Tan Phan Wins First Place in the New Venture Competition
Three Husker entrepreneur teams were awarded monetary prizes this week in the first-ever Nebraska Governor’s New Venture Competition. The competition was open to any student enrolled in college. Nineteen teams submitted proposals and later pitched their ideas virtually to a panel of judges. First place and $20,000 went to Samuel Ingledue and Tan Phan, Math major, for their company Privy AI. Second place and $15,000 went to Brooke Bode and Seth Daup for their company, Cattle Kettle, for stock tank management. Third place and $10,000 went to Bridget Peterkin, Math minor, and Tristan Curd, Math minor, for Dyslexio, a dyslexia accessibility tool.
From NEBRASKA TODAY
Three student entrepreneur teams were awarded monetary prizes this week in the first-ever Nebraska Governor’s New Venture Competition. On Thursday, Gov. Jim Pillen awarded prizes to the top three college teams who competed in the contest, which was created to showcase and encourage student-led entrepreneurship.
Nineteen teams of students submitted proposals and later pitched their ideas virtually to a panel of judges. Any undergraduate or graduate students currently enrolled in college were allowed to participate in teams of at least two members. This year’s competitors included students from Doane University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Peru State College.
The panel of judges included representatives from Nebraska Angels, Black Dog Ventures, Tech Nebraska and Nebraska Public Power District who provided feedback to students and selected 11 finalist teams in December. Among the finalists were eight teams from UNL, two from UNO and one team from Doane.
The finalists were then assigned a mentor who helped refine their presentation before pitching in person to another panel of judges during the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting on Thursday. The judges included representatives from Hudl, NPPD, Fast Forward, Grit Road Partners and Move Capital Fund.
Later in the evening, Pillen announced the winners who all received a monetary prize.
First place and $20,000 went to student entrepreneurs Samuel Ingledue and Tan Phan, Math major, from UNL for their company Privy AI. Their company empowers AI developers and companies by selling training data from data aggregators and selling them securely on its marketplace. The Privy AI datasets are also redacted to ensure privacy.
Third place and $10,000 went to another AI industry group by students Bridget Peterkin, Math minor, and Tristan Curd, Math minor, from UNL. Their company, Dyslexico, is an assistive writing platform to help people with dyslexia. The AI-powered spelling and grammar corrections, dyslexia accessibility tools and analytics help people with dyslexia grow as writers and communicate with confidence.
By Alyssa Johnson of the LINCOLN JOURNALSTAR