- [Announcer] From the Elaine Langone Center on the campus of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, WVIA presents "Keystone Edition Business," a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

This is "Keystone Edition Business."

And now moderator, Steve Stumbris.

(audience clapping) - Welcome to "Keystone Edition Business BizPitch," a one-hour special showcasing the business pitch competition from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

I'm Steve Stumbris, moderator of WVIA's "Keystone Edition Business," and director of Bucknell University's Small Business Development Center.

From scores of student entrepreneurs, we now present six finalists and their innovative startup concepts.

Let's get to know tonight's competitors.

(logo whooshing) - Hi, I'm Farhaj, I'm the founder of Bison Match.

- My name is Elizabeth Malley, and I developed Therma IV.

- I'm Alex Marx, the founder of Campus IQ.

- My name is Lyric Abdul-Rasheed.

I founded Lyric's Lip Company LLC.

- I'm Duy.

- I'm Hung.

- I'm Chang Min.

And together we're Chiron.

- I'm Ben Suit.

- I'm Zack Yardley.

We're cousins and the co-founders of Forevergreen.

- Most people wanna help the planet but don't know where to start.

- College is fun when you find your people, but that takes time.

- One problem I kept finding is that small businesses don't have the budget or resources to get better market research.

- From the battlefield to disaster zones, Therma IV is designed to save lives when every second counts.

- Professors can create their personalized chat bot just by uploading their course material.

- The most important thing to me is to create products that will help people take preventative action against the most common cancer in the United States, skin cancer.

(bright music) - I'd like to thank all the students, colleagues, and community members here at the Elaine Langone Center at Bucknell University.

Everyone is ready to support and cheer on these student entrepreneurs.

Also here to support them are three alumni judges, let's meet them.

Meghan Beck is the founder of Steam Innovation Labs, co-founder of 1337 Rentals LLC, and has served as an organizer for 1 million Cups Susquehanna Valley, a regional entrepreneurship program.

Meghan is a 1998 Bucknell graduate, and her degree in political science informs her current role as Northumberland County Commissioner.

Todd Walrath is the CEO and founder of ShiftMed, a leading healthcare workforce platform.

He has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and has over 20 years of digital media experience, including leadership roles at AOL and the Weather Channel.

Todd graduated from Bucknell in 1988.

Yoshi Maisami has deep experience in venture capital and has developed innovative AI solutions in the investment industry.

A firm he founded served clients, such as Amazon and Bank of America, and tech startups he helped to grow were acquired by companies such as Lyft and Google.

He graduated from Bucknell in 2001 and returns to us after serving as a judge for the very first BizPitch in 2012.

Tonight, each team has three minutes to deliver their pitch, followed by questions and advice from our judges.

They will decide tonight's top three prize winners, including the $6,000 First Place Award.

Now, let's welcome the first BizPitch finalist.

Alex Marx with Campus IQ.

Alex wants to help local businesses connect with college customers.

- Hi, I'm Alex Marx, the founder of Campus IQ.

Campus IQ is a market research platform designed to help small businesses in college towns understand what college students actually want.

This could be anything from the type of food that students want, the amount of money they're willing to spend on something, or even the hours that a business is open.

One problem I kept finding is that small businesses don't have the budget or resources to get better market research, and there's often a disconnect between what business owners think college students want and what the kids are actually looking for.

Campus IQ connects college students to these small businesses directly through surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

Right now I'm running a pilot in Lewisburg with local businesses, and the data is already making a huge difference in how they operate.

With this business model, everybody wins, businesses grow, students save, and college towns thrive.

Campus IQ, student voices, smarter choices.

(logo whooshes) Hi, I'm Alex Marx.

Judges, thank you for being here and giving back to Bucknell with your participation in BizPitch.

It's always great to return to a place that holds so many memories.

Maybe for you, it was your favorite coffee spot on Market Street, a late night slice, or celebration at Town Tavern.

But here's the reality, some of those other places you might have loved might not be here anymore.

In fact, 50% of small businesses fail within their first five years, and this isn't just a Lewisburg problem.

College towns all across the US are losing businesses that should be thriving.

College town businesses rely on student foot traffic, but they're making decisions in the dark.

They're guessing what students want, and too often they're guessing wrong.

The result, wasted money, lost customers, and at worst, closed doors.

Now I've seen this problem firsthand over the past four years, as a student consultant at the Bucknell Small Business Development Center, where I quickly learned that the most valuable thing that I could do for my clients was simply share the perspectives of a college student and tell them what my friends and I were interested in.

That's why I created Campus IQ, a platform that helps businesses make smarter decisions by tapping directly into student insights.

Say you're a cafe owner in Lewisburg and want to introduce a new breakfast item to your menu.

With Campus IQ, you can send out a quick survey to test different options, adjust pricing, or even host a focus group directly with Bucknell students and get direct feedback before you make a decision.

It's a fast targeted way to understand your audience.

And for college students, it's simple.

You fill out quick surveys and simply give your feedback, and at the same time you get rewarded with things like discounts and free coffee.

Now, who here likes free coffee?

