Business & Economy

LaunchPad Announces 2024 ’Cuse Tank Winners

Monday, October 7, 2024, By Cristina Hatem
Three people holding an oversized check for $10,000

Phloat co-founders Nathan Thor Brekke ’26 (left) and Malak Aljerari ’27 (right) with LaunchPad program manager J Wess (middle)

Syracuse University Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad (LaunchPad) hosted its annual ’Cuse Tank entrepreneurial competition on Friday, Sept. 27, during Family Weekend in Bird Library. More than 35 student entrepreneur teams from various schools and colleges across campus participated in a “Shark-Tank” style business pitch to win $20,000 in cash prizes. The panel of judges consisted of University parents and affiliated family members. The judges selected two first-place teams, which each won $10,000 and two honorable mention runners-up:

  • Iconnic.Cloud, founded by Waqar Hussain, G’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), won first place for the second year in a row. Iconnic.Cloud is a fully managed cloud hosting platform, engineered with proprietary software, that crafts tailored hosting solutions.

    Two people holding an oversized check for $10,000

    Iconnic.Cloud founder by Waqar Hussain G’25 (left) with LaunchPad program manager J Wess

  • Phloat, founded by College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) students who participated in the 2024 Invent@SU program, Elijah Alexander ’27, Joshua John Varkey ’26, Malak Aljerari ’27 and Nathan Thor Brekke ’26, also tied for first place. Phloat is a phone case that has a super compact, deployable flotation feature that triggers in the event of a phone falling and sinking into deep water.
  • Gym-In, another startup from Invent@SU and founded by ECS students Alexander Hamza ’26, Antonio Goncalves ’27, Jack Friedman ’27 and Armani Isonguyo ’25 tied for runner-up. Their invention provides gym users with an app to determine how full a gym is and what machines are being used in live time.
  • Papa Box, co-founded by Aleks Djordjevic G’25 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs) and Amos Kiplimo Bungei G’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) was also tied for runner-up. The company aims to provide and scale a battery-charging infrastructure through its interoperable PAPA Boxes swapping stations in transportation hot zones in Kenya.

This year’s group of “family” judges included:

  • Todd Arky, executive vice president, Sharebite and co-founder/CEO of TipOff Sports
  • Anthony Campagiorni ’91, vice president, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Company
  • Melinda Dermody, associate dean of academic success, Syracuse University Libraries
  • Melissa Gwilt ’15, G’22, director of budget and administration, Syracuse University Libraries
  • Corey Lieblein ’93 , CEO of CP8 Capital
  • Ajay Nagpal, president and COO Millenium
  • Alice Villafana, retired
  • Tonya Villafana, global franchise head, research and development, for Astra-Zeneca
  • Mark Wassersug, former COO Intercontinental Exchange