Senior computer science majors Patricia Skora and Victoria Johnson won first place and a $1,000 prize at Monmouth University’s TechPitch competition for their company, CheckMate. The student duo developed and presented the idea of CheckMate’s VERISail app, which would help inspectors at sailing events verify that all components on a sailboat are class approved (i.e., they conform to physical specifications to ensure an even matchup for sailing vessels entered in races).
“Manufacturers of these parts would attach stickers, which include QR codes and holograms, on the components before sending them out,” Skora said. “Our service will store all data and records, like manufacturer ID, GPS coordinates, and measurements of the part.”
According to Skora, VERISail would scan the QR code with a built-in camera feature and do all the work for the inspectors.
“This ensures an even chance for all sailors since all parts are class approved, and a previously tedious process that has a lot of room for human error is done and taken care of by VERISail,” added Skora.
Skora and Johnson will represent the university at TechLaunch Bullpen #15 on Nov. 19 in Pozycki Auditorium, where a select group of four tech startup companies will pitch their business plans to a panel of investors and a mixed audience of business leaders and members of the university community.
Organized by the Leon Hess Business School, TechPitch is a university-wide competition where student teams pitch their business plans for a tech product—like an app or software solution—to a panel of judges. Working with faculty mentors, students have one month to prepare their pitches and business plans. Students must identify how their product solves a problem, point to market demand for the product, and build a business model that provides a revenue stream.
Mentoring by business school faculty allows any student, regardless of their background or degree path, to create a “Pitch Deck” and compete in the competition. The program, organized by Susan Forquer Gupta, Ph.D., director of the MBA program, and Joe McManus, Ph.D., director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, is now in its third year at Monmouth. This year, a total of four teams made it to the competition after one month of mentoring.
Results of Monmouth University TechPitch 2019:
1st place: Patricia Skora and Victoria Johnson, CheckMate
2nd place: Youwe Huang, Yuese Jin, and Dipin Patel, Quick Bytes
3rd place: Hunter Goldberg, DART
4th place: Dylan Barkhuizen and Kevin Del Giorno, CleanSweep