And at the same time, college businesses will be adapting to the feedback and you'll really be shaping the downtown around you.

Now our core model of business is through institutional sales to universities and other downtown business organizations investing in community growth.

Lewisburg matters to Bucknell.

In fact, Bucknell is constantly investing in community development to build a better college town and to attract better professors and more students.

Meghan, your experience working with small businesses and connecting them to the community around you really demonstrates understanding consumers.

Yoshi, your expertise in data-driven investment strategies highlights the power of informed decisions.

And Todd, your success in scaling startups shows the importance of solutions that drive real growth.

Campus IQ brings all three of these principles to small businesses, and brings them the insight they need to thrive.

So I actually sat down with Lynne, the main street manager at the Lewisburg Downtown Partnership.

And as she shared, building strong connections between students and businesses is the primary focus of Lewisburg's five-year strategic plan.

Together, we actually pulled downtown businesses in Lewisburg and found that 100% percent of them are interested in a platform like Campus IQ to connect directly with Bucknell students.

Lewisburg is more than just a college town to me, it's where I've grown, learned, and made connections to the community.

Small businesses are the heartbeat of our town.

Let's give 'em the resources they need to thrive.

Student voices, smarter choices.

Campus IQ.

(audience clapping) - Meghan, as someone who is invested in the local small business community, would you like to start off with questions for Alex?

- Sure, absolutely.

And yeah, I definitely have a passion for small business, especially in our downtowns, which, you know, here in Lewisburg, this is a critical piece of our economy and also the image for the college is reflected in the downtown.

I think your model, it's a very interesting and innovative concept, and I think you've isolated a particular market.

That's great as well.

But my question is like, what are you thinking, as far as the business model, as far as pricing?

How are you thinking of handling that?

- Yeah, so that's a great question.

So I think the first thing to point out in terms of pricing is that in terms of our competition, they are pricing the small businesses, whereas our model is approaching the university, so that gives us a lot more flexibility in terms of what they can afford.

One thing that I kept finding throughout my experience with the SPDC is that these small businesses don't have any budget to spend on marketing or market research.

So really taking that cost away from them and bringing it to the university.

The actual cost itself would be somewhere like $12,000 a year for the university, but that's simply just a fraction of what one student pays for admission, and it could go a long way for helping the college town and the university.

- I guess that number, the 12k, how did you come to that number on your pricing, and then how does that work into the projected cost to run this operation?

- Yeah, so another great question.

I think it's very important to point out that I've actually been running all of these operations manually.

So the platform actually hasn't been developed, and that's what the BizPitch money would be going towards.

So these are just ballpark estimates that I came up with compared to what competition is offering.

But in terms of operations and how much it would cost to manufacture and develop the actual product, that's where I would come to you guys and other Bucknell experts in the space of technology and really like to learn from them.

- [Steve] Todd.

- Yeah, have you sat down with any of the businesses, and how do they approach this?

Are there some pilots that you've put together?

And what have you learned just in terms of the type of impact you could have on an individual business?

- Yeah, thank you for that question.

So I actually sat down with Cycle Up, which is a very new business to Lewisburg.

It's a bike shop, and it also serves as a cafe newly.

I approached them and I said, you know, you could really benefit from some market research.

And we hosted a focus group on Bucknell campus with seven Bucknell students, and these are the type of feedback we got from them.

And it's already been making a big difference in the way they're operating.

As you can see, Campus Dollars unanimously across the focus group, they said that they would much prefer to go to a place that accepts Campus Dollars.

And if businesses knew that that type of feedback was out there, I think it would make a big difference for them.

Things like dietary inclusivity, gluten-free options, a really good rewards program, and then comparing pricing to other places is something that for a startup business can be really helpful.

- One final note for Alex.

Meghan?

- I think you have a huge opportunity here with colleges, but I think there is an opportunity here to spin this off to other organizations that are very sort of similarly focused.

There's downtown managers, Pennsylvania, and across the US, we have these things called downtown managers, which are people who are actively working and trying to create these connections, not just in college towns, but you know, through many communities.

So, perhaps another product that might not necessarily be college-focused might be an opportunity for you.

- [Alex] Yeah, that's a great point.

- I know another Bucknell alum who has often been at BizPitch, mayor of Lewisburg, Kendy Alvarez, is at the National Main Street Conference in Philadelphia now.

So if you have not connected with Madam Mayor or Kendy Alvarez, Bucknell alum, and champion of small business, that's a great next step for you.

- [Alex] Yeah.

- Judges, thank you.

Thank you, Alex.

- [Alex] Thank you.

(audience clapping) - This year's BizPitch competitors have developed their creativity, communication, and critical thinking skills across Bucknell's three colleges and with support from the new Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Our next competitor wants to innovate how people treat their lips.

Do you really know what's in everything you put on your skin?

Our next finalist Lyric Abdul-Rasheed wants to keep people safe with all-natural ingredients.

(logo whooshes) - Hi, my name is Lyric Abdul-Rasheed, and I'm known as the Lip Gloss Addict.

I founded Lyric's Lip Company LLC, where I create lip care products that provide natural forms of sun protection.

