Three University of Richmond students win Robins School's Business Pitch competition with impressive betting app

Three University of Richmond students won the top prize at the Robins School of Business “Business Pitch” competition with a predictive polling application that inspires competition between groups of people for relevant cultural events. The win secured the trio $3,500 and the opportunity to pitch the product to local investors who might help them make their idea a reality.

Senior Jake Raboy and juniors Jimmy Heiner and George Pelose presented “Toldja” to a panel of non-UR judges, including Bryan Bostic, founder of 2b Technology and SmartBox, John Kemper, CEO of John E. Kemper and Steve Howell, managing director of Windward Advisors.

“Having our friends there to support us at the competition when we realized Toldja was no longer just an idea but a real business made the experience really special for us,” said Heiner on behalf of the team. “We fully intend to use the prize money to invest in our project and start our business.”

The panel awarded the $1,000 second place prize to Britt Blackwelder, GB’16, and Ryan Stuhlreyer, GB’16, for their idea “ageNsee,” an app that would assist elderly caregiving organizations with booking appointments, organizing notes and rating different services.

Third place and $500 went to sophomore Jason Bright and senior Sam Schneider for the app “LENDIT” that would allow users to lend and borrow things from people in their community.

“This year’s competition was the largest ever and drew great ideas from both undergraduate and graduate students across the university,” said Eric Martin, director of UR’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program. “Not only was the quantity of entrants high, but the quality of pitches this year was equally as impressive as well.”

The university’s Entrepreneurship Club and Innovation and Entrepreneurship program, as well as the Richmond chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth sponsored the competition.

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