{"id":18970,"date":"2017-03-29T11:20:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T15:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=18970"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:35:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:35:53","slug":"classroom-to-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=18970","title":{"rendered":"From classroom to competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ela
Ela Hazar, Ellie Dannenberg, Hanna Hepburn, Allen Cater and Nicolas Schwarz will represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the ACC InVenture Prize competition March 30 and 31.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When tasked with conceiving a new business for their Introduction to Entrepreneurship class, five Carolina students decided to tap into the annoyance that many college students face \u2014 doing laundry in their residence halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you take your clothes out, sometimes they\u2019re not dry enough or sometimes they\u2019re too hot so they shrink,\u201d said Nicolas Schwartz, a sophomore and member of the five-student team. \u201cAnother problem is people come and take your clothes out of your dryer. Everyone hates it. Everyone dreads it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To tackle the irritation, the group launched LaundrFi, a company whose product of the same name aims to bring outdated dryers into the 21st\u00a0century by wirelessly connecting them to a smartphone app that provides up-to-date status on the laundry.<\/p>\n

The team will now pit their idea against those by the top student-entrepreneurs in the Atlantic Coast Conference as LaundrFi represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the ACC InVenture Prize competition March 30 and 31.<\/p>\n

Held annually at Georgia Tech, teams from all 15 ACC universities vie for $30,000 of prize money in the innovation pitch competition that is judged by experienced entrepreneurs and investors.<\/p>\n

Old problem, new idea
\n<\/strong>LaundrFi has been in the works since late August, when Schwartz, Allen Cater, Ellie Dannenberg, Ela Hazar and Hanna Hepburn teamed up for their Econ 125 semester-long project.<\/p>\n

Designed to teach students to think like entrepreneurs, the class challenged the students to create a new business and pitch it to the class. The students were divided into teams and an entrepreneurship coach helped guide them through the process.<\/p>\n

In an early brainstorm with their coach, Cater pitched his idea to find a way to improve the laundry process in residence halls. Not only would the idea work well for the class project, but it would also solve a problem he personally had with the chore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got tired of waiting,\u201d said Cater, a member of the Carolina football team and first-year sports administration major. \u201cI was just trying to find the best idea possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the semester, the team developed LaundrFi, which became a portable moisture-detecting device that could be placed into campus dryers and connect to an app. The sensor not only stops the drying process the moment the items are dry, but also alerts users when their clothes are ready, saving time, money and energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the technology exists for the new $3,000 dryer that most college students can\u2019t afford,\u201d said Schwartz, a sophomore statistics and operations research major. \u201cSince universities have the same white, 1950s dryer, we\u2019re just trying to get those old dryers and make them into 21st\u00a0century dryers that stop as soon as the clothes are fully dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the class ended in December, the team wasn\u2019t ready to quit on the idea. They wanted to take it to the next level, leveraging the resoures Carolina has to help them.<\/p>\n

Developing the pitch
\n<\/strong>Their coach from class told them about the ACC InVenture Prize, where their idea could be critiqued against some of the best from 15 universities. After a business pitch to Innovate Carolina, LaundrFi was selected to represent UNC-Chapel Hill at the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for something that had a good bottom line \u2014 as any potential company should \u2014 that we felt could be successful and would have a positive impact on the environment,\u201d said Sheryl Waddell, program director of the Innovate Carolina Global Network.<\/p>\n

Over the past two months, the team developed a 3-D model of their device and worked to transform a classroom pitch for college students to one aimed at adult investors.<\/p>\n

At the competition, the team will present a short pitch to the judges. The top five teams will advance to the final round on March 31, which be broadcasted online.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve definitely put in a lot of work and we\u2019re very confident in our idea,\u201d said Hepburn, a sophomore advertising and political science major. \u201cWe think it\u2019s going to go really well. We\u2019re hoping to get the best feedback we can. That\u2019s the best way to figure out if your idea is going to go somewhere \u2014 feedback from experienced people.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Brandon Bieltz, University Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When tasked with conceiving a new business for their Introduction to Entrepreneurship class, five Carolina students decided to tap into the annoyance that many college students face \u2014 doing laundry in their residence halls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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