When I was 14 years old, I suffered a very severe sunburn on my lips, which was caused by using lip glosses with synthetic ingredients.

This inspired me to wanna become an entrepreneur at a very young age and I was given the amazing opportunity to put my products in my high school store.

The most important thing to me is to create products that will help people take preventative action against the most common cancer in the United States, skin cancer.

The cosmetic industry produces an enormous amount of plastic waste every single year, which is why I decided to focus on sustainability with my products and packaging.

Lip care is just the beginning.

I want to expand into all different types of body products, including hair and skincare.

Creating my formulations is my absolute favorite thing to do.

So now that you've heard a little bit about me, let me share my inspiration.

So, my mom has taken care of me since the day that I was born and has been serious about two things, sun protection and chapped lips.

So since my mom has instilled in me the importance of sun protection due to the stereotype within the black community that people with darker skin complexions don't need it.

Moisturizing sessions with my mom went a little something like this.

I can't remember a time not seeing my mom with a chap stick in her hand, and I inherited her lip care obsession along with a little bit of sensitivity and allergies.

I was that kid at Disneyland that had to ask if the face paint was hyper-allergenic.

My life changed my senior year of high school when my mom had a couple health conditions and was diagnosed with the skin condition called dermatographia, more commonly known as the skin writing disease.

And as you guys can see, I was actually able to write my name in my mom's skin using my fingernail.

So this is when I realized that it was my turn to take care of my mom.

And I decided to combine my love of chemistry with my love for my mom and create Lyric's Lip Company.

In the cosmetic industry, there are a lot of competitors that utilize synthetic and even immunotoxic ingredients that can increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun's harmful rays.

With Lyric's Lip Company, we combine or we utilize only naturally-derived ingredients that are facilitated through academic research and that infuse our products with natural forms of SPF.

And I've been able to scientifically prove that my formulations are comparables to those mainstream cosmetic brands that utilize synthetic ingredients.

Skincare is one of the most topic trend or one of the most trending topics on social media, gaining millions of daily views, from both men and women.

This is one of the major contributors to the booming market.

Just last year, the skincare market was valued at over $150 billion and is estimated to have a growth of over 70% by 2034.

Eco-friendly products like mine are also set to see exponential growth due to increased customer awareness.

As an engineer, it is my job to identify and solve problems.

And skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the United States with over 1.8 million people being diagnosed every year, one in five being diagnosed by the age of 70, and every hour, two people losing their lives because of it.

That's why I'm so determined to make sun protection easy, effective, and safe for everyone.

Also, the cosmetic industry produces over 355 million tons of plastic waste every year, which is why I believe that my ingredients should be just as sustainable as my packaging.

So I have implemented biodegradable tubes, like the lip balms I've given the judges today, as well as recycled packaging.

Lyric's Lip Company makes sun protection fun and fashionable by combining science, beauty, and sustainability.

I am so appreciative for my opportunity to compete in BizPitch, and winning would help me see my dreams of having my products in stores all across the world.

My products are currently offered in three stores across two states, and I'm determined to offer sun protection to those individuals of all skin tones and genders worldwide.

And after all, a great finish should be sealed with a glossy finish.

(audience clapping) - [Steve] Thank you, Lyric.

To start off with questions from our judges, Todd.

- Lyric, first of all, you're very believable, you're credible, we love your story.

I think that when you're talking about products like this, that the creator and the founder are part of the story, and I believe you're extremely credible.

Can you talk a little bit about where you are on the development of these?

You said you've obviously created some of these, they have some of the efficacy that you were seeking with the results.

Can you talk a little bit about either how you're approaching that from your process, whether you think it's defensible, and where you might be a little bit on the cost of some of those materials?

- The cost of the materials?

- [Todd] Yeah, just how you're approaching that.

- Okay, well to answer your first question, I actually included, so I've been making my lip gloss for about four years now.

So I kind of have little experience of like the actual formulation process.

And over the last year, I've been doing my own independent study where I've actually been able to do my own research to test the SPF of my own products.

As you can see on the left, those are my original products.

And then through my academic research, I've been able to prove that these are my optimized formulas that give you almost 99-100% of the UV blocked.

And as far as like the cost analysis for my ingredients, due to like the inflation and a lot of tariffs and things, and since I've been trying to make my products a little bit more sustainable, especially with packaging, the price has definitely gone up.

I would say that still with the inflation and the tariffs and things, I'm definitely seeing about the 80% profit margin.

The cost of my materials are relatively small, but because I outsource all of my ingredients from their original places of origin, it is a little bit more expensive.

But I'm able to gain a lot of profit.

- [Steve] Yoshi.

- I love seeing all the data and numbers.

You're definitely putting the engineering to work there.

It's fantastic.

Have you compared your product to Burt's Bees, Glossier?

Do you have data on how you compare to those products?

- So I can actually show you.

So on this slide, I actually compare them to the Black Girl Sunscreen, which is the sunscreen that I actually use, which is geared towards people with melanated skin, which I'm trying to do that of course, but for everyone.

