Student Entrepreneurs Awarded $26K at the 10th Annual Fairfield StartUp Showcase

Five Showcase teams’ journeys were highlighted as they developed their ideas, worked with mentors, and made their pitches to a panel of investors for seed money.

Returning to this year’s StartUp Showcase investor panel were Joseph (Joe) Bronson ’70, principal and CEO of The Bronson Group, LLC, and Dagan Kasavana ’99, founder and CEO of Phoenix Tower International. Bronson and Kasavana were joined by Virginia P’an, founder and CEO of YUMI EcoSolutions, Inc. Showcase veteran Michael Garvey ’89, P’23,’25 served as StartUp Advisor to the five Showcase teams.

John Cain ’22 pitched for team EarnSpace, a Zoom plug-in and web app that allows for the integration of advertisements into conference calls in order to reach broader audiences. EarnSpace was awarded $6,000 by the investor panel.

Representing team The Point, an online fashion and lifestyle magazine, Eleanor Davis ’21 pitched Point of View, a customizable collage kit to help people decorate their wall space. The

Point was awarded $3,000 by the investor panel.

Charlie Brodigan ’24 pitched for team RinkLink, a service designed to automate the ice rink industry with yield management to improve rink financial outcomes and facilitate member communication. Both Kasavana and Bronson noted that this type of service is highly successful in the golf market.

RinkLink was awarded $10,000 by the investor panel and received an additional $1,000 for being voted Audience Favorite by viewers.

Kristen Oliger ’22 pitched for team Kindler, a stress-free solution for college students to meet new people through an app that matches them with other students who have the same passions and hobbies. The app can also be used by colleges and universities to retain incoming first-year students over the summer, by encouraging them to forge friendships before they start school.

Kindler was awarded $3,000 by the investor panel.

Vilia Baumilas ’21 pitched for team WePlay Together, an app that uses an algorithm to match people who share similar interests with others to show their locations and available meeting times to enjoy sports, hobbies, and more. The idea is to start with local parks and rec departments and to scale from there. WePlay

Together was awarded $3,000 by the investor panel.

“If the students are the beating heart of the StartUp program, the mentors are the skeleton. Nothing would get done without them,” said Christopher Huntley, PhD, director of the StartUp program. “They took on an incredibly critical role this year. In years past, most of our team mentoring was done informally and in person. This year, we were forced to go a different way. We still had weekly “all hands” Zoom meetings, but most of the actual work happened elsewhere. Soon enough, the mentors and teams started meeting on their own — sometimes every day! — and went way beyond what we could have done before.” l D

Interested in seeing all of the pitches and investor feedback? Visit fairfield.edu/startup to watch the 2021 Showcase video series.

2021 StartUp teams receive positive feedback from the investor panel following the Showcase. LEFT: Charlie Brodigan ’24 pitching for team RinkLink. Photo by Joe Adams