A team of aspiring entrepreneurs from Grove City College is competing for big money this week in a national competition looking for the next big idea.
More than $200,000 is on the line at e-Fest, a virtual event hosted by the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. that seeks to encourage undergraduate entrepreneurs and support their ventures.
Senior Entrepreneurship majors Eric Dudgeon ’21 of Pittsburgh and Cameron Suorsa ’21 of Slippery Rock are hoping to win some of that money to continue working on sidekickk, a tech platform that gives podcasters the resources and tools they need to launch and manage their shows.
Developed under the guidance of The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation (E+I) at Grove City College, and a member of E+I’s 2021 VentureLab cohort, sidekickk recently earned a $10,000 grant from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern PA.
“This is the third year that Grove City College has had representation in the national finals for e-Fest which is a testament to the strength of our program and the students in it,” Yvonne J. English, executive director of E+I. “I am so proud of the sidekickk team and their accomplishments. I look forward to cheering them on at this competition and well into the future.”
Dudgeon and Soursa made the final cut for e-Fest after submitting a video proposal. More than 100 other teams from 58 colleges and universities entered the contest. The sidekickk team will compete this week against 24 other teams from 21 universities. At e-Fest, student teams face off in a Pitch Slam, an Innovation Challenge and the featured event, the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge. Victors of the various contests win cash prizes ranging from a few thousand to $50,000 for the grand prize.
Sponsored by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas and EIX.org, a nonprofit online platform for entrepreneurship education, e-Fest provides young entrepreneurs with experience and capital to advance their startup ideas.
For more about E+I, visit gccentrepreneurship.com. For more about Entrepreneurship at Grove City College visit gcc.edu/entr.