Students pitch original, innovative products at ‘Shark-Tank’-style Create Fest event

Stimulating collaboration between students from various degree programs at Liberty University was a driving inspiration behind Create Fest, an entrepreneurial pitch competition similar to TV’s “Shark Tank” March 31 at the School of Business’ Towns Auditorium.

Five finalists were selected from a total of 40 entries and had 10 minutes to pitch their products and take questions from the judges with the chance at up to $10,000 to help develop, manufacture, and market their inventions.

“The finalists were of all types — business, engineering, psychology, graphic design,” said Marc Jantomaso, an adjunct professor in the School of Engineering who works as a student leadership development mentor and served as advisor for the event. “That’s kind of my vision for it. It was a fun event, and we are looking forward to what God’s going to do in the future.”

“It was electric,” said Nate Breed, a senior mechanical engineering student who emceed the event along with junior Daniel Hembree. “It was a ton of fun (and) the judges gave some amazing feedback. The biggest benefit were the amazing connections the students were able to make with mentors and business partners that were there.”

The judges included Abe Loper (’10, ’12), president and wealth management advisor at Loper Financial; Dexter Glass, senior vice president of Bank of the James; Holly and Jordan Nickerson (’13), Liberty alumni and owners of Lynchburg-area businesses Rookie’s, Bacon St. Bagels, and Corduroy Coffee + Kitchen; and fellow alumnus Doug Johnson, a strategic business consultant who has worked with Framatome, NASA, and Caterpillar.

Music was provided by Seth and Nirva Ready, an assistant professor in Liberty’s School of Music.

The $10,000 in total prize money was provided by real estate brothers and Liberty alumni David and Jason Benham, former minor league baseball players and current entrepreneurs, investors, and authors. All contestants were required to complete the brothers’ Expert Ownership Early Years online course, which is provided for free to Liberty students. The courses are designed to help students solve business problems while increasing their impact on the Kingdom of God.

“We want students to get that mindset, that principle, of ‘this is why we do it,’ to use financial resources, use the gifts that you have, to build the Kingdom of God,” Jantomaso said.

He pointed to the example of finalist Adelin Lucaci, a business student who developed “NOVU” nutrient lollipops, vitamin and caffeine-infused snacks that include a reusable stick that beeps when the lollipop clicks into it. He received $1,000 for his pitch.

“Of the profits he is going to make, he wants to take 20 percent to reinvest into other product ideas and the other 80 percent he wants to put toward nonprofits and mission organizations,” Jantomaso said. “This is why we’re doing what we are doing. Not ‘I want to make a bunch of money,’ but ‘I want to make a bunch of money and then funnel that money back into Kingdom purposes.”

Likewise, brothers Caleb Gordillo, an interdisciplinary student with concentrations in music and entrepreneurship, and Gabriel Gordillo, a graphic design student with minors in studio arts and cinematic arts, developed Gordo Games, a series of board games that can be used as conversation starters in countries where language barriers exist.

They came up with the idea while growing up as missionary kids in Australia and later Ecuador, where their family has lived for the past five years. They connected with students there by playing board games at lunchtime, making friends and sharing the Gospel. Over the last couple years, they have invented 15 games to market for those purposes. They were awarded $1,000 in the competition.

Brandon Lucaci, a psychology student and brother of Adelin, also received $1,000 after pitching an app called “Veer” designed to counteract digital media overstimulation and increase users’ productivity, in class or at work.

Collin Partington, a sophomore civil engineering student, earned the largest portion of the winnings for his “Easy Sleeve” concept for organizing Christmas lights, a project he pitched in December at a separate Create Fest event but failed to make the finals cut. He developed the concept more with his father over Christmas break and it wound up winning $4,000.

Sophomore mechanical engineering students Sydney Bearinger and Sophie Batchelor were awarded $3,000 for their “shoEZ,” a footwear product that is easy to put on and take off.

“Ultimately, we’re in the business of promoting independence and improving the quality of life for people with disabilities,” said Batchelor, who was inspired by a woman she met at a special needs camp where she worked last summer. “We’ve been looking at designs for the clasping mechanism as well as the latching mechanism, and we think it’s a patentable spring technology.”

Batchelor said prayer was a central focus of Create Fest, and students worked together to sharpen one another’s inventions and presentations, “as iron sharpens iron.”

“Everybody was praying over us constantly,” she said. “Every time we stepped into a room we were prayed for. Every time we stepped closer to the podium, we were prayed for. Even in our story, how we came together and found a shared passion we had and seeing God work through it … it was wonderful. The goal was to glorify God and He was so obviously glorified through all of the pitches, through what the judges said, so it was really amazing to see being a part of that.”

Create Fest itself was conceived in prayer and through the entrepreneurial spirit of underclassmen, according to Bearinger.

“It was just a dream, and the vision that these sophomore engineering students had that turned into a $10,000 pitch competition,” she said. “Everything is based on a dream God puts into your mind, and it just flourished here in the Creationeer Café,” a collaborative meeting space in the School of Engineering in DeMoss Hall.

Batchelor is excited to witness the collaboration between students from various academic programs.

“We’ve been working with a fashion major,” she said. “It’s crazy, all of the different schools of Liberty working together — the business school, the medical school, the law school, the engineering school, all of it.”