Parisa Barton
staff writer
The university's Mayo Business Plan Competition concluded its final round on March 27, with Golden Connections taking home the first prize of $30,000.
The competition began with over 25 teams. Six teams were invited to the semi-finals in February. From these, three teams were selected to advance to the finals in March.
The Golden Connections team consisted of senior marketing major Lauren Cunningham, associate chemistry major Emma Root, and senior biology major Sangam Sivaprasad.
Former Business School Dean William Keep and Finance Faculty Emeritus Herbert 'Buddy' Mayo launched a business plan competition in 2011, funded by an endowment established by Dr. Mayo. Ta. Continuously enhanced by feedback from judges and alumni, this competition ensures students have the resources they need to refine their plans each year.
“By emphasizing the need and value of entrepreneurship and helping students gain confidence in the process, they provide valuable tools for developing business ideas,” said Tammy Dieterich, interim dean of the School of Business. “We recognized the opportunities that were available to our students.”
The Golden Connections women are all university ambassadors and were inspired by two previous ambassadors and the 2023 competition winners, Katie Olsen and Molly O'Brien.
Golden Connections is an AI-powered health and wellness digital platform tailored to the needs of senior caregivers, providing peace of mind through an intuitive AI concierge called Grace.
“The platform incorporates voice and language biomarkers, community and calendar functionality, and AI all into one seamless platform that is easily accessible as the market is highly fragmented,” Sivaprasad he said.
One of their goals is to fill the gap in current clinically focused applications that use speech and language biomarkers.
“Currently, there is no application or platform on the market that has a consumer focus and uses the same suite of features as Golden Connections,” Root said.
Their passion extends beyond their competitors and they are currently working with individuals in the industry on the next steps to bring Golden Connections to market.
2nd Chance won the second place prize of $20,000, consisting of associate public health major Caley Faith Cortezano, interdisciplinary business major Alex Fabiano, and senior finance major Dylan Romanski.
2nd Chance is an up-and-coming company that provides the university community with an on-campus thrift store. The idea came from Cortesano, who had always dreamed of opening her own recycling store, reflecting her core beliefs of sustainability and serving the community.
“We wanted our thrift store to be located in a campus town that would be easily accessible to students without cars,” Cortesano said. “We also wanted to address the material waste generated after the school year by accepting these items and keeping them out of landfills.”
According to Cortezano, 2nd Chance has a competitive advantage over similar stores like Goodwill in terms of organizational standards. They aim to create a beautiful, orderly and inviting environment. It also has the advantage of being located on a university campus, which means there is a lot of foot traffic.
Third place goes to Girls Got Your Back, which won $10,000. The team included junior communication studies major Olivia Chiarella, junior finance major Victoria da Silva, junior marketing major Tatiana Soka, and senior marketing major Madilyn Silfer.
Girls Got Your Back is a dynamic app in development that aims to build a solidarity network for female college students who are facing “small emergencies” in their daily lives. Facilitate mutual assistance and provide immediate access to essential supplies and relief supplies in times of need.
“Girls Got Your Back has a bright future and we're all focused on it,” Chiarella said. “We know college students across the country need our app, and we want to make it available to everyone.”
The Mayo Business Plan Competition offers students of all majors the opportunity to bring their ideas to life and learn valuable skills in the process.
Golden Connections was able to effectively leverage each other's strengths to strengthen their business plan.
“We brought all three of our backgrounds together to create Golden Connections,” Sivaprasad said.
Root's background in speech and language biomarkers, stemming from an internship at Johnson & Johnson, helped drive the business plan.
Ryan Chiu, winner of the 2018 Mayo Business Plan Competition, said he believes the key to success in the competition is to start early, take advantage of university assets and rely on mentors. Ta.
“Our mentor, Dr. Becker, has guided us through this competition,” Cunningham said. “She's really committed to her golden connections, and she thinks there's a solution in there.”
According to Chiu, the competition helps them develop presentation skills, think on their feet and sell projects with passion.
In 2018, Chiu and his partners created a prototype robot called MARCo that would become the “third” presenter. This initiative surprised the judges and secured the win.
Although Chiu is no longer with MARCo, he believes the competition helped him develop soft skills and provided him with the foundation to succeed in his current role.
All winners recognize not only the effort they put into competing, but also the greater rewards that come from it.
“It's a great experience and the prize money is large enough to generate real interest,” Mayo said. “Even though a lot of people drop out, they start to understand how much it costs to start a business.
