A student entrepreneur group won $5,000 at Builder’s Bullpen, a new event led by the current Student Government executive alliance, which aimed to connect student entrepreneurs with alumni.
Four student founder groups from the University competed for a $5,000 grand prize by pitching their startups to three entrepreneurial alumni judges at the event Friday, which was open to the public. About 175 people attended, and around 30 groups applied to pitch, according to a text message from SG Vice President Thierry Chu.
The winning business, SynapSense Technologies, pitched a non-invasive device that measures pain. Three College of Natural Science students found out about this competition through the Kendra Scott Sparks Founders program and said they have never really interacted with SG before.
After this experience, they said they have a newfound perspective on SG and hope to continue working with them in the future.
“The three of us are pre-med, but we were able to pitch at that competition and also win it,” said Raimah Rahman, head of research for SynapSense. “That shows that you’re not confined to what you think you are gonna do … because we are three majors that are completely unrelated to something like this, we were still able to pull it off.”
Luke Grismer, the SG financial director, led the effort of finding judges. He said the event will benefit the growing entrepreneurship community at UT by bringing different people together to share ideas and resources in the Innovation Tower. This was also the first student-led event held at the Innovation Tower, a new University space completed in 2022, said Grismer.
“A large purpose behind Builder’s Bullpen was bringing the UT community together to meet with each other, to grow connections,” Grismer said. “The space really is (an) embodiment of that and makes that flourish.”
Chu, a Plan II and English senior, said she heard from student entrepreneurs that they were struggling to find mentors and funding while campaigning last year. Chu said by creating an event like this, SG can help facilitate connections between alumni and students. She said the event creates a new tradition and expands what the University is doing to meet other schools excelling in entrepreneurship.
“It was just so cool to see all the hopes and dreams we had for this event actually coming to fruition,” Chu said. “If one student had come and walked away with something new that would be helpful for them to build their idea, that is success to me.”
