Our early deadline in October 2012, afforded 50 Duke startup teams the opportunity to receive feedback from over 100 judges, and submit virtual elevator pitches.

As of December 4th, the votes have been tallied.  Congratulations to the following teams:

Student Winner ($5,000)

- Refresh Innovations

Student Overall Runner-ups

- Jobbertunity

- StumpWorX

- Star Toilet Paper

Note: Judge's Choice (n=64 votes) was weighted at 80% and People's Choice (n=2380 votes) was weighted at 20% to determine student winner.

Student Track Runner-ups and Honorable Mentions listed at the bottom of this page

Alumni Winner ($5,000)

- ColoWrap

Alumni Runner-ups (alphabetical)

- CPS Biofuels

- Rack Chat

- Seeds

- VideoVivo

- Volunteer Forever

Note: Alumni winners were determined using judge score averages out of a maximum score of 7

Functional Tracks

POWERTRENZ

The world needs clean energy and we intend to become a leading provider of energy by placing solar electric generation on every house in America.  By combining existing solar technologies and market needs for homeowners, we can provide supplemental electrical solar power energy at competitive costs with local providers without having to invest in infrastructure.  By building into the costs of replacing shingle roofs, we can provide solar shingles that will supplement electrical energy from traditional sources and become the household supplier of electricity.    

Refresh Innovations

The Contact Lens Refresh Card is an ultra slim, all-in-one contact lens case and multipurpose solution package. 

Our patent-pending design is the size of a credit card, disposable and convenient to carry at all times.    

Jobbertunity

Job seekers, especially students, find it overwhelming to keep a track of their contacts and job applications during their job search process. Currently, there is no one solution to manage all the job-search related information in one place. Students are forced to maintain company notes, contact lists, emails, task lists, interview preparation materials separately, and information often tends to get lost or misplaced or overlooked. Excel and Outlook do not make the cut and manually maintaining all this information is time consuming and challenging. 

Jobbertunity.com aims at solving these problems by providing a platform for users to organize their job search. From identifying and unearthing new companies to keeping a track of your contacts and jobs, jobbertunity.com is a personal assistant to our users’ job search process.  Jobbertunity provides a one-stop location where users can manage their target companies, contacts, notes, tasks, reminders and interview preparation materials.  Instead of scouring through random pieces of notes and business cards, Jobbertunity aims to help students get organized and land their dream jobs.    

Star Toilet Paper

Printing advertisements and coupons on toilet paper, supplying venues with patented, printed toilet paper at no cost, and giving you great deals at your fingertips.    

StumpworX, Inc 

StumpworX is devoted to improving prosthetic arm technology NOW—inexpensively, elegantly, and incrementally. We are creating a soft prosthetic socket constructed like today’s most advanced athletic shoes. By responding to the real needs and priorities of amputees, we make prosthetic arms more wearable, functional, and comfortable. The most used prosthetic arm device will be 100 years old on October 29, 2012, but that's not the most significant problem in prosthetic arms. Half of patients don’t wear an arm at all, and 90 per cent of them cite fit and comfort as the reason. Even with high tech devices, suspension—how you attach it—is the key, and our soft socket addresses that need. A social enterprise, we engage users in helping shape our vision for the future of prosthetic arms through part ownership shared with all US Military arm amputees.    

Refresh Innovations

The Contact Lens Refresh Card is an ultra slim, all-in-one contact lens case and multipurpose solution package. 

Our patent-pending design is the size of a credit card, disposable and convenient to carry at all times.    

SeamHappy

Common promotional products (pens, water bottles, reusable shopping bags, etc.) have become a lost branding opportunity. Businesses purchase these items to show appreciation to their customers, build brand recognition, and set themselves apart from competitors. The problem is that most businesses are ordering these items from the same catalogs. An untapped demand exists for unique, high quality brandable items. For those who attempt to seek non-traditional promotional products and corporate gifts, the current search, negotiation, and development costs require much time and effort. As a result, businesses resort to purchasing “white-label” products in bulk from distributors and online vendors. More often than not, they settle for items that have little connection with the brand. For the recipients of such items, these gifts appear disingenuous, misguided, and wasteful. 

SeamHappy seeks to innovate the industry. 

Our solution connects businesses with local artisans to create premium branded gifts, customizable to meet any business’ needs. Following the lead of successful local supply chain models, our vision is to build curated networks of artisans and skilled professionals in “creative class metros” throughout the United States . An online bidding platform will allow businesses to post jobs for their gifting needs. SeamHappy artisan members will then place bids on the jobs. This platform repositions the role of artisans within our communities as decision-makers and is the social impact underlying our business.