And they also use synthetic ingredients.

I did it with the SeaWeed Co., which they're a natural brand, as well as Neutrogena, which is a really known cosmetic brand.

And I have proven that the SPF that my products offer are comparable to those.

- I'm just blown away.

I mean I love the whole package, and you're a very exciting personality.

I love what you're bringing here to us with this concept and how you're doing it and marketing it, it's all fantastic.

Have you spoken to or taken any surveys of people utilizing your products and kind of feedback?

What do you have, what are you hearing?

- I love to hear what my customers have to say.

I would say that the biggest thing that my customers have given me is that, I should implement better, more sustainable packaging, which I have taken a step from that.

I think one of my clients, Suzanne Pariselli, she was the number one person that kind of geared me towards pushing the more eco-friendly packaging.

I've also been taking male surveys just because, I started out as Lyric's Lip Candy, but I've been trying to become more well-rounded and trying to reach everyone.

That's my motto, I want everyone to be protected against skin cancer because no one is safe.

So I've been taking surveys from my male friends and just from people that I know, and I've implemented them.

You guys are seeing the first prototypes of my chap sticks.

So I've been just trying to make my brand and just my overall products more accessible and like more likable from everyone.

- Again, thank you very much, Lyric.

(audience clapping) Our judges tonight will score these presentations by considering the problem the competitors are addressing and the market for their solution.

Innovation as well as feasibility will also factor in, along with how memorable and inspiring their pitch is.

Next up is Chiron, a team of three computer science engineering students who want to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve the learning experience.

Let's hear from Chang Min, Duy, and Hung.

- Hi, I'm Duy.

- I'm Hung.

- I'm Chang Min, and together we're Chiron, an AI-powered educational platform designed to support students and professors.

Everyone uses ChatGPT, even us computer science students, but there was a problem, it was unreliable.

We went to our professors and they didn't have an answer for it.

So we came up with our own solution.

- We've already interviewed many student and professor so that we can validate our solution.

- Professors can create their personalized chatbot just by uploading their course material.

Our virtual teaching assistant provide instant and reliable help to ensure students get 24/7 support.

- And our plan for the long run is to see Chiron in every high school and college in the US.

- We're Chiron, and we're building the future of AI-powered education.

- Hi, who here uses ChatGPT?

Do you all question its reliability?

Well, we do too.

As computer science students, we found ourselves constantly turning to ChatGPT for hope, but it often gave unreliable answers and there's no better alternative.

- We've interviewed 10 Bucknell professor in computer science, foreign chemical engineering, and we've been interviewing 60 students from several schools.

We then found a similar problems.

Professor wants to help student, but they found themselves keep answering the question over and over again, leaving them less time for deeper engagement, while students are overdependent on an unreliable tool.

- [Hung] And that's why we build Chiron, an AI-powered educational platform that supports students and professors.

So using Chiron, all professors need to know is just to upload the course material.

Then students can ask question relevant to the class.

Our intelligent chatbot will search through the course material and provide answers with highlighted references.

If there are any questions that are not relevant to the class, Chiron lets you know.

Also professors can view the summaries of the interaction between students and the chatbot.

- [Chang] So we will initially make money by having an annual subscription model for schools.

With an estimated price of $30,000 per school, our total market will be colleges and secondary schools worldwide that teach computer science, which is 450 million.

Our serviceable market will be just the US, which is 225 million, and our obtainable market is 5% of that, which is 11.3 million.

- Compared to all the popular AI tools, Chiron keeps the professor in the loop.

Chiron has a guard rail which will never provide a direct answer to the student.

Instead, Chiron will step-by-step guide the student to the solution.

Chiron also understand the context of the question.

So student really save their time.

Our primary competitors in the market is Anara and NotebookLM.

However, there's no PDF viewer in NotebookLM, while Anara only focus for researchers.

Both have text search and chat functionalities, but Chiron focus on enhancing educational experience and individual interaction between professor and student.

- [Chang] We're Chiron, and we're building the future of AI-powered education.

Thank you.

(audience clapping) - I think knowing your background and expertise in AI, Yoshi you're are the national first starting place here.

- It's a great project.

I'm psyched that you guys took this on, and your fellow classmates probably really appreciate it.

I have a question around the training data.

You might have some data that you're using for the training as a core set, but ultimately you're having the teachers submit data.

And one of the challenges I think that might come into play, I don't know if you've been able to get feedback from the professors on this is, would Chiron just be for, say, a university and siloed off?

So Bucknell's faculty and professors when they share their data would only be visible and usable by Bucknell students?

And say, for example, Colgate's would only be for Colgate's students and professors.

And then the challenge there is if you're having people submit to train, how does that scale, right?

- [Chang] So currently we are focusing, well, we've only tested in Bucknell, but our plans for when we expand to other schools is to actually have it, I guess, separate each material for every individual school.

But then our goal is to later maybe help crowdsource some of this information and create some kind of like global knowledge ecosystem.

So if universities want to participate in this sort of like sharing of knowledge, then they could do that.

But that's still a thing that we've envisioned for the future.

