years, SurfStraw has generated over $50,000 in revenues in 14 different countries.

Market: The market potential is vast. There are 20M surfers globally who wear wetsuits who have the potential to become SurfStraw customers. We’ve also expanded to other sports, launching the SportStraw, which is a similar flexible, light bottle ideal for skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and camping. The ski and snowboard market alone consist of over 70M participants. There are significant tailwinds in the outdoor activity and sporting industry as a result of COVID. People have been flocking to activities like surfing, skiing, snowboarding, and hiking in the past year and a half of COVID, and these trends are expected to persist.

Competition: SurfStraws are unique compared to other hydration solutions for surfers in that the bottle is lightweight, ergonomic, and versatile. Dolfinpack is similar to a Camelbak – essentially an external backpack. But surfers don’t want a heavy, cumbersome weight on their backs while they’re paddling. The Epic Tide Wetsuit uses an integrated bladder system within the suit, however this forces the surfer to buy an EpicTide wetsuit rather than using the surfer’s preferred brand. These differentiators, combined with the fact that SurfStraw has the lowest price point, makes SurfStraw the preferred surfer’s hydration solution.

Value Creation: We leverage an international manufacturer to achieve scalable margins of 54% after considering COGS, outbound shipping, and customer acquisition costs. We worked closely with our manufacturer to carefully select our materials – we produce SurfStraws and SportStraws with thermoplastic polyurethane, which prevents plastics from shedding into oceans and waterways. We also donate $1 to Plasticbank for every bottle sold to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability which has resulted in the removal of over 100K bottles of plastic from the world’s oceans.

Team: We aren’t just any typical surf bums. Han and I met at EY, where we worked as CPA’s in the M&A advisory group – closing deals for PE firms and corporations. Han graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2015 with a B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies, and now works as a finance manager at Cypress Creek, a renewable energy company. I (Jesse) graduated cum laude from Univ. of San Diego in 2016 with bachelors degrees in accounting and finance, and recently left EY to pursue my MBA at Dartmouth at the Tuck School of Business.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: PedalCell is the ultimate bicycle power source to keep cyclists safe and connected. PedalCell converts their motion into continuous charge for lights, smartphones, GPS, and other essential USB devices.

Challenge: Batteries run out of power while biking. A bike light can die in as little as 30 minutes, leaving riders unsafe. The riders with the largest need for power are bicycle tourers who go on trips ranging from days to months. Bicycle tourers depend on wireless devices on their trips, such as smartphones and GPS cycling computers. Other essential devices include lights, electric tire pumps, cameras, speakers, water purifiers, and CPAP machines.

Tourers have difficulty staying charged off-grid, especially when their devices are used while riding. Low service areas, extreme climates, and high screen brightness can drain a device up to 10X faster than normal. Some are forced to plan their trips around multiple hours-long recharge locations at bars or gas stations. These pit stops conflict with the spontaneous and fun nature of bicycle touring. Bicycle tourers invest upwards of $700 into complex energy solutions (batteries, generators, solar, etc.) that fail to meet their power needs.

Solution: PedalCell is the ultimate bicycle power source to keep cyclists safe and connected. Bicycle tourers take trips without access to power that ranges from multi-days to years-long. PedalCell converts their motion into continuous charge for lights, smartphones, GPS, and other essential USB devices. Cyclists can ride safer, longer, and further with fully-charged batteries, thanks to PedalCell.

PedalCell mounts in minutes on nearly all bike designs and is ready for the outdoors with a weather-resistant housing. The design is patented in the US and internationally pending. PedalCell is reviewed to be 3X more powerful than competitors while costing 1/2 as much. PedalCell is made in Chicago, IL USA and has shipped to 30+ countries. PedalCell is available at pedalcell.com and its global dealer network.

Market: PedalCell’s Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) is touring “bicycle touring” enthusiasts in cycling-accessible communities who spend over $3K on their cycling gear in North America and Europe. These bicycles comprise 1% of bicycles (5 million bikes) within these nations, leading to a market value of $1.6B when multiplied by PedalCell’s MSRP of $299.99. This market has grown 144% YoY, accelerated by the COVID-19 bicycle boom.

