Eight student businesses split $6,700 in prize money at the fall IdeaStorm competition Oct. 29 in the Black Box Theatre in the Iowa Memorial Union.
The University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center presented the event, which featured 22 students pitching 16 business ideas. Winners were selected in two categories: Tech and Lifestyle.
Will Ryan, a human physiology major, took first place in the Tech Category with HealthWallet, a patient-controlled platform that centralizes medical and dental information. Mr. Ryan received $1,500. In the Lifestyle Category, Kaden Barry, an enterprise leadership major, won $1,000 for ReWrap, a reusable mesh-style pallet wrap designed to replace single-use plastic stretch film.
Pranev Karthik, a finance and business analytics information systems major, and Lane Neshiem, a mechanical engineering major, won the $500 People’s Choice award for SmartStack Systems, an all-in-one stacked washer and dryer system.
The competition attracted students from multiple majors and areas of study across campus. Participants delivered one-minute pitches describing how their ideas would solve problems. No business plan, prior pitching experience or presentation was required.
Other Tech Category winners included Ben Peterson, who placed second with Tray Guardian, a device that keeps surgical tools sterile with continuous UV light. Peterson, a biomedical engineering major, received $1,200.
Third place went to a team of four students — Nicholas Gorsich, Jackson Johannes, Austin Rowswell and Braedin Zondervan — who pitched Portal, a platform to streamline recruiting for coaches and athletes. The team won $1,000.
Two honorable mentions in the Tech Category each received $500: Katie Butler and Ean Cummings for Droplet, a wearable bracelet that analyzes sweat chemistry, and Nic VanArkel for VeriVid, which detects fake and AI-manipulated videos.
In the Lifestyle Category, Ethan Hallberg received a $500 honorable mention for Yesterday Was Weird, a podcast that uses humor and storytelling to make history accessible to young people.
The Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center provides educational programs, training and support services for entrepreneurial ventures and small-to-medium size businesses across Iowa.