- [Yoshi] Sure.

- [Steve] Meghan.

- Have you been able to do any development of your product or testing of a product, you know, a first round run of it?

- Right, yeah.

So we've been testing in Bucknell University.

For now, we've been testing in four classes with mostly computer science professor.

We received really good feedback from the student, also from the professor.

They found themselves using that to study for the exam, to study before they go to the class.

And even they tried to study for the material when they tried to do the homework.

It's really helpful.

And also professor really liked that it gave out the summary and it gave out the space of improvement for each individual.

Also is tracking the overall performance of the class.

So we've been receiving really great feedbacks from both professors and students.

- [Steve] Todd, one final brief note.

- Sure.

What do you think the key KPIs and metrics would be?

Is it the frequency that they're using it?

Is it the qualitative value that they see it?

Is it the scores of the, you know, the individual students within the classroom?

What do you see as the... How do you know it's really being adapted and accepted by the consumers and the students that are using it?

- So the key performance indicators that we have thought about, we have talked about this before, well obviously we want to see students using it.

So frequency is a very important metric that we need to keep track of.

We also want to see the qualitative impact that this tool has.

So I have a advisor, a computer science professor, who I'm like working on this for my independent study credit.

I've been talking to him about like how do we actually evaluate whether this tool is going to be useful or effective?

And we've been talking about maybe, instead of just measuring everything quantitatively, we should also start gathering qualitative feedback from both students and professors.

Seeing, does it benefit them?

How does it make them, like, how does it change their engagement within the classroom, and how does it like shape their educational experience at a college?

So those are the things that we have been looking at, frequency and just the qualitative aspect of our product.

- Once again, thank you to Chiron.

(audience clapping) Just like every second counts in our competitors' presentations, every second counts in a medical emergency.

That's why our next finalist, Elizabeth Malley, wants to support first responders and other care providers with Therma IV.

- Hi, my name is Elizabeth Malley and I developed the first self-heating IV bag, Therma IV.

Therma IV is lightweight, portable, and power free, reaching the optimal temperature in minutes.

Cold IV fluids can lead to hypothermia and decrease patient survival rates, especially in trauma situations.

I designed this to be cost-effective, which expands access to life-saving emergency care for a wide range of groups.

This includes first responders, EMS, military personnel, disaster relief organizations, and healthcare providers in underserved areas globally.

Therma IV is portable, lightweight, and it's reusable.

From the battlefield to disaster zones, Therma IV is designed to save lives when every second counts.

Therma IV, by turning up the heat we save lives.

Hello judges, please take the spoon and place it against your neck.

That sharp cold is nothing compared to what patients feel when IV fluids, even at room temperature, enter the bloodstream.

In trauma situations, cold IV fluids take a dire situation and make them even worse.

As the body struggles to warm itself, organs begin to fail, leading to hypothermia, shock, and even organ failure.

Every year in the United States, 23,000 EMS agencies respond to over 40 million calls.

120,000 active duty soldiers are in direct combat roles and 100,000 search and rescue missions occur.

This means that millions of people are in situations where IV fluids are crucial to survival.

Imagine, already struggling for your life, and the very treatment that's meant to help is putting you at greater risk.

From my experience interning in a hospital emergency department, working alongside EMS and training in wilderness first aid, I know how cold IV fluids can take a trauma case from 0 to 100.

And the worst part, it's completely preventable.

That's why I created Therma IV, a fast, portable, non-electric way to warm IV fluids in emergency situations.

Knowing that hypothermia is a key factor in the trauma triad of death, first responders are forced to improvise.

EMTs place IV bags on dashboard heater vent in ambulances.

Military medics use heater packs from meals ready to eat, and search and rescue teams use their own body heat.

Therma IV is the answer.

Existing IV warmers are bulky, expensive and require power.

But Therma IV consists of just two components, fast-heating chemical packs, and a custom insulated sleeve that surrounds the IV bag.

It's as simple as crack and insert, reaching the optimal temperature in minutes.

Judges, Therma IV fills a critical gap in emergency medicine and has strong market potential with a large profit margin.

As a biomedical engineer, I am passionate about developing lifesaving innovations that solve real-world problems.

I have already filed for a provisional patent and prototype testing is underway.

(audience applauding) - [Steve] Now for our judges, Todd, would you like to start off with questions?

- First of all, thank you for innovating in an area that can have such an impact to people in emergency situation.

It's an incredibly novel idea.

How do you see other, there's a lot of device manufacturers out there, there's a lot of other people who can copy a great idea.

Who do you see coming after you on this, how would they target your product to copy and replace?

- So that was definitely an issue when I first came up with this idea.

So I immediately started working with a IP lawyer and I filed for a provisional patent.

And I'm hoping so now it's patent pending that I will file a non-provisional patent within the calendar year, and I'm already working with investors to make sure that everything is in order for when I bring the product to market.

Thank you.

- [Steve] Yoshi, follow up?

- So impressive.

Such an important issue.

Thank you for taking this on.

I guess, yeah, I'd like to understand more about how you see it.

