1871 CEO Howard Tullman Speaks at APLU Reception at 1871 hosted by U of I

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN THIRD ANNUAL CAMPUS 1871 STARTUP WEEKEND IN CHICAGO

Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 15:50

AMELIA SALTER

ECONOMIC OUTREACH COORDINATOR

In early April, Chicago technology incubator, 1871, brought more than 90 talented students together from across Illinois to develop and pitch real startup companies at the third annual Campus 1871 event. Twenty-one students hailed from our Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield campuses and included a diverse group of students from the Colleges of Engineering, Business, and Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the School of Public Health. Others came from the University of Chicago, Northwestern, IIT, Loyola, and DeVry.

I had the pleasure of helping event organizers with the weekend long startup competition, which included a keynote from 1871 CEO Howard Tullman, a Q&A with a panel of successful founders from 1871, and sessions on how to build a business plan, perfect your pitch, and design the ideal user experience. Several U of I staff and alumni were also on hand to offer up mentorship and guidance to the student teams at Campus 1871. Stephanie Larson, Assistant Director of Student Programs & Marketing at the UIUC Technology Entrepreneurship Center (@TECenter) and Joey Mak, OVPR’s Director of Economic Development, provided input on each team’s business plan, while UIUC alumnus Marty Malone (@martymal1) helped students practice their pitching.

Students self-selected into 12 teams and spent the weekend developing their business idea. The weekend culminated with each team pitching their idea to a panel of judges.

This year’s competition was fierce and several of the teams presented creative and well-thought-out business ideas. Two teams tied for third place: EquipMe, an online platform connect people with disabilities to the medical equipment they need, and AnySpace, a platform that allows users to rent out their extra space for social events. Second place went to dating app, ChiDates, which is leveraging video capabilities to create new user connections.  Each of the teams received a 3-month membership to 1871.

UIC industrial engineering student Maria Mckiever had the winning idea. Grapevine, a startup that connects users with stylists in the black hair care community, is based on Mckiever’s personal experience of having to find stylists through the grapevine. The Grapevine team, which included students from Northwestern, University of Chicago, and IIT, received a 6-month membership to 1871.

 “Campus 1871 was an incredible experience because it allowed students from all different universities and perspectives to come together to build out an idea,” says Mckiever. “Our team is so excited to continue working on making Grapevine a reality.” Read the ChicagoInno article about the team here.

Overall, the weekend was packed full of entrepreneurship, innovation, and inspiration. It was wonderful to watch students from different schools, majors, and backgrounds come together. Congrats to all the students who participated and big thanks to the entire 1871 staff (@1871Chicago) for a wonderful event!

Photo by 1871.

ILLINOIS ENGINEERING SCHOOS DUKE IT OUT AT AUTO SHOW

1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN KICKS OFF CAMPUS 1871 FOR 100 PLUS COLLEGE STUDENTS FROM 1871 PARTNER UNIVERSITIES

1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN SPEAKS AT UNIVERSITY CLUB ON EDUCATION INNOVATION FOR U OF I SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM

INK FACTORY VISUALIZATIONS FROM CAMPUS 1871 EVENT

CAMPUS 1871: BRIGHT STUDENTS & INNOVATIVE IDEAS

This past weekend, over 60 talented students from the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Northwestern, and IIT participated in Campus 1871, where they built teams to develop and pitch real startup companies from scratch at 1871, Chicago’s premier technology co-working space. In addition to seeing some really great ideas come to life, it was refreshing to see students from many universities working together around a shared vision.

The University of Illinois was strongly represented. In total, 25 students from the Chicago and Urbana campuses were invited to join, 18 of whom participated. Jed Taylor (@jedtaylor) and his team from the Technology Entrepreneurship Center (@TECenter) in Urbana helped organize the event. Additionally, Dr. Darko Marinov, a Computer Science professor on the Urbana campus, attended and helped mentor the student teams. Marty Malone(@martymal1), B.S. Broadcast Journalism (’13) was also on-hand to help the students and 1871 staff with coordinating the event. Lastly, Hanna Cannell and Aaron Weiss from Urbana’s College of Media were present all weekend to help capture video footage of the weekend’s programming on behalf of 1871. Finally, I had the distinct privilege of serving as one of the judges, which was a very difficult job considering what an awesome job these student teams did.

There were nine companies in all, and UI had representation on all three teams that placed (see below for the winning companies and the UI students that were on those teams). The 1st-place winners received a year-long membership to 1871, and the 2nd- and 3rd-place winners received summer memberships.

Alpacu (1st Place) – A team that has collectively moved 51 times, pitches a web service that will take the “sucks” out of “moving sucks.” This team was extremely impressive and was able to prove feasibility, market validation (they talked to 9 different movers), and an impressive website. Alpacu (“Al - pack - you”) is one platform for sourcing all moving companies and pricing in Chicago.

·         Braven Leung

FizzApp (2nd Place) – FizzApp helps take the bottlenecks out of bar operations (and no, they aren’t talking about the beers). Bars struggle to keep up with peak demand, and consumers are frustrated with unreasonable wait times at popular venues. FizzApp streamlines both the bartender and the consumer’s experience by optimizing drink prep, and taking care of the payment processing, thus, reducing wait times and increasing output.

·         Kirthi Banothu

·         Neville Jos

·         Matt Lodes

YOUnify (3rd Place) – Helping you discover the connections you never knew you had, YOUnify scours your social and professional networks to develop a map of your professional connections. An aggregate picture of your strengths and weaknesses will help you get the referrals you need so you can land your dream job. This idea was originally pitched by former 1871 intern Connor Regan.

·         Jay Bensal

·         Mayank Jain

·         Michal Krupa

·         Brendan Ryan

Check out the Campus 1871 website for more information and a full recap of this weekend’s events. Big thanks to 1871 CEO Howard Tullman (@tullman) and staff members Mike Hufstetler (@HuffStetLer) and Jasmine Slivka (@JasmineSlivka) on curating a great program! And congrats again to all the students who participated!