NEW YORK – On Thursday, Feb. 25, the BIG EAST Conference will host the 2021 BIG EAST Startup Challenge, a competition featuring innovations and products from teams of student entrepreneurs representing all 11 Conference institutions. This year, the competition is going virtual on zoom and will take place from 6 – 8:30 p.m. ET.
Each Startup Challenge team is comprised of currently enrolled undergraduate students at one of the 11 BIG EAST institutions. Teams will present their pitches to judges, who will rank them on a variety of factors including: idea/concept; market need; value proposition; feasibility; and passion and presentation.
The top two teams will receive an honorarium to be used to help grow their startup business.
The judges are seasoned entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists and business leaders, A few have ties to BIG EAST institutions. Judges include:
- Brandon Andrews, Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Guage
- Joe Charles, Senior Vice President, Alliant Insurance
- Gary Coichy, Head of Partnerships, Pod Digital Media
- Wes Day, Partner and Deal Management, TEALL Capital
- Chad Stender, Managing Director, SeventySix Capital
- Rick Stravato, Senior Vice President, Business Development, PIMCO
- Kristy Wallace, Chief Executive Officer, Ellevate Network
The event will be MC’d by Meghan Caffrey of the BIG EAST Digital Network. The event is open to all who are interested and registration is online at
www.BIGEAST.com/startupchallenge. Judges bios and short descriptions are also available.
Team entries are below:
| School |
Project Name |
Entrepreneurs |
| Butler |
Issa |
Nadia Isssa, Grace Lansden |
| Connecticut |
Patent Plus |
Jake Winter, Massyl Mallem |
| Creighton |
Top Notch Club |
Bradley Gilkerson |
| DePaul |
Liink |
Victoria Martin Del Campo |
| Georgetown |
Global Pal |
John Edson |
| Marquette |
The Little Box of STEAM |
Cierra Griffin, Nelly Dennis |
| Providence |
UMeal |
Owen Delaney, Faith Linscott, Owen Delaney |
| St. John’s |
PalmBall, LLC |
Evan Felcher |
| Seton Hall |
LeadAhead |
Rachel Badway, Robin Schilke |
| Villanova |
Syntet |
Dennis Cherian |
| Xavier |
Environmental Solution Technologies |
Beck Apple, Tucker O’Neill |
The BIG EAST hosted the inaugural Startup Challenge in 2019. Xavier’s Casey Smith won for his venture transFarm. The event was held in conjunction with the BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Tournament. The 2020 Startup Challenge was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To join the conversation on social media follow
#BIGEASTstartupchallenge.