Entrepreneurially minded Rose-Hulman students from a variety of engineering and science majors explored the process of turning innovative ideas into business ventures during Techstars’ RISE Startup Weekend, held on campus in October. Throughout the event, students gained hands-on experience in developing startup concepts, refining business plans and pitching their ideas to industry experts.

Startup Weekend was organized by Techstars, the Rose Innovative Student Entrepreneurs (RISE) organization and the ESCALATE program, a living-learning community at Rose-Hulman that’s focused on integrating entrepreneurship and technical disciplines.

Eight teams of 29 students kicked off an approximately 36-hour weekend developing a business idea with a “pitch your idea” session Friday evening. The students voted for their favorite concept, formed teams and began to work on bringing it to fruition. Throughout the weekend, students conducted market research, developed prototypes and consulted with industry mentors and entrepreneurs who helped them hone their concepts. On Sunday evening, teams had 10 minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges, who in turn, had five minutes to ask questions of each team. The event concluded with judges selecting the top three teams and the crowd selected their favorite.

Students created a mixture of technical and creative products, all of which were designed to meet a need in the market. A physical clip to collect data from gym weight equipment won first place and was named the crowd favorite. Innovative hiking poles received a second-place award, and a sleep cycle wristband alarm clock took third place.

The first-place team consisted of first-year students Nirdesh Adusumill (computer science), Nikolas Paloukis (mechanical engineering), Tejesvi Purohit (mechanical engineering) and Timothy Wong (mechanical engineering). 

The students came up with the idea of creating a device that would attach to any piece of moving gym equipment, collecting data about the individual’s use of the equipment. The clip automatically collects data about the individual’s use of the equipment. For example, it would collect the amount of time it takes the person to lift, distance travel, and number of repetitions, which is information desired by a market segment known as Scientific Lifters. That data then feeds into a corresponding app the user would have on their smartphone.

Once the idea was conceptualized, Adusumill and Paloukis left the Rose-Hulman campus to gather market research. They collected 51 surveys and conducted eight interviews with local gym patrons. The team also reached out to two weightlifting social media influencers about the potential product, both of whom said the idea had merit and expressed interest in testing and potentially marketing the item. That type of customer validation secured the team’s first place finish. 

Each of the team members found the weekend extremely valuable and learned lessons that could only be garnered in such an intensive experience.

“We loved the opportunity to talk to other past winners and business owners,” said Adusumill. “The mentors, especially the ones closer to our age, provided valuable insights. One immediately saw the potential of our product and was very encouraging and insightful.”

Although Startup Weekend is over, the students plan to continue building their prototype and eventually take it into market. They have already created a 3D model and are staying in touch with the influencers and interviewees who expressed interest in being beta testers. 

“It was really cool to go from, ‘I just need an idea to show the class Friday,’ to ‘Wow, we could really do something with this’,” said Wong. 

Jared Ell has served as a judge for Startup Weekend for several years. Ell works as the entrepreneurial ecosystem navigator for the West Central Indiana Small Business Development Center. One of the things he loves about Startup Weekend is seeing the students not only have the creativity to come up with interesting and novel ideas, but also the ingenuity to make them real.

“I was able to speak to the students and hear from other mentors about the growth they experienced over the weekend,” said Ell. “It’s not just about refining an idea. It was about testing it in the real world, getting real feedback and iterating quickly. Those are the kinds of skills that define real innovators, and these students packed a tremendous amount of learning into just a few days.”

First-year students Garv Banerji (mechanical engineering), Joseph Kim (mechanical engineering) and JT Long (electrical engineering) received third place honors for their innovative idea. They pitched an idea for a sleep cycle alarm clock that’s worn around the wrist that monitors the body’s sleep cycle in real time. The alarm would sync with the body’s natural system and would wake a person as they exit REM sleep, leading to less drowsiness.

“I first came up with the idea initially when a friend told me he took a nap and woke up more tired than before he slept,” said Kim. “I thought there must be a way to make something that connects to sleep cycle.”

The team interviewed potential users of the product. Their original idea was to sell the alarm clock to students. However, through their research, they learned that price may prohibit students from using it and instead pivoted to the idea of selling to international businesspeople who experience frequent jet lag from their travels.

Evan Kubicek is a longtime judge and mentor for Startup Weekend. He teaches entrepreneurship and marketing at Eastern Illinois University and is the chief impact officer at Wayland. Kubicek views Startup Weekend as the perfect way for students to develop their entrepreneurial skills and encourages students to try new things that can solve real world problems. 

“One of the things I always tell my students is that the best time to start something is now as a student,” said Kubicek. “As a student working on an idea, you’re going to get a greater depth of feedback from advisors and just general encouragement.” 

The panel of judges included Keith Casey (electrical engineering, 2001) who serves on the product team at Keystrike; David Dupree, chief creative officer, Suncast Studios and startup ecosystem builder; Ell; Kubicek; Scott McLaughlin (mechanical engineering, 1981), founder McLaughlin and Associates Thermal Spray, Inc.; and Dean Moretton, (electrical engineering, 1987), CCO, Hydrogen Technologies.