Get Seeded held its final event for the school year on April 24, with over 130 in attendance from universities including the University of Utah, BYU, BYU-Hawaii, Western Governors, Salt Lake Community College, the University of Idaho, Utah State, as well as some from local high schools. There was a healthy mix of age and professions, from adjunct professors to medical residents, from botany majors to sculpture majors, as well as a great majority from engineering and business schools. A local food entrepreneurship incubator helping refugees create sustainable businesses called Spice Kitchen catered authentic Afghani hors d’oeuvres.
Our participants included eight teams: Blerp, Boohi, Clovitek, Contact Lens Drug Delivery, Edgeotomy, Language Locker, Neature and Pet Connect. Blerp and Clovitek are returned to Get Seeded, having successfully made it through the final round before. The other six teams pitched for the first time.
Our winners for this round included two app startups, two consumer goods startups and one medical device startup for a total award of $6,960. All are still early stage and pre-revenue.
Teams Funded
- Blerp (company), sound bite app (concept), $1,475 (funding), marketing (purpose of funding)
- PetConnect, automated reptile habitat, $1,100, prototyping
- Contact lens drug delivery, delivering drugs with contact lenses, $2,685, prototyping
- Neature, custom rock climbing bags, $400, equipment
- Language Locker, second language retention app, $1,300, app development
Get Seeded Will Return in Fall 2017
Summer is a great time to kick start your business idea! The work you do now will accelerate your ability to get funded next year by the Get Seeded program! The new directors, Rob Simmons and Nate Smith, are looking forward to working with the student entrepreneur community to help bring these ideas to life. The first application for fall 2017 will open Aug. 21 at midnight and will close Monday, Sept. 4 at 5 p.m. We are always available by email at getseeded@gmail.com. Thank you all for a wonderful year!
Learn more about Get Seeded at lassonde.utah.edu/getseeded.
