Meet the Student Entrepreneurs Pitching Their Business Idea at Fowler Business Concept Challenge

The Fowler Business Concept Challenge (FBCC) is where entrepreneurial students go to ignite new ideas at the University of San Diego. For the past month, students of all majors have been practicing and honing their pitching skills for the chance to compete at the FBCC Grand Finale. 

16 semi-finalist teams have been selected to pitch an original business idea to a panel of judges. Guest judges include prominent San Diego business leaders such as Caroline Perry, senior vice president of business administration and general counsel at the San Diego Padres; Dan Novak, retired vice president of global marketing at Qualcomm; and Kelly Capen Douglas, president and CEO of Voices for Children, to name a few. 

After receiving feedback from the judges, the teams will pitch their ideas to a live audience at the FBCC Grand Finale on Nov. 5, 2021. Four finalist teams will be eligible to win the $15,000 scholarship grand prize. Students and San Diego community members in attendance will get to vote for their favorite business idea to win an audience choice award and scholarship prize.

Before arriving at the Fowler Business Concept Challenge, meet a few of the semi-finalist teams.

Ritual

Team: Alexandra Leonidova ‘18 (BA), ‘23 (MBA)

What business idea are you pitching?

Ritual is a wellness app that helps anyone develop a personalized morning or evening routine curated to their specific goals. Ritual will serve as your guide, walking you step-by-step through a sequence of practices, showing what to do and how to do it. Ritual takes all the guesswork out of your routine, helps you fit your routine into your day, tracks your progress as you complete your daily habits and provides scientifically-proven recommendations and guidance.

What inspired Ritual?

I have high demands from my mind and body. I am an MBA student, software developer, a competitive ballroom dancer and a casual biohacker. For many years, I never found time to take care of myself and eventually had to pay for it with brain fog, injuries, burnout and other unpleasant consequences. After working with many coaches, from physical therapy to breath work, I have discovered the power of morning rituals. Thanks to my rituals, I have become much more in tune with my mind and body, giving them proper attention and care. As a result, they reward me with high performance and happiness. I want to help more people discover their perfect ritual and experience the transformative effect.

After the FBCC, what are Ritual's next steps? 

I came to USD to learn how to build and lead a benefit company with the intention to launch my venture during the MBA program. I am looking forward to hearing feedback from judges, optimizing the plan and to begin development of a prototype. I have a BA in Computer Science from USD so I am planning to spend Intersession coding up the app and doing alpha testing on family and friends.

Fambam

Team: Abhimanyu Sharma ‘23 (MBA), Mark Murphy ‘23 (MBA)

What business idea are you pitching?

When Mark’s son crawled for the first time, he felt like there should be a better way to share photos of the milestone moment with his family. Fambam is an interactive living family tree that outlives us. It encourages users to upload images, videos, achievements, and family history items with the intention of future generations being able to easily access information about their family.

What is the most valuable lesson you've learned while preparing for the FBCC?

We realized that an idea should never be rigid, it has to be very flexible and receptive to change. Our revenue model and marketing techniques have evolved a lot since its inception. As we get more feedback from our peers and faculty, our idea is taking shape into a polished business plan.

After the FBCC, what are the next steps for Fambam? 

We have received a lot of valuable feedback and motivation from our faculty and peers to keep working on our idea. Torero Ventures Lab is a course that we will definitely take to work on our business idea. There are also numerous other resources and competitions we can take our idea to, all thanks to the amazing resources provided to us by the USD School of Business.

EcoBreeze

Team: Kylie Rios ‘22 (Electrical Engineering), Mary Hinek ‘22 (Marketing), Meghan Pipitone ‘22 (Electrical Engineering), Colton Landaiche ‘22 (Integrated Engineering)

What business idea are you pitching?

EcoBreeze is an environmentally-friendly, low-cost alternative to conventional air conditioning. Our innovative cooling system uses proven technology, thermoacoustic cooling to make cooling systems available to low-income communities.

What is the most valuable lesson you've learned while preparing for the FBCC?

Bridging the gap between business and engineering is a difficult task. For example, coming up with a great engineering idea is useless if there is no market for the product. In turn, a good business plan needs an efficient and reliable product. It has been valuable to combine a technological skillset with an entrepreneurial mindset.

What are the next steps for EcoBreeze after the FBCC?

We will have our first prototype completed by January 2022. We will then spend the spring semester altering design parameters in order to increase product efficiency and reduce production costs. We plan to have low-cost options available to households by May 2022.

The 3rd annual Fowler Business Concept Challenge is hosted by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Catalyzer at the USD School of Business, which offers a robust schedule of student entrepreneurship competitions and activities throughout the year.