If you've done the research to figure out how you would get this to market, are there hospitals, would you partner up with an agency, maybe Department of Defense, et cetera?

How do you plan to bring Therma IV to the world?

- I've definitely had a lot to think about with that.

Right now, I would probably be working directly with EMS and search and rescue agencies, governmental contracts with military, and directly with first responders.

- [Yoshi] Have you looked at the SBIR program at all, grant program?

- Yeah, I currently have filed or applied for a grant here at Bucknell, and I was approved.

So I've been working on making the prototype, and I'll be doing that all of next year.

- [Yoshi] Good for you.

- [Elizabeth] Thank you.

- And I know you showed some ways that some people are trying to accommodate for this like in the field.

Have you heard of anyone else?

Are there other specifics, I guess, about how other people are trying to handle this in the field, or numbers about people being affected specifically by this issue?

- Yeah, so these are the current options.

The top one is super large.

And when you're doing search and rescue or something like that, it's really hard to bring something so large out into the field.

The second one is a glorified lunchbox.

It doesn't actually heat anything.

You have to heat it before you brought it into the field, which isn't very helpful if you're in the military or something like that where you can't heat it prior, say in the microwave, which is what a lot of agencies do.

And then the bottom one uses special battery-powered sources and it only is feasible for two uses.

And Therma IV is reusable so that you can use it as many times as you want.

If you're in the field and you need to, say, you're on a big trip backpacking or whatever it is, and you need to boil and reheat it, then you can do that and reuse it.

- Thank you, Elizabeth.

Thank you, Therma IV.

(audience clapping) Climate change is a growing problem for us all and no one can tackle it alone.

That's why Ben Suit and Zack Yardley want to make it easier for the average person to do their part.

Let's find out more about how to stay forever green.

(logo whooshes) - Hi, I am Ben Suit.

- I'm Zack Yardley.

We're cousins and the co-founders of Forevergreen.

- Most people wanna help the planet but don't know where to start.

Tracking your impact is complicated and taking meaningful actions to reduce it is even harder.

- That's why we created Forevergreen, an app and a website that helps everyone make a difference.

It starts simple with our proprietary carbon calculator where users can track their emissions based on three simple categories: diet, energy usage, and transportation.

- But we do more than track and reduce your carbon footprint.

We provide free educational resources to help you understand sustainability and take meaningful action in your daily life.

- While working at a family sustainability business, we noticed how hard it was for regular people to navigate voluntary carbon markets.

We've built a community of over 200,000 eco-conscious individuals and we're ready to take it to the next level.

- We're really excited to launch our app and to share it with the world.

We wanna be the one-stop shop for all things sustainability.

(logo whooshes) - Meghan, Todd, Yoshi, we appreciate the opportunity to pitch our business, Forevergreen, trustworthy offset solutions for the conscious consumer.

- The problem that we're solving is consumers wanna be sustainable, but there is no easy or straightforward way to reduce their impact.

People are overwhelmed by too many options and are unsure of what is the most effective.

There's a lack of available data to consumers which reduces confidence and trust.

Fragmented solutions also leave consumers feeling overwhelmed and unable to make actionable decisions.

This leaves people feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and guilty as there's no easy way to reduce their impact.

That's where our solution comes in.

We created a platform that makes it simple for everyday users to track and reduce their carbon offset.

- We're building a community upon trust and with transparency, allowing people to really understand their impact.

It starts simple with our app.

It has three main features: calculate, track, and offset.

It starts simple with our proprietary carbon calculator that takes less than two minutes to onboard.

Then users receive personalized feedback and a breakdown of their missions.

From there, they can track their progress month over month with real-time updates based on behavioral changes and highlighting areas for improvement.

Finally, they have the opportunity but not the obligation to offset their missions with verified high-impact projects.

We are the first app that allows users to pick specific projects rather than bundling together preselected carbon credits.

As seen in our App Store promotional images, we've designed a seamless user experience that allows sustainability to be simple and stress free.

- And we're not just building an app, we're building a movement.

Since September, 2024, we've grown to over 200,000 followers on Instagram and over 50,000 subscribers on YouTube.

This traction is driving real growth.

We have already launched our app on March 24th and have received our first 500 downloads and over 20 paying customers.

- So we have strong momentum, but what makes us different?

We let users pick their exact project they want to support.

Our app is easy to use and remains empowering, all while being accessible.

And finally, we offer 100%-free educational content and personalized tools to guide users every step of the way.

We're not just offering offsets, we're offering clarity, confidence, and community.

Our revenue model consists of three mainstreams, one-time carbon credit offsets with the ability to offset anything such as flights.

Then a subscription-based model for net-zero living at $10 a month.

And then B2B consulting to help businesses offset their scope one and two emissions.

We already have customers across all three segments and are seeing strong continued interest.

We sit in the voluntary carbon market, which is primed for exponential growth, with estimates ranging from 100 billion to 1 trillion in transactional volume by 2050.

There's strong institutional support for the carbon market, and we believe this signals a massive opportunity for early movers such as ourselves.

Winning BizPitch would give us the resources to break through.

