A full load of classes each semester means keeping track of five or six different syllabi, several dozen due dates, quiz days and exams.
Most students spend a few days at the semester’s outset transferring these dates onto their Google or Outlook calendars, but two Terry College of Business students have an idea for a quicker way.
Management senior Maahir Murad and MIS junior Huzaifah Malik created Scale — an automated student calendar — impressing judges at the first spring UGA Entrepreneurship Idea Accelerator pitch contest on Feb. 24. They took home the night’s top prize and $2,500.
Their idea allows students to upload a PDF version of their syllabi and auto-populate their calendar with assignment due dates, exam dates, quizzes and supporting information. While the app is under development, judges were wowed by the 78 students who already paid the $5 to $10 to build out their calendars.
“Those are insane conversion rates,” said John Weatherford, a principal lecturer at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “You guys have obviously identified a pain point …You’ve got a great window to go out and get these insane conversion rates, but you’ve got to start thinking quickly about what’s after that.”
In addition to Weatherford, Jason Pancake (BS ’05), founder of moveBuddha.com, and serial entrepreneur Jeff Grant (AB ’83) served as judges for this pitch contest.
Thirty student teams started this Idea Accelerator cohort and only six made it to demo day. Because of the high quality of teams making the finale, Grant announced he would award each team $1,000 to continue developing their ideas.
These included second-place winner Coles Collection, a custom men’s accessories company founded by finance and real estate junior Cole Higgins, and third-place winner Nähren, a grocery price comparison app created by finance and MIS senior Andrew Sharpe.
But it also included Hot Spot, a geolocating, social-networking app created by physics Ph.D. student Juvis Mbeng and international business and finance junior Carmel Esayas; Performing Heritage, a platform connecting traditional performing artists with a global audience created by theater Ph.D. student Hazael Gomes, and Scam Advisor, an idea for a browser plugin that alerts senior citizens of likely scam emails developed by MIS junior Matthew Schwanekamp and marketing senior Ben Methvin.
“As a consolation to each one of you, we’re going to give you $1,000 because I want you to keep doing what you do,” Grant told the students. “I know it’s a small amount of money but take it and understand that we see you as being entrepreneurs in the future.”
The mission of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program is to help develop the mindset of future entrepreneurs and prepare students for business leadership roles. UGA Entrepreneurship Program accelerators are open to UGA students and the Athens community.