Competition: PedalCell is far more powerful and durable than any other bicycle generator on the market and is better suited to outdoor environments than any battery pack. PedalCell uses its patented supercapacitor technology (patent no. 10727688 in USA, pending in AU, CA, and EU), that generates up to 6X the power output of any other generator competitor. In addition, the technology can withstand wide outdoor temperatures, has high efficiency, and has a 20X lifespan of any lithium-ion battery.

The product itself installs in minutes on nearly any bicycle, unlike the professional installs of other generator solutions. PedalCell also costs 1/2 ($299 MSRP) of any alternative.

Value Creation: PedalCell’s bicycle tourer addressable market is $1.6B. However, the overall cycling addressable market is worth $15B. PedalCell will capture this market share by developing new products and services, such as more affordable future generations and a mobile app with a subscription to track health metrics for PedalCell rides. In addition, lights, battery packs, and other complementary accessories will build out an ecosystem of products for PedalCell riders. It’s on track for $7M+ annual revenue by 2023, and $22M+ by 2024.
PedalCell will also target new distribution channels. These include large retailers such as REI and Costco and B2B cycling brands such as Trek and Specialized.
PedalCell’s power management patents are agnostic to the bicycle, meaning they can be applied to other sectors such as green tech, scooters, and automobiles. PedalCell can choose to enter these sectors or license the technology to others.

PedalCell was founded with a mission to promote bicycling adoption. Cycling promotes sustainable transportation, decongestion within cities, and healthy behaviors. Also, PedalCell offers 100% clean electricity generation for its users, energy that the grid would have otherwise provided. PedalCell estimates that its user base will generate 1.9 million kilowatt-hours per year by 2025. This number is equivalent to 190 million charged iPhones or ~200 U.S. homes powered for one year. These metrics ensure that PedalCell’s impact grows along with its user-base. Cycling is a critical activity now more than ever. Not only is cycling healthy and sustainable, but COVID-19 has reinforced its placement in our day-to-day lives. Bicycling is one of the top activities for exercise and social distancing. There has been a 600% increase in bicycle sales since COVID-19 started. These trends created permanent changes in cycling infrastructure across the globe. PedalCell is the ultimate way to keep these cyclists charged, connected, and safe throughout their rides through clean electricity generation.

Team: The company’s award-winning team has won over two-dozen awards and grants, including the midwest’s largest hardware start-up competition in 2020. Co-Founders Adam Hokin (CEO) and Vishaal Mali (CTO) founded PedalCell in 2015 as college freshmen. Adam is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business with concentrations in Sales, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. Vishaal invented the company’s core IP and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s McCormick Engineering School in Computer and Electrical Engineering. David Harper (CMO) is also a Northwestern Graduate with half-a-decade of online marketing experience. Other team members include Mitch Muller, a mechanical engineering veteran with experience at SpaceX as well as Apple, and Kyle Gao, a China-based member with 5+ years of Asian supply chain operations experience. PedalCell’s is headquartered at mHUB, a micro-factory in West Town, Chicago, and manufactures in Evanston, IL.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: Green Room simplifies payments and tax compliance for the live music industry.

Challenge: For the 47,000 music venues and 550,000 touring musicians in the US there is no streamlined way to handle payments and tax compliance. The industry norm to manage that contractor relationship is a tangled web of W9s and 1099s. A touring musician playing 150 shows a year means they could end up filing taxes with up to 150 tax forms.

Solution: Green Room stands in the middle of venues and musicians. Venues pay Green Room. Green Room pays musicians. Venues do not collect W9s and do not issue 1099s. Since Green Room is the payer for all shows, artists receive a single 1099 for all shows played within the Green Room network instead of 1 per venue.

Market: Live Music Venues are critically rethinking their operations as we emerge from COVID and more likely than ever to adopt technology. More and more small businesses are using POS software and considering other tools to make their lives easier. To start, Green Room is targetting independent venues with music at least 2x a week. They already issue 1099s and generally handle this manually, in house.

