USC students and alumni competed for a total of $54,000 in the The Proving Ground competition April 21, which took place over Facebook Live.
Six teams gave presentations to compete in three categories, and everyone walked away with some money towards their startup companies and products.
Jonah Rotholz, a fourth-year information science student, and Nick Jeffcoat, a fourth-year advertising student, won the grand prize of $17,500 in the Maxient category with their software product parAnimo.
Latin for “to match minds,” parAmino works to solve a problem in the solar industry. Solar companies mainly use door-to-door canvassing methods to get customers, which can be costly, according to the pair. Rotholz and Jeffcoat’s product uses data to match canvassers with customers, making the process cheaper and more efficient.
“Many tools exist to serve the purpose of connecting customers with companies, but parAnimo has a different ethos. parAnimo is about connecting people with people,” Rotholz said.
Rotholz and Jeffcoat's parAnimo is already being tested at multiple companies.
Jeffcoat said: “The results speak for themselves. Every company to which we’ve demonstrated our alpha version has signed up with us on the spot.”
Raphael Tosti, a 2017 USC alumnus, won the Caliber Discovery category, also receiving $17,500. Tosti gave his presentation from Lille, France, which is six hours ahead of South Carolina. Tosti has been stuck in France since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Tosti’s company, Sectorgen, is a website for gas turbine parts. The site includes multiple vendors and makes it easier for companies to get replacement parts at lower prices for turbines, “solving a real problem in a critical American industry,” according to Tosti.
“These aren’t any standard gas turbines. These are highly complex, highly engineered machines that operate under extreme temperature and pressure, meaning that they need a constant supply of spare parts,” Tosti said.
Sectorgen has made over $52,300 in product sales as of this month.
Aaron Hark, one of the judges for the competition and co-founder of Maxient, said, “It’s always impressive when somebody is in this competition and already has revenue from their product.”
Ally B. Organics, a health and beauty company operated by third-year chemical engineering student Alexis Lewis and fourth-year marketing and management student Tiffany Neckles, won the fan-favorite award with 59.8% of the viewers’ votes, which gave the team $6,000.
The company plans to make sure all of its' products are certified organic and that each product contains no more than six ingredients. The ingredients will be listed on the products along with “the country of origin as well as the exact extraction method that was used to distill the ingredient,” Lewis said.
Neckles said, “Our mission is to provide the most transparent, all-inclusive organic and holistic care possible relating to the hair, skin, diet and hormonal balance.”
The runners-up in the Maxient and Caliber categories went home with $5,000.
Munir Tawfique, a 2015 USC graduate and runner-up in the Caliber category, presented his company Demeter, which uses drones to detect disease and other issues in crops, helping farmers save money.
Preston Headden, a third-year entrepreneurship student, got runner-up in the Maxient category with his product, In a Flash. The app would connect photographers with customers and promise a quick return on photos as the company would handle all photo editing, instead of the photographer.
Kiddiewallet, the runner-up in the fan-favorite section of the competition, won $3,000. Kiddiewallet, run by USC masters candidate Binbin Weng and Ph.D. candidate Xianshan Qu, is an app that teaches financial literacy to children through games and rewards.