On Thursday, Feb. 27, the BIG EAST Conference will host the 2025 BIG EAST Startup Challenge, a competition featuring innovations and products from teams of student entrepreneurs representing 10 Conference institutions. The competition returns virtually on Zoom and will take place from 6 – 8 p.m. ET.
Each Startup Challenge team is comprised of currently enrolled undergraduate students from our 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 three teams will receive an honorarium to be used to help grow their startup business as well as recognized during the BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament.
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 Gauge
Scott Powell, Analyst, SeventySix Capital
Mike Kerrigan, Managing Director at Accenture
Andy Acs, Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer @hotel
The event will be MC'd by Kacy Standohar of the BIG EAST Digital Network. The event is open to all who are interested.
Team entries are below:
| School: |
Project Name: |
Entrepreneurs: |
| Butler University |
EntryPoint |
John Dunn, Isaac Betcher, Seth Wilson |
| Creighton University |
TNKR |
Will Smalley |
| DePaul University |
DePhi Media |
Mariel Mudrik |
| Georgetown University |
The Petition Co. |
Michael Korvyakov, Saahil Rao |
| Marquette University |
Fresh Social |
Jaden Brozynski, Chris Miklosy, Logan May |
| Providence College |
SmartSip |
Neve Palmeri |
| Seton Hall University |
NatureFill |
Maria Saitta, Bryce Miller, Morgan Frye, Jack Vaughn |
| St. John's University |
Virture |
Alpamys Yechshanov, Daria Stepanova |
| University of Connecticut |
Klorah |
Elvin Atwine |
| Xavier University |
Verde Esencia |
Ian Crouch |
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. In 2021, the winners of the challenge were Owen Delaney, Jacquelyn Ryan and Faith Linscott from Providence College with their innovation: "Umeal." In 2022, Gracey Owen won the event with innovation “Compost’d LLC” from Georgetown. In 2023, Brendan Foody won the event with Mercor, the leading platform for AI talent assessment from Georgetown. In 2024, Lance Kuo-Esser won the event with Test U, a concept for a company that will transform the STD testing process for college students.
To join the conversation on social media follow #BIGEASTstartupchallenge.
Follow along on Zoom
HERE.”