On April 5, our NIU College of Business hosted 22 students for our De La Vega Innovation Pitch Competition where they shared their business ideas with a panel of judges and audience members. Each team gave five-minute business pitches and fielded follow-up questions from the competition’s judges: Tobi Oladejo, Rujanee Mahakanjana, BFA ’00, MFA ’05 and April Randazzo, MBA ’24.
First place went to MISSION: AI-powered robotic guide dog, led by first-year CEET students Han Ju and Rudy Ruelas.
“Our lab team, located on the third-floor mechatronics lab in the engineering building, had been working on robotic guide dogs in our own disciplines for about a year now. Winning this De La Vega Innovation Pitch Competition extremely helped us in moving forward with greater traction and expand to a scalable business.” she said.
The second-place winner was Tax Architects, led by Arun Kumararaj, Nick Harris and Igor Maslov. They presented a pitch for the most in-depth video course on starting a tax practice. This product comes as an answer to a frustration Kumararaj personally faced earlier in his career when he had tax expertise but none of the surrounding skills and tools necessary to kick-start his own book of business. The team worked to focus its target market, allowing them to tailor the content like a glove.
“This win felt like validation of our idea, and it was satisfying as a continuation of the success our team has had together in competitions. I’m excited to push our idea further and further into reality,” Kumararaj said.
Stiff competition led to a third-place tie between Anthem — a proposed “stock market for music” — led by Jermar Johnson, and The College App, led by Nikhil Doddaga.
“This win means so much to me,” Johnson said. “For starters, it validates the fact that people are intrigued by my idea and are interested in the product. Additionally, it gives me confidence in my ability to sell my product as an entrepreneur. I was exposed to the kind of competition I will face later down the road as a tech entrepreneur.”
“We are so proud of the energy and ideas our Huskies brought to this year’s pitch competition,” said Dean Joan Phillips-Hernandez. “The judges had a difficult time deciding on our winners because of the strong business models and innovative ideas presented. At the NIU College of Business, we believe in experiential learning and challenging our students in the best ways. Experiences like this one allows them to stretch their skills and talents beyond what they thought possible.”
This final competition is only a part of our larger De La Vega Incubator Program. Through its workshops, students learned about the market research resources on campus, how to identify if their ideas were feasible and how to pitch. Our incubator program also gave students the opportunity to collaborate with NIU design students in finalizing their brand or prototype.
“This year, we had direct interdisciplinary collaboration with the NIU School of Art and Design,” said associate director of innovation and partnership development Becca Husar, who coordinated the program and competition. “This is a very special aspect of our program because it allowed students to learn real-world skills from each other and allowed them to be part of a multidisciplinary team.”
Our incubator program was critical in shaping the business models that were shared at the competition, and workshops included “Market Research” with Professor Wayne Finley, “Business Model Canvas” with Professor Furkan Gur, “Branding” with Professor Wendy Tritt and “Pitching” with Alonso Cisneros from TechRise by P33.
“In the incubator program, students met like-minded changemakers on campus and received valuable feedback from mentors, judges and potential investors. A unique part of the program includes the mentor roundtables event, leading up to the big competition,” Husar said.
Designated mentors helped students steer their messaging and refine their revenue models. Our mentors included:
- Danita Sims, self-published author, nonprofit leader and life coach.
- Wayne Finley, professor and business librarian for NIU’s Libraries.
- Federico Bassetti, assistant director for NIU’s Office of Innovation.
- Cigil Achenkunju, advanced data analytics leader and strategic advisor.
- Laiza Cors, founder and CEO of Embello.
- Robert Hsu, director of the Business Law Innovation Clinic and a clinical assistant professor of law at NIU’s College of Law.
- Joan Phillips-Hernandez, dean of the NIU College of Business.
- Shazor Kahn, cofounder of Scaylor.
- Elena Haliczer, product executive.
Achenkunju enjoyed being a mentor for the event because it was an opportunity for him to share cross-functional knowledge and experiences with students, knowing that his guidance could make a significant impact on their entrepreneurial journey.
“The best part of being a mentor is to witness the growth and development of the participants. It’s amazing to see their ideas evolve and become more refined, especially when they gain insights into industry solutions,” he said. “Creativity and resourcefulness in the participant venture to achieve their business goals were impressive. It is great to see how they tackle challenges with innovative solutions, especially when they don’t have all the resources or industry experience they might need.”
Jennifer McBride, MSDM student, participated in this program for the first time, and learned how to develop a successful business plan from a concept to a viable venture.
“I highly recommend this competition to anyone who is a problem-solver and embraces the entrepreneurial spirit,” she said.
“The biggest takeaway I have from the experience is that three minutes goes by really fast. You really need to nail that elevator pitch and engage with your audience for buy in.”
Even though computer science major Alejandro Ramirez didn’t place at the event, the lessons, guidance and support he received throughout the process were a great reward, he said. He was pleasantly surprised by the amount of positive feedback he received about his sustainable clothing brand, MNRCH LGCY.
“The incubator helped me to better apply aspects of entrepreneurship, including business models, brand identity, market research and public speaking,” he said. “It gave me courage and a plan to keep the momentum going.”
While the program continues to growth and deepen its roots within the college, Husar is confident that next year’s cohort will offer even more impact.
“We are so thrilled that students feel this cocurricular program is worth their time and effort, and we are ramping up to make next year’s program even more robust. Of course, we rely on dedicated alumni and friends of the university to bring their expertise to our students, so we are hoping their involvement continues to grow as well.”
For more information about the College of Business’ De La Vega Innovation Lab and its offerings, visitgo.niu.edu/innovation-lab.
To find out more about being a mentor or a judge at our incubator program and pitch competition, contact Becca Husar at beccahusar@niu.edu.
