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USF Accounting Student Among Top Scholars in the Annual Daveler Pitch Competition
By Keith Morelli
TAMPA (April 11, 2019) -- An accounting major in the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business is among the scholars who prevailed in the annual Daveler Pitch Competition held earlier this month.
The competition is administered by the USF Center for Entrepreneurship and was first launched in 2016, with the financial support of Frank and Ellen Daveler. The competition empowers undergraduate students in Florida to create sustainable future enterprises and encourages their entrepreneurial spirit with funding to turn ideas into actual products in the marketplace.
In all, five scholars from five universities were selected. Jacob Barrineau represented USF in the competition. He is a student in the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy and his idea, Band.it, is a venture that implements 3D printing to produce a custom-size elastic band that stretches over any interchangeable camera lens. The sleeve prevents the wear and tear that naturally occurs over time.
Barrineau’s fledgling company has a fully developed product that already has won both the University of Florida Big Idea Business Plan Competition and the USF Fintech Business Plan Competition.
Other scholars were: Blake Richardson, Flagler College; Makenzie Whitaker, Florida Gulf Coast University; Jordan Douglas, Florida Polytechnic University; Shanjiv Ananda, University of West Florida.
The 2019 competition drew a total of 79 applications from 21 different Florida universities. Twenty finalists – or fellows – were selected representing 13 colleges from all over the state, ranging from Pensacola to Miami. During the event, which took place at the Muma College of Business on April 6, the fellows gave five-minute presentations that briefly covered each product’s innovation and problem-solving potential.
Each fellow was awarded $3,000, while each of the five scholars received an additional $5,000. In all, $85,000 was given to the students.