Scholly Wins 10th Annual Cupid's Cup Business Competition Chaired by Under Armour Founder and CEO
The easy-to-use app allows students to search for and identify available scholarships based on individual preferences and key criteria
Apr 23, 2015, 01:18 ET
COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scholly, maker of a mobile and web application that allows students to easily find college scholarships, was named the winner of the 2015 Cupid's Cup Business Competition, chaired by Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank. The 10th annual event was held April 22 at the University of Maryland's College Park campus, hosted by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Scholly founder Christopher Gray, a student at Drexel University, took home $75,000 in cash, plus in-kind services and guidance from top companies and business leaders.
The annual competition is chaired by Plank, a graduate of the University of Maryland, and strives to encourage interest in student entrepreneurship. The international competition is open to undergraduate and graduate-level students at accredited colleges and universities as well as recent graduates of these institutions.
Joining Plank on the judge's panel were Daymond John, founder and CEO of FUBU clothing company and Shark Branding, and star of ABC's "Shark Tank;" Karen Katz, CEO of Neiman Marcus Group; and Mike Lee, co-founder and CEO of MyFitnessPal, a leading health and fitness platform that is part of Under Armour's Connected Fitness community.
The judges evaluated six finalists, narrowed down from a pool of 12 semifinalists who presented at Under Armour headquarters on March 10.
The $20,000 second place prize was awarded to GudNeSs Bar, a startup out of Duke University School of Medicine that makes an iron-rich nutrition bar to combat anemia in India. The third place prize of $5,000 went to SnappyScreen Inc., makers of a touchless sunscreen application system started by an entrepreneur from Cornell University. Gym Supreme, a University of Maryland fitness startup that makes the Mega Bar home gym system, took home the $5,000 audience choice award, decided by text voting from the nearly 1,000 people in the audience.
Rounding out the field of finalists were: VirtualU Inc. (from Virginia Tech), a company that created a 3D human modeling technology for use in fitness and healthcare so people can accurately track how their bodies change as they lose weight; and ZOOS Greek Iced Teas (Stetson University), maker of a bottled caffeine-free Greek iced tea.
For more information about the competition, please visit www.cupidscup.umd.edu.
About Kevin Plank
As a special teams captain for the UMD Terrapins football program in 1995, Plank was tired of having to change his sweat-soaked shirts over and over again throughout his two-a-day practices. His frustration led to an inspiration for a better kind of T-shirt — one that could wick sweat and keep athletes cool, dry, and light instead of overheated, drenched and weighed down. Upon graduating from Maryland in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Plank started to turn his idea into a reality and, as a result, began redefining the way athletes dress. After 19 years of outfitting athletes with the world's most innovative performance apparel, footwear and equipment, Plank now oversees a company with more than 9,000 employees worldwide with total revenues over $3 billion. True to his vision in 1995, Plank and Under Armour remain committed to empowering athletes everywhere.
About the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
The Dingman Center has been at the forefront of entrepreneurship education and practice for more than 25 years. The center's primary activities include helping students build their ventures, creating experiential learning opportunities and providing regional entrepreneurs with access to capital. Within the region, the center operates Dingman Center Angels, the area's most active angel investor network with more than 40 members and 30 companies funded since 2005.
About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.
CONTACTS:
Greg Muraski
Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland
301.405.5283
[email protected]
Laurin Wolf
Under Armour
410.468.2512 ext. 5262
[email protected]
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SOURCE Robert H. Smith School of Business