On August 8, 2018, entrepreneurs demoed their ventures to members of the public at the Summer Founders Program Demo Day at the Happy Valley Launchbox, powered by PNC Bank. After a few years of dormancy, the Launchbox was proud to work with Invent Penn State again and bring the program back to life.

“Tonight, what we are going to do is celebrate five teams who have completed the summer founders program,” began Launchbox chief amplifier Lee Erickson. “The summer founders program is an Invent Penn State Program that provides, to teams of at least one student cofounder, a $10,000 grant if they will work full time over the summer on their venture.” These students and entrepreneurs give up jobs, internships and summer classes to further develop their companies, and for these five startups, the sacrifice was well worth it.

Tutoration

Derek Barnett co-founded Tutoration after realizing students prefer and learn better from tutors who have been in their shoes. Tutoration is “an on demand tutoring service that connects students to qualified and vetted tutors who have taken the same class at the same university as the student,” explained Barnett.

While at Penn State, Barnett taught students in various assistant capacities. When students started asking him for one-on-one tutoring, he had his “aha” moment. Access to specialized tutors who have been in the position of the student and know the professor, the class, the material and the expectations is more appealing and helpful to students than the generic tutors found at most university or public tutoring centers. After a summer working on his company through Launchbox, Tutoration is showing promising growth.

“Since Feb. 2018, we have acquired more than 30 customers, [and] we have more than $3,200 in revenue, and every student we’ve had has come back at least twice.” Because the company was founded by students, they have a unique insight into making Tutoration as easily accessible as possible to better fit into students’ hectic lifestyles. They made the online interface as user-friendly as possible, and now students can book an appointment for the next day or several weeks down the road, giving them much-needed schedule flexibility.

Moichor

Sherveen Karbasi is the CEO and Creative Director of the newly renamed Moichor, formerly known as HemoGo. He saw major problems with traditional blood testing, including immunocompromised oncology patients needing to go to public labs to get their blood counts, raising their risk of infection, and the long wait times that steal precious time from chronically ill patients, and he knew something had to change.

He and his team created Moichor in response to this problem. Their phone app lets customers get a complete blood count via their cell phone, allowing them to test from anywhere. “Very simply, you prick your finger, place a drop of blood onto our strips,” explained Karbasi, “and we have an attachment for your case that you insert the strip in, and within 30 seconds, we provide the results to you and your physician through your electronic medical record system.”

Over the weeks leading up to the demo, Moichor moved to their testing phase. They have been performing tests on bovine blood samples at Innovation Park to test the chemistry of their strips, and they are in the final stages of working with an international review board at Hershey Medical Center so they can use remnant human blood samples that are left over from testing to build out their system’s AI. They are also working with phone case companies so that they can deliver phone cases that are functional, but that the customers will also enjoy owning. On the financial side, through market research, the team has decided to use a subscription system for their product.

EPN Global.

Lizzy Traband co-founded EPN Global with her mother, Annette Traband. They have developed a business interface that is easy to use and can be managed from anywhere via a smart phone with the aim to “provide competitive equestrian professionals a single dashboard where they can manage their billing, their finances, their marketing and their management,” said Lizzy.

Equestrian professionals have packed schedules, so having everything they need to run their business at their fingertips wherever they go is paramount. EPN Global has also gone step further, adding features to their product to cater to individual customers’ needs. “Not only are we going to provide them a single dashboard,” Lizzy explained, “but we will provide them with the technology of snap, scribble and audio to fit into their lifestyle.” Ultimately, once they start using the EPN Global dashboard, equestrians and their businesses will be more profitable, clients and staff will have a better understanding of business processes and horses will be receiving better care.

CastPak

CastPak co-founder Jack Mentch and his team are taking the phenomena of livestreaming to the next level. Thanks to busy schedules and business commitments, parents and other family members are missing out on some of their kids’ biggest or most memorable achievements, be that scoring the winning goal in a soccer match or dancing a solo in their recital. “Our mission at CastPak,” explained Mentch, “is to ensure that people never miss out on life’s greatest moments.”

Their product provides high quality livestreaming from anywhere to anywhere. Currently, people can only livestream via their phones, and the quality suffers as a result. In comparison, Castpak’s technology allows customers to stream at five-times the quality of most smart phones.

CastPak has partnered with local company Videon, and through this partnership, the team at CastPak has access to their encoder, which can livestream at higher qualities due to its ability to process data faster. They also use a modem and a router, so customers can livestream via data or Wi-Fi, essentially letting them livestream from anywhere customers’ want.

After extensive market research, Mentch and his team found their target market in booster clubs. They are continuing to study their market to determine if leasing or buying units is the most appropriate sales method.

Paw Proof

Jobe Matula, vice president of Paw Proof, saw a dangerous, potentially lethal problem in every kitchen: pets get into trash all the time, which is not only frustrating for the owners; it is actually incredibly dangerous to pets. Paw Proof brand kitchen trashcans are the answer. “A lot of pet owners are aware of chocolate, the danger it is to pets,” said Matula, “but a lot of people don’t understand that onions break down red blood cells, grapes [and] raisins, those cause kidney damage, and these are long-term effects on the long-term well-being of your pet.”

In their market research, the team at Paw Proof discovered that there are no 100 percent pet-friendly trashcans currently on the market.  They found that although trashcan manufacturers have developed locking trashcans, this doesn’t solve the problem in most cases.

The conclusion: build a better trashcan. Paw Proof developed a trashcan that is 100 percent pet proof . The trashcans have a lock at the top, but they also make use of physics. Paw Proof trashcans are wider at the bottom and narrow at the top, the reverse of most kitchen trashcans. By designing their trashcan this way, Matula and his team have actually created a universally better trashcan. Customers can use 90% of the bag’s capacity, and because customers can easily take apart its three pieces, it is easier to clean—in fact, both the lid and base can be cleaned in the dishwasher! The body is the only part that needs to be cleaned manually, but thanks to its curved design and the ability to clean from both ends, it’s a breeze.