The Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business hosted the 16th annual Pirates Pitch startup competition on Wednesday. During the event, six finalists pitched their startup ideas to a panel of investors and venture capitalists.
Throughout the semester, the finalists developed their ideas through a series of workshops and mentoring sessions. The final teams ranged from one to six students, and the top three pitches received between $8,000 and $3,000 in seed funding.
“It’s very interesting watching these students undergo this process,” Susan Scherreik-Hynes, founding director of the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said. “Many students come in with a very vague idea about a business, often drawing inspiration from a problem they’ve seen or experienced.”
Scherrieik-Hynes explained that the program is designed to help students turn those early ideas into viable business concepts.
“We try to expose our students to real-life opportunities so they can gain real funding for their business while also practicing and refining the craft of entrepreneurship in as real a setting as you can get,” she said.
Throughout the process, the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship provided feedback and support to help participants grow as entrepreneurs and prepare for real-world pitch scenarios.
“We’ve created a whole Seton Hall ecosystem of entrepreneurship and put our students in situations where their confidence will grow,” Scherrik-Hynes said. “When you can tell a corporate employer that you were in a contest and started a business, they know you’re innovative and hardworking, and these pitches can provide a great stepping stone for the future.”
The six finalists and their startup pitches are as follows:
Iron Strong Health Initiatives
Presented by Aakash Arumugam, Aidan Griffin and Joseph Butler, Iron Strong Health Initiatives is an app designed to raise awareness and education about anemia. The application would scan a user’s eyelid and use artificial intelligence (AI) models to predict whether the user may be anemic. Based on the results, the app would provide resources and recommended next steps for the user. The team hopes the technology could be integrated into hospital systems to improve early detection and diagnosis.
MacroChef
Presented by Thomas “TJ” Deneault, a senior marketing major, MacroChef is a mobile app that encourages users to cook their own meals through a reward-based system. Users can log meals and recipes to earn points, incentivizing them to cook a variety of meals. The app also includes an AI-powered nutritionist to assist users with meal planning.
“I came up with the idea while I was abroad in London for myself to use,” Deneault said. “I wanted to be able to track habits and data to help people track their meals by recognizing the patterns in what people eat.”
Oustify
Presented by Ji Ming Zhang, Oustify is an app that guides users through the eviction process without the high expenses of legal counsel or the various procedural issues that often complicate the process of evicting violating tenants. The service would provide automated compliance tools and legal documentation support, while also accounting for policy differences between states. Ultimately, the app aims to make eviction procedures easier to understand and more affordable for small property owners.
PURE
Presented by Jeimy Simon, a senior public relations major, PURE is an oil-based fragrance business designed to offer affordable, long-lasting scents inspired by designer brands.
“I’ve always loved fragrances, although, as we all know, designer perfumes are very, very expensive,” Simon said. “I just wanted to find an alternative that mixes the good quality of a designer perfume at an affordable price.”
Nature Fill
Presented by Bryce Miller, Maria Saitta, Madeleine Mazgaj and Ashlyn McCormick, Nature Fill is a sustainability-focused business that uses smart refill kiosks to reduce plastic waste associated with personal care products. The team has expanded its concept to include nonprofit initiatives aimed at raising awareness about the environmental impact of single-use plastic items.
Emerald Editor
Presented by Will Martin, a sophomore economics and business analytics major, Emerald Editor is an app designed to use AI to help content creators streamline the video editing process, turning raw footage into quality videos.
“The idea started on my own personal YouTube channel, and I realized a lot of the editing was taking time for things I didn’t need to be doing,” Martin said. “I started building this as a tool for myself at first, and then we got a bunch of interest from different clients and consulting groups.”
Competition Results
At the end of the competition, MacroChef placed third, PURE finished second and Emerald Editor took first place. Emerald Editor also received the Audience Choice Award, which included $500 in seed funding.
With the seed funding awards, many finalists plan on expanding their startups into fully realized businesses.
“Since we’re running our first beta test this week, we’re hopefully going to use this funding for our infrastructure costs,” Martin said. “We want to get this on the market as soon as possible, and now we have the funds to make that a reality.”
Simon also said the funding will allow her business to grow its product offerings and expand its reach.
“The first thing I’m doing with my funding is increasing our inventory, add[ing] some more scents to my collection, and focus[ing] on expansion,” Simon said. “We’re gonna scale and hopefully expand into different hair salons and memberships in Northern Jersey.”
While this year’s finalists look toward growing their businesses, the competition itself will return next year for another group of student entrepreneurs.
“We have so many alumni entrepreneurships and alumni professionals who are eager to help students,” Scherrik-Hynes said. “Anybody who has an idea should go and tell them about it, or your professors. We have so many opportunities in and out of the classroom, and the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is always happy to help you and give you feedback.”
Carmine Sortino is a writer for The Setonian’s News section. He can be reached at carmine.sortino@student.shu.edu.
