Several student business startups received funding at the monthly Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board (ECAB) meeting Oct. 27.
ECAB is a step in the Venture Catalyst Program where individuals present their startups to a board of about a dozen professors and CEOs. The board can decide to grant these startups up to $2,000.
Similar to the show “Shark Tank,” the event provides an option for Mississippi State University students and staff to get their business ideas off the ground.
At last week’s meeting, the board heard a pitch from Calvin Waddy, a senior finance major. He is the CEO and founder of an event planning and promotion app called Glaance.
Waddy said he received $500 during the first step of the Venture Catalyst program last year to conduct market research, and last week the board granted him $2,000.
He said Glaance will make it easier for its users to receive information about events. He said one unique thing about Glaance is how it will suggest events to its users based on their interests. Waddy also said the app will tell users people they can attend events with. To be a user of the app, you do not have to be a student at MSU.
Another aspect of Glaance is how tickets will be issued through it, instead of a third party app. For free events, there will be an attendance-based check-in through turning on the location on the user’s smartphone. A long-term goal for the app is to have a 360-degree camera to place at larger events like concerts, so users can see what is happening before they arrive.
People who pitch business startups to ECAB must prove how they will make money through their idea. Waddy told the board Glaance will receive 2 percent of ticket sales, which he said is a competitive price compared to other apps.
There will also be a subscription model where organizations wishing to be a part of a parent group, such as the Student Association or Interfraternity Council, can pay $5 a month per organization.
While conducting his market research, Waddy said he spoke to SA president Tyler McMurray and the IFC about implementing the app.
“These are two of the most important event coordinators at Mississippi State,” Waddy said. “While I was having conversation with them, they explained to me that there’s a problem, that creating events for organizations on campus is still too complicated.”
As of now, organizations planning events use the OrgSync program.
Melissa Moore, professor and head of the Department of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis and Business Law, asked Waddy if he was truly confident these organizations would use his app.
“One of the biggest challenges in marketing is really getting to the truth and you’ve had a couple of individuals say that they are going to use it,” Moore said. “Intentions and behaviors don’t necessarily correlate, so what is your true confidence level that it is going to be implemented?”
Waddy said Glaance has a written commitment with IFC to serve as a beta tester for the app in December.
Regarding SA, Waddy said McMurray was “really interested” in Glaance.
“She’s looking at opening it up and using it in tandem with OrgSync because she understands that students don’t really like OrgSync,” he said.
Waddy said at first, SA would use both programs, but OrgSync would be “phased out” when its contract with SA ends in April.
However, McMurray told The Reflector while SA do not plan on “switching off” of OrgSync anytime soon, McMurray did confirm the SA plans on using Glaance in conjunction with OrgSync.
Also at the ECAB meeting, Jacob Miller, a freshman mechanical engineering major, pitched his product called TeleNock Recovery Tracking System. Miller received $2,000 in funding.
The TeleNock is a tracker placed on the end of an arrow at the nock to help recover animals while bow hunting. Miller said his product is the world’s first tracker integrated into an arrow nock.
The tracker works through a smartphone and works off a signal as low as 1x. The radio frequency ranges up to 3 miles, and the product can be used for both the crossbow and compound bow.
How the tracker works is through radio frequency barrels at its base. Inside are an antenna and battery pack. Miller said he plans on selling the product in a twin pack, in case hunters have to take more than one shot.
Miller called tracking a “major problem” for hunters who shoot with bows.
“One thing that startled me was that experienced hunters with over 20 years of experience still find recovery problems, so it’s not something that you get better at as your experience goes up,” Miller said.
Miller said he has personal experience with the problem since he is a world championship archer.
Miller explained to the board there are two competitors on the market: ProTraker and BreadCrumb. He said ProTracker uses a similar system as his, but on the front of the arrow. He said the design is unbalanced, heavy and bulky. Miller explained BreadCrumb as an arrow locator, not a game locator. He also said that product has a shorter range than the TeleNock.
Miller said he is still working on molds for the product, so it has not made it to production. He said he hopes to have it ready around December.
Other startups which received funding at the meeting last week were Esteemed Juices, a natural juice company, and Feedback Games, which makes mobile games due to feedback it receives.
The next ECAB meeting is Nov. 17 in McCool 339.