We would hire a full-stack software engineer to accelerate product development and bring our product worldwide, giving our audience exactly what they want.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our pitch and we would love to answer any questions.

(audience clapping) - Starting off our questions, Todd.

- Sure, well congratulations.

I think that there's definitely a category of consumers who wanna engage this way with technology.

So, can you talk a little bit about any other brands that you're seeing out there that fill this niche.

- Yeah, absolutely, great question.

So there are currently two other players in the consumer offsetting space, Wren and Klima.

And as you can see, one of them is based in the US.

We think that's an advantage because we're able to connect with our market better.

And we're also offering B2B, along with a mobile app.

So other solutions aren't just web-based, it's not very intuitive, you don't have a lot of control over what can get done.

And now that we're on the App Store, we're able to listen to feedback, push our own changes based on what people want and really build that community, not just in a web-based fashion.

- Yeah, I'm gonna ask question two small questions.

One is, what app stores are you in?

And also have you had any feedback, surveys, or such on your product?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So we're on the Apple App Store currently.

We're pushing to go to the Google Play Store, hopefully, by the end of this year.

- And only in the US for the App Store.

And then we're gonna roll out to countries like Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, easy 'cause it's in the Anglosphere and then push to the Play Store.

And what was the?

Oh sorry, we have a perfect five-star rating on the App Store right now.

It's probably not gonna stay that way, but we're proud of it for now.

We constantly send out surveys and feedback to our waiting list.

We ran a beta test and we were able to tweak a couple features ourselves, and we're just constantly trying to iterate.

- [Steve] Final question from Yoshi.

- Yeah.

It's really important to do things like this.

I guess a question would be, how do you get people past the initial excitement around it so that it remains sticky and they continue to use it?

You two look really fit, me with my Fitbit app, I kind of gave up after a while.

How do you gamify it so I keep coming back?

- Yeah, absolutely.

We have a sustainability journey where users can win prizes based on the amount of months they are net zero.

And then also we have a referral leaderboard, and notifications set up so that you are working to minimize your impact.

Every month you are prompted to take the carbon calculator again and see how you compare to your friends or family.

- [Yoshi] Super.

- All right, Forevergreen, thank you very much.

(audience clapping) One more pitch to go.

College is a time when many students are away from home for the first time and experience loneliness and isolation.

Farhaj Shahid is creating a new platform to bring people together and find their community.

(logo whooshes) - Did you know 65% of college students feel lonely?

That's about one in three students according to a recent study done by Active Minds, a mental health nonprofit.

This isn't just a statistic, it's a call to action.

Hi, I'm Farhaj, I'm the founder of Bison Match.

College is fun when you find your people, but that takes time.

What if you could find your people from day one?

That's where Bison Match comes into play.

It's an exclusive platform for Bucknell students to build a real connections on campus.

You sign up with your Bucknell email, you add your clubs, the classes you're a part of, and the interests you have.

And let us do the hard part in connecting you with spontaneous hangouts, events on campus, study groups, and even free food alerts because college should be about real connections and friendships, not just racking up lights.

Bison Match, find your herd today.

(logo whooshes) Picture this, it's lunchtime, you just left class absolutely starving 'cause of course, you didn't have any breakfast.

However, none of your friends are free to eat.

They're all in class.

You don't really wanna have lunch alone.

So what do you do?

You open the Bison Match and you add a status.

Going to the Bison in 10, who wants to join?

Within minutes, two fellow Bucknellian respond.

One from your econ class and another who also loves football.

By 12:15, you're all at the bison, sharing a meal, making new friends and new memories.

Sounds amazing, right?

But here's the issue.

There's a loneliness epidemic plaguing colleges across the country.

One in three college students feel lonely, and making everyday connections is a lot harder than it should be, especially when you're surrounded by thousands of like-minded students your age.

We bounce from app to app praying that the stars align and that someone is free.

We miss out on so many opportunities for meaningful connections and community.

Bison Match is the modern take on what OG Facebook was meant to be.

It's a closed campus-only platform.

It's a closed campus-only platform that you can sign up with your Bucknell email.

You add your interests, the classes you're taking, and the clubs you're a part of.

And boom, you're in a secure and exclusive network.

Post that you're heading to lunch, or logging in in the library for that exam, maybe you even need a fourth for pickleball.

Bison Match is your one-stop spot for all things Bucknell.

Some of the key features that we have are really amazing.

You get automatic group chats for the classes and the clubs you're a part of, and there's real interaction between real people.

Unlike the social media of today, that is littered with sponsored posts and celebrity updates.

In our first three days of starting marketing, we had more than 1000 plus visitors on our website, and we've acquired more than 500 waitlist signups to date.

This shows just how hungry students are for a unified campus platform.

At Bucknell alone, we have about 4,000 undergrad students who could be on the app tomorrow.

But this isn't just limited to Bucknell.

Every college across the nation could get its own instance of the app.

Universities love this because of the data-driven insights and impact on student engagement.

And we can partner with local businesses to market to students directly.

Furthermore, tech-wise, we've built a lightweight platform that's quick to deploy with minimal overhead.

