Pitch Dingman Competition 2021 received over 50 student applications, all vying for a slice of the increased prize money this year. Our panel of judges were able to narrow down our wide range of applicants to reveal our quarterfinalists and semifinalists for the 2021 competition. The founders of the semifinalists teams will each receive a $500 prize, participate in workshops and meet with advisors in the coming weeks to help them further accelerate their businesses and make them more competitive for the upcoming Semifinalist round. On Friday, April 16 from 12-4 p.m., our 12 remaining startups will pitch their businesses virtually to an expert panel of judges at the Pitch Dingman Competition Semifinals. We’re excited to see who wins the opportunity to pitch at the Finals on May 4, 2021 for a shot at the grand prize of $30,000!
Read on to learn more about our quarterfinalists and semifinalists:
Main Street Track Semifinalists:
Camp Segal LLC – Max Segal ’21, Jacob Nelson ’21
Camp Segal provides the support and infrastructure for college-aged individuals to open up small summer camps. We look to establish a series of camp locations in a time where parents look for camps to focus on safety, proximity, and flexibility.
Fancy & Spicy – Brin Xu ’22
Fancy & Spicy started from a popular Chinese Sichuan food blog, providing authentic Chinese food recipes, cookbooks, cooking events, and cooking consultation. In the longer term, we aim to become an online cooking platform where anyone with cooking.
Hana’s Cake Bar – Hana Bekele ’21
Hana’s Cake Bar is a bespoke bakery that tailors to every customers need for baked goods.
JMakes3D – Jacob Garnett ’21, John Fitzell ’20
JMakes3D is a startup design firm which does 3D design, 3D printing and physical product development. We focus on helping inventors and entrepreneurs, especially those in the College Park and D.C. area, go from ideation to functional prototype.
Omega 3 LLC – Edwin Djampa ’22, Virgil Ulric Sermon ’22
Omega 3 LLC is a food company producing granola bars that improve and maintain mental health.
STEPS Inc. – Sanketh Andhavarapu ’23, Uzair Chaudhary ’23
STEPS connects volunteers with paying K-12 families seeking personalized, 1 on 1, and long-term tutoring. Volunteers are compensated with service hours, and profits are invested into the STEPS grant foundation to address education disparities.
Quattrone Venture Track Semifinalists:
Athenus Financial Group – Cameron Williams ’21, Damian Shaw ’24
Athenus enables young, amateur investors to engage with and trade foreign exchange. Features such as algorithms and a built in social media community helps new traders navigate the market and manage risk without needing to learn the market.
Blimp Logistics – Camilo Melnyk ’21, Spencer Yaculak ’23
Blimp Logistics is developing a drone delivery system that will provide last mile delivery services to businesses shipping packages under 30 lbs in both suburban and rural areas.
Ionic ST/Ion Global Industries, Inc. – Kyle Fruth ’21, James Bates ’20, Anne Laurence-Nemorin ’20, Brandon Chatmon ’16
Ionic ST is a sports technology company focused on merging A.I, robotics, and analytics together to not only improve the way athletes and coaches train, but also how they track and analyze practice or game data.
MARS Technology LLC – Xiaohui Li ’21, Dongxia Liu
MARS Technology LLC is commercializing a novel gas-to-liquid technology that can convert low-value, greenhouse gas methane into high-value specialty chemical feedstock. The technology is valuable to biomethane generators as well as hydroprocessing operators.
NuroSTREAM/Memley – Steven Jettoo ’21, Kirsten (Sage) Newman
NuroSTREAM/Memley is a SaaS company, offering digital learning services for disadvantaged students struggling with building successful learning habits in conventional and digital school environments.
Technica – Hugo Burbelo ’22, Utsa Santhosh ’22
Technica sells an innovative online event platform that is custom-built for hackathons to other technology events and corporate partners in order to improve the experience and engagement of their attendees in a virtual format.
Main Street Track Quarterfinalists:
Crys&Co Beauty – Crystal Pinckney ’22
Crys&Co Beauty is a cosmetic line that provides beauty accessories and supplies to a wide range of individuals.Just recently with our 2020 launch, we have expanded our brand to providing lash technician services.
Diaspora Foods – Nathaniel Fikru ’21
The goal of Diaspora Food it to provide people/the African Diaspora with the raw ingredients and knowledge to prepare and consume traditional African cuisine at home. We aim to pass our tradition down from one generation to the next.
First Serve Tennis – Aaron Reznik ’21
First Serve Tennis aims to boost the Northern New Jersey tennis community through offering private lessons, clinics and tournaments to players of all ages and levels.
Gstyles – Goodness Ihekweme ’21
Gstyles is a clothing company that specializes in women and men clothing. We make sure that we make people feel confident and beautiful in their own bodies.
ModBars, LLC – Joseph Oleynik ’23, Nate Stevens, Max Levine, Wyatt Talcott, Jeff Su
ModBars, LLC provides nutritious, affordable, filling snack bars that cater to people with dietary restrictions.
Rendered – Saba Tshibaka ’21
Rendered is a social impact business that works to sell second-hand unique apparel in an effort to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the fashion industry.
Quattrone Venture Track Quarterfinalists:
Corona Connects – Elana Sichel ’21, Joe Kattan, Hadassah Raskas
Corona Connects is a company that connects college students with meaningful, impactful volunteer opportunities that fit their needs, interests and availabilities, empowering them to make a difference.
Friendly Neighbor Services LLC – Colin Hartlieb ’22
Friendly Neighbor Services is the on-demand service providing mobile app that gives everyone the opportunity to become a provider, or request services from providers.
Maryland Tutoring Services – Kidus Adugna ’21
Maryland Tutoring Services provides tutoring services for K-12 and College in partnership with Maryland Community Connections and Social Services.
Recondite – Vibhor Goel ’21
Recondite is an AI-powered B2B buy-now engine for business consumers to buy products at low costs internationally.
Vitalize App, LLC – Veeraj Shah ’21, Vi Tran, Sanketh Andhavarapu
Vitalize is a mobile app that delivers short, personalized, and evidence-based wellness modules that are tailored to the unique stressors of healthcare to boost the wellness, professional satisfaction, and resilience of healthcare providers.