The 2023 Business Scholars Innovation Project recently concluded with an event to honor the winning teams. The teams competed for the four main prizes which included Best Idea, Best Pitch, Best Prototype, and Best Branding. Winners were selected by the public – through online polling.
Team finIQ won all four awards this year. This award sweep is unprecedented and speaks to the hard work the team put into the project. The team includes Lachlan Van Rosmalen and Jack Pollock. Their idea is an AI-supported, web-based subscription service that helps empower the everyday consumer through financial knowledge. finIQ has already received interest from outside investors to keep the project moving forward.
“This project has been an incredible experience,” Van Rosmalen said. “From the start, we knew what we wanted to do and that we would get a good project going. It’s been fun to see some of the opportunities that can come from this.”
See below for a complete list of the winning teams and their participants.
Since January 2023, hundreds of students in the Business Scholars program at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business worked in teams to develop products to solve real-world problems in the Innovation Project. This is an annual activity managed in partnership with the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute.
Student teams worked together to identify a problem they believe they can solve with some sort of innovation. They then developed unique solutions to these issues. Students were given the freedom to decide how they wanted to go about the Innovation Project – with ideas ranging from a variable rock-climbing wall to a multivitamin designed for college students. Teams developed prototypes, sought market feedback, and explored early pricing and costings models
Though ideas were spread across a wide range, all the participants learned important, first-hand lessons on how valuable entrepreneurship can be in solving everyday issues. This hands-on project is unique in how it coaches students in real-life teamwork and problem-solving skills by requiring its students to think outside the box.
“If there’s a problem that you’re passionate about and you can apply yourself and figure out how to solve it, there’s nothing standing between you and trying to accomplish what you want,” Pollock said. “We’re really passionate about this, and that’s what made the experience so fun.”
This is one of several hands-on style projects that these students participated in over the course of the school year for the Business Scholars program.
Learn more about the Business Scholars program at eccles.utah.edu/students/business-scholars/
Innovation Showcase Winners 2023
- Best Idea Award – finIQ (Jack Pollock, Lachlan Van Rosmalen) – An AI-supported, web-based subscription service to help empower the everyday consumer through financial knowledge and security.
- Best Branding Award – finIQ
- Best Prototype Award – finIQ
- Best Pitch Award – finIQ