Competition: Green Room is competing against workarounds – not streamlined solutions. Check, cash, and paper forms are obviously behind the times. But even digital payments and payroll providers don’t solve the problem of streamlining taxes. Prism helps agencies and talent buyers better track holds and contracts but does not tackle issues faced with payments or serve independent artists. Only Green Room combines digital payments with tax simplification. No other company tackles the holistic needs of the live music industry.

Value Creation: Green Room makes money by charging a 5% fee to venues. As we add more features we plan to have multiple tiers of pricing for both venues and artists – offering a transactional model for the smaller venues and monthly fees for upmarket customers. Payments and tax compliance are just the beginning. And this pain extends far beyond independent venues; it’s simply absorbed by business managers and talent buyers as you move upstream. The biggest part of Green Room’s vision is to elevate live music out of the gig economy into a sustainable career. By providing PEO services like Trinet or Collective, Green Room reduces the headache of a career as an artist. We also plan to offer additional tools to venues like business insights and concierge bookings.

Team: Sophie Randolph – Founder & CEO

I graduated Harvard in 2016, moved to San Francisco, and was an early employee at XOLA, where I launched their customer success department and learned what it takes to scale a SaaS company. In 2019 I moved to Houston and founded Crescendo Management, providing services for independent artists and venues. I quickly became frustrated with how inefficient the industry is. I saw an opportunity to combine my passion for empowering artists, my tech background, and the skills I’m learning as a Rice MBA to solve those inefficiencies.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: The Memory Box is a toolkit designed to bring comfort and joy to those living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

Challenge: Nationwide, more than 6 million Americans are living with Alzeihmers or dementia which has increased by 16% simply during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each one of these individuals are slowly losing treasured memories, senses, and key skills necessary for independence. A tremendous amount of these individuals’ care are being provided by family and loved ones, leading to 11 million Americans providing unpaid care for an individual with dementia and 15.3 billion hours of unpaid care annually. These individuals end up in cyclical patterns day after day and finding activities for these individuals can be stressful for their caregivers. This is a problem we hope to solve. We have created a product that provides activities for these individuals while also improving brain health, exercising their senses, and creating long-lasting memories.

Solution: Our solution is the Memory Box. The Memory Box is a toolkit that helps lessen the symptoms of dementia while also increasing the strengths they currently have. The box includes multiple different items and activities that are targeted to exercise and strengthen specific senses that are lost as the disease progresses. This will increase the retention of memory, while also delaying the loss of their senses and memory. Included are tactile activities for the purpose of maintaining dexterity, but the repetitive actions also soothe and calm the individual. Adult coloring books are included. Their meditative quality distracts and decreases agitation for the individual while also aiding in information retention. Products that utilize essential oils (lotions and balms) are included to provide sensory stimulation. We are focusing on scents such as Rosemary due to its ability to enhance the sense of smell and aid in memory recall and future-oriented tasks. We also include logical games and puzzles to exercise the mind, logical reasoning, and memory. Finally, we are utilizing music therapy tools that have been proven to be effective in stimulating memory and well-being. Our box will also be used as a way to entertain the individual and provide an activity that they can do with loved ones to create new long-lasting memories!

Market: Our target market is individuals living with dementia. As stated previously, in America (2021) there are 6 million individuals currently living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. This number has increased by 16% during the Covid 19 Pandemic and is continually increasing. Our target customer, however, is slightly different. Our target customers are the caregivers and care facilities that provide care for these individuals living with dementia. The facilities will utilize our product as a transitory device between home and care, while also providing a measurable tool to help chart each patient’s mental degradation as the disease progresses. Pennsylvania (where we are founded) ranks 4th among all states in the percentage of 65 and older and 85 and older age groups in the US. An estimated 70% of these individuals will require long-term nursing and care. Thus, there are approximately around 700 nursing homes in PA alone, with an average of 91% occupancy. There are also 1,200 licensed personal care and assisted living facilities. As these generations age and more individuals need care these numbers are destined to increase, providing us with a very large and steady target customer market.

