A team of Grove City College student entrepreneurs rose nearly to the top at the TCU Neely Values and Ventures Competition, held last month at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
After several rounds of pitching Resense, a venture created in class and fostered through the College’s Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation, the students placed in the top eight at the finals, reaching the final round and placing them in the top 3% of competitors nationwide.
The Resense team was one of 42 invited to the national undergraduate entrepreneurship contest that boasted a top prize of $40,000. Resense was one of eight teams that survived the first round of the competition, taking home a $2,500 prize.
As a result of their performance, the team has been invited to compete in The Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge this summer at University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minn.
“We are so proud of this team not only for the success that they achieved at the Values and Ventures Competition, but also for the impact they are having on the world. They are actively working to make the world a better place, and we couldn’t be happier to support their efforts to do so,” said Logan Hammerschmitt, campus director of the Center for E+I, who traveled with the team to Fort Worth.
The Values and Ventures Competition focuses on for-profit enterprises that specifically impact society in meaningful ways.
Resense created and markets the Connect + Comfort Kit, an activity toolkit for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia that consists of multiple different restorative products designed to improve brain health, exercise the senses, and elicit long-term memories, according to junior Luke Gilligan, CEO, and leader of the Resense team, which also included junior Logan Mays and sophomore Oliver Schwarz. The Resense Register, a first-of-its-kind dementia-friendly newspaper, is also produced by the company. Resense’s products are currently being used in care communities across the nation, providing comfort and joy to those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Resense is part of E+I's VentureLaunch cohort and was previously a VentureLab enterprise. The programs are designed to encourage and empower student entrepreneurs of any major at Grove City College.
VentureLab is an early-stage business and social enterprise idea feasibility lab that provides funding and guidance to aspiring entrepreneurs regarding the exploration and development of new ventures based on their own original concepts. It serves as a valuable starting point for innovation and enables entrepreneurs to gauge the feasibility of their ideas in a supportive environment.
The VentureLaunch program affords student run businesses the opportunity to grow and explore new opportunities with the support of coaches, mentors, and pre-approved expense reimbursements. VentureLaunch teams must be ready to form a legal entity to be admitted to the program.
To learn more about The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation, visit gccentrepreneurship.com.