For Dylan Weitzman and Brandon Carpenterβs company, Thor ORE, the third time was the charm. After three years of applying for the ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ Joust New Venture Competition and failing to reach the final round, Thor ORE beat out the competition Wednesday to take home first place, a $12,000 check and more than $50,000 in business services.
On a Shark Tank-style stage with a panel of professional judges and in front of a live audience of more than 200 people, ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ senior Weitzman pitched his plan to mine and recover precious metals from contaminated lands and waste.
The two co-founders have collectively competed in dozens of entrepreneurship competitions and their persistence is what they believe sold the panel of expert judges on Thor OREβs business model.
βWe have plenty of experience in rejection and getting yelled at,β said Weitzman, a physics major. βWeβve been, basically, laughed at before on stage. So now we know how to present ourselves.β
Weitzman and Carpenter plan to use the competition winnings to expand Thor OREβs mining operation in Alabama. The companyβs appeal, according to Carpenter, lies in its proprietary extraction technology, which allows for eco-friendly mining of smaller, previously inaccessible amounts of gold.
βEighty percent of gold exists at the atomic level,β said Carpenter, Thor OREβs vice president of production. βOur competitors are going after the twenty percent they can see. Weβre going after the eighty percent they are leaving behind.β
The Joust is ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs premier startup showcase event hosted by the ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ College of Businessβs Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and featuring students of all majors. This yearβs event was held at the Morgridge International Reading Center on campus. Competitors present their models for a viable business venture and compete to win money and other resources to pursue their venture.
βIβm really proud of the Joust contestants this year,β said Cameron Ford, director of the ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. βIβm especially proud of Dylan, our grand champion. He has coached students at the Blackstone LaunchPad for three years and itβs really exciting to see him take what he has learned from coaching others and apply those lessons to his own venture.β
Ford said the judges pointed out how viable each of the competing proposals could be and commented on the excellent level of preparation by every student involved.
The Joust runners-up were Mason Mincey, Derek Saltzman, Gerardo Diaz-Silva, Garrett Hausman and Matthew Jaeger with SOAR Aerospace, a company that produces sleek, stylish, customizable and quality high-speed drone frames. They took home $7,000.
Shane Singh, Shi Hao Zhang, Akash Gajjar and Shivkumar Kaushik Murthy earned third place and $4,000 for their company, S Star Technologies, and its state-of-the-art respirator. Miracle Care Responders and the team of Jean Saint Jean and Ladeen Taylor ranked fourth for their idea to train, license and find jobs for Certified Nursing Assistants. They took home $2,000.
The studentsβ new-business-venture proposals were assessed by a panel of expert professionals representing a wide range of corporate partners, local businesses and alumni. This yearβs judges were Carrie Callahan, β94, managing partner at Galliard Capital Management; Sean Hayes, β95, vice president of Business Development at Voloridge Investment Management; Mathy Hogan, β87, executive vice president of administration at FAIRWINDS Credit Union; Charles Jorge, β89, president and CEO of Premier Assurance Group; Patrick Vaughn, β80, co-founder of Trivium Asset Partners, and Vince Virga, β95, co-founder and CEO of SkillStorm.
This yearβs presenting sponsors were Steve Felkowitz β79, Jim Balaschak β86 β92, and Debbie Balaschak β88. Additional sponsors included Burr+Foreman, DigiThinkIT, Anidea Engineering Inc., BDO, Nperspective LLC and Volo Foundation.