Four Auburn University student-led teams have been named finalists in the Tiger Cage business pitch competition. They’ll compete March 25 for $54,000 in startup capital.
Eight teams pitched their businesses, with four advancing to the Final Four.
The finalists are:
- Feature Finder, a social music platform designed to revolutionize the music industry, by Zane Barbao, management and entrepreneurship, and Luke Matthews, professional flight;
- IGNTE, a platform that gives organizations a means of showing sponsors’ ads on Twitch, by Jacob Cordero, business administration, and Emmett Deen, computer science;
- The Best Roping Dummy, a team roping training system that reduces the need for live cattle and improves practice capabilities, by Will Jordan, agricultural communications; and
- Toft by 2153, a game development studio specializing in next-generation, cross-platform, multiplayer games, by Jesse Stewart, software engineering and studio art, Brooke Hopton-Jones, computer science, and Sydney Pham, software engineering.
Judges for the semifinal round included Greg Cessna, CEO, Consumer Fresh Produce; Ben Conry, co-founder, Flashtract; Olivia Cook, inaugural executive director, Economic and Social Justice Center, Miles College; Tim Denison, president, GDI LLC; Ken Evola, managing director, PWC; Ben Finley, founder, The Finley Group; and Ralph Runge, RSquare Consulting Inc.
