Competitors selected for CSU Collegiate Challenge

Fourteen competitors in the 2016 Colorado State University Collegiate Challenge, one of the most enriching student business pitch competitions in the region, have been selected to pitch their business ideas on April 27 for a total prize package of $25,000 in cash awards along with other prizes.

The winner of the CSU Collegiate Challenge will have automatic pre-qualification for the online semifinal application for the Capital Championship (formerly the CSU Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge), the winner of which will compete for a $250,000 grand prize.

The competitors, who represent five states from the Mountain West region, will come to campus to pitch their business ideas to a panel of high-profile judges.

The competition is unique in its focus of providing enriching educational experiences for every competitor, including expert feedback from angel investors and experienced entrepreneurs. Competitors practice their pitch to several mentors a week before the competition to get feedback. The evening before the competition, the Advisor Round Table event pairs competitors with expert advisors in different business areas to provide in-depth advice about the companies. After pitching in the Competition Seed Round, every competitor also receives a one-on-one feedback session with Rockies Venture Club angel investors to further improve their business.

Jeremy Ostermiller, a CSU alumnus and successful entrepreneur who founded Altitude Digital, will present the keynote address at this year’s Collegiate Challenge at 5:30 p.m. April 27 in the Lory Student Center Ballroom on campus.

CSU’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and CSU Ventures are hosting the CSU Collegiate Challenge, a celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation. The day features the Business Pitch Competition, The Innovation Symposium, entrepreneurship speakers and networking events, all focused on developing knowledge, resources and connections to support entrepreneurs and advance new businesses.

All events are free and open to the public, but registration is requested at www.CSUCollegiateChallenge.org.

About the CSU Collegiate Challenge Business Pitch Competition

The CSU Collegiate Challenge is a competition that inspires, connects and educates student entrepreneurs to improve their success trajectory. Presented by Colorado State University, the competition is a celebration of entrepreneurial spirit among students, innovation, leadership development and supporting ventures that make a difference. The competition aims to connect students to the robust CSU and Northern Colorado entrepreneurial ecosystem. Fourteen student companies from the Mountain West region will get the opportunity to compete for $25,000 in prizes. More information is available at www.CSUCollegiateChallenge.org.

2016 CSU Collegiate Challenge Competitors

Aura Optics
Utah State University, University of Utah
Aura Optics is the vision of two avid skiers with backgrounds in the winter sports industry. Their goggles are more comfortable, durable, and customizable than any other goggle on the market. Their technology, along with two coatings of anti-fog agent that are applied before the goggles get to you, ensure clear vision while you’re on the mountain.

Bégué Coco
Colorado State University
Bégué Coco produces an all-natural virgin coconut oil cosmetic line called Nayi to promote health, and environmental preservation in Senegal. The Nayi line, comprised of virgin coconut oil, lotion, body scrub, lip balm and deodorant, provides women with an affordable local beauty option. Natural, healthy coconut cosmetics produced in Africa from African ingredients for Africans.

Bugeater Foods
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Bugeater Foods is a product development company that creates nutritious and sustainable insect-based food products and was started by a food scientist, designer and an entrepreneur to solve world hunger and to fix consumer perception about insects as food in many western countries.

Dollow
Brigham Young University
Dollow removes the blindfold from social media marketing by linking sales to real-time followers. Through a patented (provisional) profile matching algorithm, Dollow provides a dollar value for each customer that was generated from social media. Additionally, the Dollow platform provides high potential leads and demographic data helping marketers maximize success.

Haller
University of Kansas
Haller is a mobile application intended to increase university retention rates between the first and second year of a student’s college experience. Helping freshmen make friends and succeed academically, Haller strives to provide an enriched college experience for students and let universities engage in this process in an unprecedented way.

IgnoreU
Colorado State University
IgnoreU is a spam filter for your digital content. IgnoreU integrates existing social media content into their mobile application and lets individual users control how they consume content by allowing users to ignore what they do not want to see without having to sacrifice the content they love.

Info Dental Tech
Brigham Young University
IDT fabricates 3D surgical guides for tooth replacement surgery using 3D printers, decreasing surgical time from 4 hours to 45 minutes for potentially millions of patients each year. The surgical guides are an acrylic mold that guides the drills during surgery for each individual patient.

Insecticycle
Colorado State University
Insects are one of nature’s most powerful recycling tools. Insecticycle uses black soldier fly larvae to convert organic waste into a robust protein alternative for animal feed, as well as a beneficial soil additive. This all natural process will be used to create a more sustainable, closed loop food system from local waste materials.

Poulet Bleu
Utah Valley University
Established 2015, Poulet Bleu has presented to the market for the first time a purebred North American blue foot chicken, a premium chicken on par with the Poulet de Bresse of France. The company holds exclusive rights on the genetics for the Poulet Bleu, as well as exclusive rights to breed, raise, process and sell it.

Roar Sport
Colorado State University, University of Denver
Roar Sport is the first performance athletic apparel company to truly meet the plus size female athlete’s needs. Current products are scaled up versions of a smaller-size that do not address proper fit or structural support. Roar Sport product designs are created with materials and construction that enhance the athlete’s experience, allowing her to focus on her sport.

Sential
Arizona State University
Unicorn is an automated chest compression device technology that can administer regulated and quality chest compression with minimum human effort, with additional features of physiological monitoring system and idiot-proof setup system, all in an affordable price range. If Unicorn is integrated as a part of emergency care, survival rates can improve by 50 percent and save millions of dollars.

SiVEC Biotechnologies
Colorado State University
SiVEC Biotechnologies develops antiviral products for the rapid prevention of economically important respiratory diseases in commercial poultry. SiVEC’s patent pending antiviral technology, SiVEC-AIV™, can be rapidly applied as a large-scale aerosol to prevent avian influenza virus in poultry, thereby protecting the poultry industry from catastrophic economic losses.

The Food Corridor
Colorado State University
The Food Corridor is “the Airbnb for commercial kitchen assets”. TFC enables efficiency, growth, and innovation in the food system by providing online booking, payment processing, and reviews to match food businesses with underutilized commercial kitchens that have available space, creating an access economy in the food industry.

TP Microscopy
Colorado State University, University of Colorado – Denver
TP Microscopy’s C-DSLM light-sheet microscope is designed to be compatible with all tissue preparation methods, providing researchers the choice that best fits their sample. Mapping 3D structures deep within a tissue is out of reach for most microscope technologies. However, TP Microscopy’s light-sheet instruments can provide single cell detail across extended depths with the ease-of-use that requires little more than inserting a sample.

Vita Inclinata
University of Colorado-Denver
Helicopters with hoists face the potential of deadly pendulum swing of their rescue basket and hoist cable. Working together, a rail system above the door of the helicopter that attaches to the hoist and a proprietary control algorithm integrated in the helicopter’s computer counteracts the swaying motion of the cable and basket.