Competition: Through research, we have realized that our product is a pretty novel idea in this market. We have found 2 similar companies that provide individual products that are targeted towards dementia. One also provides subscription boxes, however, they are focused on games for these individuals. Our box targets all the senses provides activities for the individuals and includes multiple products which clearly differentiates our product from the others. Our product is also targeted towards facilities caring for individuals with dementia which is completely unique in this market.

Value Creation: With our product, our current Cost of Goods Sold is estimated at around $13.25 for each box and we are planning on selling these boxes wholesale to facilities for $32 each. We will receive $18.5 in profit for each box and that is around a 40% profit margin. We also hope to reach 10% of our target customer market within the 2 years which would mean we are partnered with around 70 nursing homes and care facilities in PA. We have a great potential to increase our numbers and profitability by increasing the number of boxes shipped to these facilities each month and increasing the number of partnered facilities as well.

Team: Our team consists of Luke Gilligan and Ethan David. We are both sophomores attending Grove City College. Luke Gilligan is an Entrepreneurship Major and has great experience in start-ups and company generation. He also has worked in a nursing home during High School. Ethan David is an Entrepreneurship Major and Biblical and Religious Studies major and has experience in business consulting. While we both are young we have completed over 50 interviews of mental health professionals specializing in Dementia and Memory Loss diseases, as well as those affected by dementia and their family. We also plan on utilizing an advisory board consisting of psychologists, business leaders, and others necessary for successful product development.

BIG IndeaBounce 2022 finalist

Concept: At RHM Innovations Inc., we develop products to help people who have difficulty performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs); our first product, the Aiding Arm, helps users to bathe more comfortably and independently.

Challenge: The inspiration for our first product, The Aiding Arm, came from experiences that we had with our loved ones. Last May, Courtney’s Dad passed away after a battle with cancer. Prior to his passing he lost his ability to bathe himself. Losing his independence was so difficult for him that he outright refused to bathe. It got to the point that nurses said he needed to bathe or he would be at risk for infection, so she stepped in to help him. Brandon experienced a similar situation with his grandparents. It was incredibly difficult for us to see our loved ones in such vulnerable and uncomfortable situations.

Not only is this situation uncomfortable, but it is often times unsafe. Over 150,000 people are injured in the bathroom each year costing $2 billion for hospital stays alone and this is just for the elderly population. This pain is felt by the individual, their family, and also facilities as these injuries cost an average of $6000/resident/year. Further, many patients are only bathed 1-2 times per week due to time constraints, which negatively impacts a person’s hygiene and takes a toll on their mental wellbeing. This issue has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused a shortage in staffing at facilities and hospitals, decreasing the quality of care and time spent with each patient.

Solution: Our solution, The Aiding Arm, addresses concerns of safety, comfort, and provides increased independence for the user. It is a clip-on shower chair attachment with a patented two-lever system that moves a removable showerhead along a track front-to-back and side-to-side, bringing the shower to the user. It is lightweight, easily attachable, and can fit comfortably into 92% of standard showers, which we discovered in an experiment we conducted during a Blackstone Launchpad Accelerator. The first lever moves the showerhead side-to-side and the second lever moves the showerhead front-to-back, enabling control, independence, and comfort while bathing. It clips onto the seat and is width adjustable to fit a variety of chairs. The lever can switch from the right to left side and it’s height adjustable as well.

We’ve conducted over 120 customer discovery interviews with end users, loved ones, nurses, aids, and executives of multiple elder care facilities. We learned that bathing at these facilities is infrequent, time consuming, messy, and leads to injuries and significant liability costs. By adopting the Aiding Arm, bathing at facilities will become quicker, more efficient, and safer, leading to more frequent baths, and decrease rate of unsanitary infection. Ultimately it will save the facility time and money while providing peace of mind to loved ones.

