Pitch Competition Winners

Two UD student startup teams compete in College Pitch Philly

University of Delaware teams placed first and fourth in the College Pitch Philly competition at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s (USASBE) annual conference on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Amira Idris, founder of Vibrating Therapeutic Apparel (VTA), took first place and Jason Bamford, Jordan Gonzalez and Keith Doggett, founders of Geoswap, placed fourth. UD teams competed against 18 teams from 12 schools, including the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, Temple University and Drexel University.

“Seeing our students’ learning lauded by our peers and peer organizations is like winning an NCAA academic championship,” said Vince DiFelice, faculty member and venture support lead with UD’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship.

VTA helps people with amputated limbs better manage pain. It combines wearable and vibrating technologies to create a line of apparel that helps increase blood circulation and tissue activity.

Idris, who was recently named entrepreneur of the year during Delaware Innovation Week, has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and design.

Geowswap is a location-based file sharing and unlocking platform. It has been used by SantaCon NYC 2016 and Delaware Innovation Week. The team boasts affiliation with two colleges: Bamford and Doggett are seniors in the College of Engineering and Gonzalez is a senior in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. The rules of the competition allow for only one team from each school to be awarded. The Geoswap team waived formal placement.

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