​Newswise — Babson College announced its 2017 B.E.T.A. (Babson Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®​​​​​​​​​​​​​) Challenge winners—DetraPel, TORq Interface, and botkeeper—after a venture showcase with 18 semifinalists and a pitch competition between nine ultimate finalists.

​​​​​​​​The winning teams exemplified proven success by reaching major milestones achieved through action, and were each awarded a grand prize of $20,000 in cash, plus in-kind services from corporate sponsors Microsoft, BizLand, and Cummings Properties.

Microsoft granted an additional 'BizSpark' prize to DropZone for Veterans, including free cloud services, access to software, tools, and training courses. 

All other finalists, including Vinci, Womentum, DropZone for Veterans, Tangkor Yak Dairy Cooperative, GEMS Corporation, and SkillRoute, also received $2,500 to further advance their entrepreneurial pursuits. Cummings Properties gifted free office space to alumni and graduate finalists.

Undergraduate Student Winner: DetraPel

David Zamarin '20, Jacob Heller '20, and Larry Ng '20

DetraPel is a superior hydrophobic liquid repellent spray that uses nanotechnology to repel almost anything off almost any surface from water to mud. DetraPel is 100 percent EPA-compliant, biodegradable, water-based, portable, and one-application will last one year. It is also non-flammable, non-toxic, non-corrosive, UV-resistant, rust-resistant, and ice-resistant.

Graduate Student Winner: TORq Interface

Joanna Geisinger MBA'17, Prashant Mohan MBA'17, and Dan King

TORq Interface is devoted to elevating the mode in which hospitals and medical device companies collaborate by leveraging the FHIR API and developing a scalable and secure platform for efficient communication. It provides the start time, end time, or room number and the up-to-the-minute status of each case. It also provides the date of surgery, case number, and scheduled run time for upcoming surgeries. In addition, it allows visualization of required instruments/implants planned for use for each surgery, and enables a rep to edit cards, contingent on staff approval, to maintain up-to-date preferences.

Alumni Winner: botkeeper

Enrico Palmerino '11

botkeeper saves customers time and money by automating bookkeeping. It provides businesses with a powerful combination of skilled accountants and automated data enry through the use of machine learning and AI. botkeeper clients receive 24/7 accounting and support as well as incredible insight into their financials with beautiful dashboards and unlimited reporting. With botkeeper, companies can grow from zero to 100+ employees and on average save 50 percent compared to the cost of a bookkeeper or outsourced firm.

2017 Sponsors

Gold

  • The Babson Alumni Association (BAA) works to ensure that there are opportunities for all alumni to feel connected to Babson. The BAA is committed to supporting the mission of the College by enhancing the incredible network of 39,000 alumni around the world. With each graduating class, the network becomes brighter, more diverse, and increasingly successful, thus providing a truly valuable resource to each other.
  • Samuel Goldstein & Co. is a multi-generational CPA and advisory firm that collaborates with clients spanning from incubators and entrepreneurs to small and mid-size established business owners. The firm helps young executives with start-up strategies, including back-office accounting support, cash flow management, tax strategies and financial reporting and counsel seasoned owners with financial decisions, profit enhancement and succession planning. Samuel Goldstein & Co. works to help create a successful business and achieve the proper work life balance. 

Silver

  • The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, named in honor of Arthur M. Blank ’63, H’98, co-founder of The Home Depot, and home to the largest dedicated entrepreneurship faculty in the world, is the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity at Babson.
  • Morgan Lewis offers more than 2,000 lawyers, patent agents, benefits advisers, regulatory scientists, and other specialists—in 29 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm provides comprehensive litigation, corporate, transactional, regulatory, immigration, intellectual property, and labor and employment legal services to clients of all sizes—from globally established industry leaders to just conceived startups. 

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for​ Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The top​-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®​ as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.