Nineteen student-led teams pitched their business ideas before industry professional judges on Friday January 28 at the New Venture Accelerator. Eight teams were selected to advance to the February 25^th  Tiger Cage semifinals round.

Advancing teams are: 

• Feature Finder - A social music platform designed to revolutionize the entire music industry. (Zane Barbao, Management and Entrepreneurship)
• GoReceipt – A digital receipt hardware/app product that allows the customer to tap their phone on our platform at the Point-of-Sale System, receive their digitized receipt, and then save it to an app on their phone. (Will Murphy, Auburn University Student pursuing a double-major in Finance and Supply-Chain Management, Harrison Hall, Industrial Engineering Major)
• IGNTE - A platform that gives organizations a means of showing their sponsor’s ads on Twitch. (Jacob Cordero, business administration, and Emmett Deen, computer science
• Move Day – An on demand moving app which instantly connects college students with movers each moving season. (Brooks Fuller, Finance)
• OMNIS - A crowdsource banking platform where individuals earn money passively and actively. Done through community and peer-to-peer short-term, micro-loans and where others can borrow money to meet their immediate needs. (Zakariya Veasy, Physics and Software Engineering)
• The Best Roping Dummy - A team roping training system that reduces the need for live cattle and improves practice capabilities. (Will Jordan, Agricultural Communications)
• Toft by 2153 –  A game development studio specializing in next-generation, cross-platform, multiplayer games. (Jesse Stewart, Software Engineering, Studio Art; Brooke Hopton-Jones, Computer Science; Sydney Pham, Software Engineering)
• We Parlay – A networking tool that allows for instantaneous transfer of contact information. (Malachi Ards, Henry Moses)

 

“We are delighted with the diversity of startup ideas and the quality of the student-teams participating in this year’s competition,” said Lou Bifano, Director of Entrepreneurship Strategy at the Harbert College of Business. “Every year we see better ideas and better presentations. This year is no exception.”

In its eighth year, the Tiger Cage business pitch competition discovers and rewards early-stage products, services or business concepts that emerge from Auburn University students. Recent success stories include, Vulcan Line Tools, SwiftSKU, Flashtract, Yellow Card, and Tennibot.

The Tiger Cage final round – featuring the four teams that advance from the semifinals – will be held on March 25 in the Broadway Event Space and Theater located in Horton-Hardgrave Hall. There, teams will compete for $54,000 in early-stage startup capital.

Special recognition and appreciation go to the judges who supported the quarterfinal round:

• Greg Cessna, CEO, Consumer Fresh Produce
• Tim Denison, President, GDI LLC
• Mark Ledbetter, Senior Vice President, Solution Engineering, Cloudera, Inc.
• Luke Oeding, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Auburn University
• Dan O’Keefe, Chief Revenue Officer & Board Member, Aspirent Consulting
• Ralph Runge, RSquare Consulting, Inc.
• Ron Schier, Owner, Yet Another Broken Egg
• Virginia Trinkle, Director of Employee Connectivity, Fetch Rewards

Please contact Lou Bifano to learn more about the Tiger Cage business pitch competition as well as the broad array of services provided by the New Venture Accelerator that are available to help those looking to start a new business or grow an existing one.