Market: The total addressable market can be broken up into three main market segments: the aging population (individuals over 65 years that receive aging related care), temporarily limited individuals (individuals who have short term or reversible conditions that render that person temporarily limited/disabled), and permanently limited individuals (those who have irreversible conditions that render them permanently disabled). In the United States the addressable market for the aging population is 10 million individuals. The addressable markets for temporarily limited and permanently limited people are 23.5 million and 8.9 million individuals, respectively.

Combined, the total addressable market in the US, the individuals who could benefit from immediate use of the Aiding Arm, is 42.4 million people, which translates to a total market value of $8.5 billion when sold at a wholesale price of $200 per unit (determined through extensive customer discovery). These market segments are growing in the US, namely the aging population, which is projected to grow by 65% by 2060, thereby increasing the already substantial total market value for our products.

Our go-to-market strategy focuses on Erie and Niagara counties in Western New York as there is a greater-than-average elderly population. Further, our Aging Specialist has connected us with 7 elder care facilities within WNY, one of which has agreed to test The Aiding Arm within their facility.

Competition: We’ve conducted over 120 customer discovery interviews with end users, loved ones, nurses, aids, and executives of multiple elder care facilities. We learned that bathing at these facilities is infrequent, time consuming, messy, and leads to injuries and significant liability costs. By adopting the Aiding Arm, bathing at facilities will become quicker, more efficient, and safer, leading to more frequent baths, decrease rate of unsanitary infection, and reduce liability cost. Ultimately it will save the facility time and money.

We are currently testing our minimal viable product in the largest continuing care facility in Western, NY (the Greenfields Continuing Care Community) to critically evaluate the positive, sustainable impacts of the Aiding Arm. We are also working on building our second prototype, sourcing more durable materials that reduce wear and tear to promote a longer life of the product.

Value Creation: We’ve conducted over 120 customer discovery interviews with end users, loved ones, nurses, aids, and executives of multiple elder care facilities. We learned that bathing at these facilities is infrequent, time consuming, messy, and leads to injuries and significant liability costs. By adopting the Aiding Arm, bathing at facilities will become quicker, more efficient, and safer, leading to more frequent baths, decrease rate of unsanitary infection, and reduce liability cost. Ultimately it will save the facility time and money.

We are currently testing our minimal viable product in the largest continuing care facility in Western, NY (the Greenfields Continuing Care Community) to critically evaluate the positive, sustainable impacts of the Aiding Arm. We are also working on building our second prototype, sourcing more durable materials that reduce wear and tear to promote a longer life of the product.

In our profit and loss statement for our first five years of operation starting in 2023, we project our gross margin increases from 32% to 61% as we manufacture at higher quantities. And our net income grows from 3.9% to 19.9% as we invest in growth and sustainability of our company. Therefore, we will be able to use this profitable business model to expand into the national market.

Team: We at RHM Innovations Inc. focus on developing solutions for age related problems. Myself and my co-founder, Courtney J. Burris, recently lost many of our loved ones to health-related issues from 2019-2020. We used these tragedies to fuel a business venture that produces products to improve the quality of life for individuals who struggle to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). We work every day to develop products to help the loved ones of our customers in the way we wished they could have helped their loved ones.

Courtney is a 5th year PhD candidate in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Buffalo and Brandon is a 5th year PhD candidate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Courtney has extensive experience in systems optimization and has started one other business venture. In addition to his extensive medical knowledge, Brandon has over six years of experience in sales and customer discovery. The management of RHM Innovations Inc. consists of co-founders Courtney Burris and Brandon Davis. Both partners will be taking hands-on management roles in the company. In addition, we have assembled a board of advisors to provide diverse business-related expertise and decades worth of experience. The advisors are:

Mr. John Herbrand, Esq. Business and Legal Advisor
Mr. John Seman, Business Coach
Dr. Bruce Troen, MD, Aging Specialist
Dan Buckmaster, Tresca Designs Design and Manufacturing Advisor
Dr. Victor Paquet, PhD, Human Factors Advisor
Mike Swartz, CPA

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