We can spin up the Bucknell instance, gather feedback, refine it, and then replicate it for colleges across the country.

We're keeping our costs low and our user engagement high by using this strategy.

Thank you for believing in Bison Match.

Let's make college more fun and have no more fragmentation and no more mis-connections.

Thank you.

(audience clapping) - So judges, Farhaj is asking you to cast your mind back to when you were a student here, but social media today is way different.

Meghan, can I ask you to jump in with the first question for Farhaj, or some advice about how to grow?

- No, I think it's a fantastic concept.

I think that it is a very, very real issue and you're hitting on some great points there.

I think one of my questions is more so about how do you see it rolling out.

I think you said it was an app, but can you tell me a little bit more about what that looks like as.

- Of course.

So we've currently developed a prototype and we're under review on the App Store as well as the Google Play Store.

In order to make sure that we comply with all best practices, once those are done, we are gonna be shipping to Bucknell soon and gathering feedback.

And so we're really close at launching.

- [Steve] Todd?

- Sure.

I definitely think that there's a niche here.

I mean, if you think back to 2005, which is long before most of the people here's time, but this is how Facebook started, right?

They built individual networks within college campuses.

When I came to Bucknell, there was an actual printed book with everyone's picture from my freshman class.

And that's the original Facebook.

So I think that there's something here.

And the nice thing about it is if you can prove it out at a single campus, there's no reason to think why that would not be the case at every other Patriot League school, at every other Ivy League school.

So I think that there's really an opportunity to pilot.

If you can make it work in one place, I think it would be a reasonable assumption that this could could work in many locations.

- Those are some great points.

And upon researching some competitors, some didn't even fall close to what we were offering.

The closest competitors we saw were anonymous message boards like Yik Yak and Fizz.

However, the issue with those platforms are they're anonymized, and then they tend to have a more negative message.

And funnily enough, in 2018, Yik Yak had to close down its operations due to the increase in cyber bullying.

By making sure it's a front-facing public app, we're facilitating real-time connections and real friendships.

- Yoshi, a final question for Farhaj.

- Yeah.

On the product side, I'm wondering, a lot of the social networks, they rely on a social graph, so people following one another, right?

In your original presentation or the beginning, you kind of highlighted themes, right?

I might follow food or sports, or maybe some intellectual pursuits.

Do you imagine that you'll maintain that and avoid people following one another, and just focusing on topics as you grow?

- We have both.

So you can add your current friends and your current social circle, and you can post a status, for example, I'm studying at the library till 8:00 PM.

And I can choose the privacy of that post, if I want it to be made known to the general campus audience, or if I just want my friends to know.

If I choose that, my friends get an immediate notification, hey, he's studying at the library.

And if someone has time, they'll stop by and see me.

Getting together some of my friends has been such a painful issue.

Everyone's Google calendars are so messy, there's not enough time to see your friends.

By making sure we can get spontaneous hangouts, I feel like we can get even more and more people to support the journey and have a much more fulfilling college experience.

- Bison Match, Farhaj, thank you.

- [Farhaj] Thank you.

(audience clapping) - Now that we've heard from all of our competitors, it's time for our judges to make their decisions.

While they add up their scores, let's review how they'll be judging.

Our judges will use five categories to score the presentations: the problem being addressed, the market for the solution, how innovative their idea is, how feasible it is, and finally, how memorable and exciting their pitch was.

We'll be back soon with our judges presentations of prizes.

(upbeat music) (audience clapping) Our judges are back, and now it's the moment you and our student entrepreneurs have been waiting for, the winners of Bucknell BizPitch 2025.

Tonight's prizes are supported by a gift from an anonymous donor as well as Bucknell's Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Thanks to this, I'm pleased to share that, in addition to the three upcoming prizes, each of our other finalists will also receive a Bucknell Entrepreneurship Award of $1,500.

(audience clapping) Here to present the Third Place Prize, Todd Walrath.

- [Todd] Okay, come on up Forevergreen, Zack.

(audience clapping) - Congratulations.

(audience clapping) Next, Meghan Beck will present the Second Place Prize.

- Welcome to the stage, Lyric's Lip Company.

(audience cheering) I'm so happy for you.

- And finally, Yoshi Maisami is here to present the First Place Prize.

- Congratulations, Therma IV.

(audience applauding) Good job.

- [Elizabeth] Thank you so much.

- [Yoshi] Really good job.

You gotta step up here.

(audience cheering) - Thank you for joining us for Bucknell's BizPitch Competition.

I would like to thank our viewers.

And please share these stories.

I've been pleased to welcome "Keystone Edition Business" to the campus of Bucknell University for tonight's BizPitch Competition.

And again, I would like to extend my great gratitude to Meghan Beck, Todd Walrath, and Yoshi Maisami, our judges tonight for Bucknell BizPitch 2025.

The total prizes tonight were over $20,000 for our semi-finalists, finalists, and coming soon, a presentation from our audience for a fan-favorite prize.

I would like to thank all of our viewers for joining us at tonight's BizPitch Competition.

Thanks for watching.

(audience clapping) (upbeat music)