Winners awarded startup cash for The Next Big Idea

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Contestants in The Next Big Idea at Hazel McCallion Campus. (Photos by Elanie Silva/ Sheridan Sun)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BY ELANIE SILVA

On Nov. 16 the SSU hosted The Next Big Idea at Sheridan Hazel McCallion Campus with six students competing.

Anything from skin care to apps that will ship you marijuana, the contest was filled with bright new ideas.

The panel consisted of four judges from different fields. Each judge was given $250 to give to the idea they thought was going to be most successful.

Dana Tujar pitched Pharmac skin-care products, and she blew everyone away with her presentation about the pressures of society and the obstacles she faced. She received $250 from Chad Bartley owner of CB Squared salon. Tujar guaranteed the product to clear your skin and make you feel like the best version of yourself.

The next idea was an app created by William Lam called Nimbus that would connect you to marijuana vendors that could provide you with hash oils, medicinal edibles, and vaporizers and will ship it to you express or standard mail. With his $250 he is going to invest in the hard launch of Nimbus once legalization takes place.

The final winning contestant received two of the judge’s $250 prize. Neal Chauhan created Tech under 10. Tech under 10 is a website that allows you to browse through items that are under $10 and will link you to Amazon to proceed with your order. After 80,000 hits on the website within the last five months, the server holding Tech under 10 couldn’t handle the traffic and crashed. Soon after the problems were resolved and the website was restored. Chauhan said he was going to use the $500 toward hiring a team of interns to post to the site, as well as server costs and additional marketing.

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Winners of The Next Big Idea. From left William Lam, Dana Tujar, Neal Chauhan.

“Tech under 10 is the new place for college kids to find products they never knew existed,” said Chauhan.

With smiles all around, the winners took home their prize money along with knowledgeable advice from the judge panel.

The money they received will aid in the next step in producing their idea.