The Proving Ground, USC's sixth annual "Shark Tank"-inspired entrepreneurial competition, awarded nearly $90,000 in prizes Tuesday night at the Darla Moore School of Business. Dean Kress, the head of the Faber Entrepreneurship Center, organized the competition as part of Global Entrepreneurship week.
“USC hosts this event to give students the stellar opportunity to share their ideas with a larger audience, which is extremely helpful in proving a concepts market validation,” Tony Klor, USC Entrepreneurship Club president and fourth-year entrepreneurial management and marketing student, said. “USC also awards finances that are crucial for getting our ideas off of the ground and turning them into early stage start-ups.”
The competition consisted of three rounds, with the final round hosting six finalists and two fan-favorite competitors. The competition was broken up into three categories: the Fluor Social Impact Category, the Maxient Innovation Category and the Avenir Discovery Category. There was also a Fan Favorite Category sponsored by SCRA Technology Ventures.
The audience was encouraged to participate throughout the night on social media and voted on the fan favorite by following a link on their phones.
Each team or individual was allowed five minutes to present their concept and five minutes for the judges to ask them questions about their idea. There were five judges, many of whom were also sponsoring the event. They included Aaron and Candice Hark, founders of the Maxient Company, Greg Clark of SCRA Technology Ventures, Nancy Girden of Avenir, LLC. and Kevin Culley, the senior director of innovation at Under Armour.
“[My wife and I] are both USC alums, and it was from our undergrad and graduate time here that we saw a business opportunity, when we started our company,” Aaron Hark said. “We gave a contribution that served as that initial seed and it has grown tremendously from there.”
Each category had a first-place winner, with three first-place winners in all. The winner of the Flour Social Impact Category was Koios, created by USC alumnus Trey Gordner. His business idea is a browser extension that searches the public library database when you are searching for a book in any search engine. Gordner won $17,500 to launch his idea.
“I think this has really encouraged us and galvanized us to get out there and go faster and harder in the next couple of months,” Gordner said. “Its great to see just how much support there is for start-ups in South Carolina, not only in terms of the people who sponsored tonight but also the people who came out and voted and laughed along.”
The Maxient Innovation Category first-place winner, who was awarded $20,000, was Vuepeer, created by fourth-year accounting student Alex Smolen and fourth-year marketing student Jessica Hart. Vuepeer is a peer-to-peer car and boat rental company that aims to create a simplified rental search.
“[Winning] feels amazing,” Smolen said. “Just getting that prototype web- and mobile-compatable, securing a few partnerships and then testing marketing avenues and moving forward from there. So we have our work cut out for us, but we’re very excited.”
Brevino won the Avenir Discovery Category, with a first-place prize of $20,000. Created by Ian Mackintosh, Brevino is a beer and wine cooler that is designed to fit a variety of bottle sizes and keep beverages chilled for hours. Mackintosh, a USC alumnus, presented his concept along with his wife.
“[I’m] excited that we’re finally going to be able to make this happen, and we’re going to be able to make it happen soon," Mackintosh said. “And then we’ll also have our Gamecock-affiliated gear ready for baseball season.”
The competition also awarded prizes to the fan favorite, thinkINK, created by business administration graduate student Sarah Fissette. ThinkINK is a greeting card company that aims to make the greeting card business more accessible and personal. There were four other runner-up concepts that were each also awarded cash prizes.
“I hope to see all [the competitors] be in business. I hope to see them spreading the great name about entrepreneurship and business education at the University of South Carolina,” Aaron Hark said. “I want them to do well so that they’re exceeding their wildest dreams and living the entrepreneurial lifestyle, which is a great lifestyle.”