Young Entrepreneurs Showcase Innovations at UMD Business Exhibition

Rising startup companies displayed their inventions and their representatives networked with fellow entrepreneurs, business leaders and potential investors at the Cupid’s Cup Business & Innovation Showcase on Friday.

The event, held at the Riggs Alumni Center on the University of Maryland campus, included startups from around the region and from UMD students. It was sponsored in part by Maryland alumnus Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour, a leading manufacturer of athletic footwear, clothing and gear.

Attendees had the opportunity to explore the showcase, get a firsthand look at inventions and vote for their favorite booths. The top five finishers received $2,000 apiece toward helping their businesses succeed.

The regional startups ranged from Eco-Armour, a collection of botanical shaving foams, to Brain Sentry, a device that attaches to the back of a football helmet to identify potential concussions.

Those behind SortIQ, a College Park-based startup, are seeking to change how people and companies connect online. The company has developed a tool for utilizing recruiters at startups so that the emerging businesses don’t have to rely on what may be limited networks.

“The biggest challenge all of these startups face is getting low-cost, high-skilled people,” said Juliana Neelbauer of SortIQ. “A lot of them are still on equity or bootstrapping and are not 100 percent profitable, but they are building complicated technology products that require more than just the government contractor level of technical skill.”

Among the startups developed by UMD students were Wheel Shields, a skateboarding accessory that creates a physical barrier around the wheels, and 512 Technology, which offers an app called Route Rider that lets people know exactly when Shuttle-UM buses are arriving.

Also featured at the event was the Innovation Lounge—sponsored by AOL—a space that offered participants the opportunity to learn more about the company from local representatives and to network with other attendees.

“We’re here to pipeline top talent for current and future positions, and it’s a great branding opportunity for us as well,” said Yolanda Owens, head of college recruiting at AOL.

Fishbowl Labs, an AOL-owned startup incubator at the company’s campus in Dulles, VA, also featured booths at the event. The company offers free, collaborative office space for small teams of talented entrepreneurs working on startups.

“Our model is free rent, no equity,” said Fletcher Jones, managing director of Fishbowl Labs. “Startups can come and work in a space that we’ve allocated and get access to the expertise of the thousand Aolers who work on our campus. In exchange, we ask them to interact and be a part of the larger community here at AOL.”

Bud Rosenthal, president of AOL Paid Services and co-founder of Fishbowl Labs, served as a judge for a competition that followed the showcase.

The contest was open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at accredited U.S. universities along with young alumni who have surpassed the business planning stage and now own and operate their own ventures. They must have also generated at least $5,000 in revenue or have at least a version 1.0 product with proof of traction.

Six finalists pitched their businesses to the panel of judges, which included Plank.

In the end, the judges selected Earth Starter LLC—a company founded by UMD alumni Philip-Michael Weiner and John-Randall Gorby—as the winner. The startup's flagship product, Nourishmat, is "designed to take the guess work out of gardening" by regulating the spacing of a variety of vegetables.

The company was awarded $70,000 in prize money, access to Plank’s personal network, and services from strategic providers.

Editor's note: AOL is the parent company of Patch.