Newswise — The cofounders of a company dedicated to improved management of respiratory health won the grand prize at the 19th annual Be Your Own Boss Bowl, a Temple University-wide business plan competition.
Strados Labs’ Nick Delmonico claimed more than $60,000 in cash and prizes, including the Bernard Spain, FOX ’56, and Murray Spain, FOX ’65, Grand Prize.
The flagship program of Temple’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI), the Be Your Own Boss Bowl is one of the nation’s most-lucrative business plan competitions. This year, 14 finalists representing five of Temple’s 17 schools and colleges delivered business plan presentations. They competed for more than $200,000 in related products and professional services, and $180,000 in cash prizes – including $120,000 from the Wolfington Family.
Delmonico, who will graduate in May with a Global MBA from Temple’s Fox School of Business, wrote the first version of this business plan in the capstone course for his Health Sector Management concentration. He delivered the winning pitch for Strados Labs. His team created Pulmawear, a wearable asthma device that, in conjunction with a mobile app, will help asthma sufferers better manage their disease.
Delmonico and Strados Labs also won the Be Your Own Boss Bowl’s newly launched Urban Health Track, with prizes financed by Independence Blue Cross and Temple Health.
“The Be Your Own Boss Bowl victory, in particular the Urban Health Track, allows Strados Labs to focus on our core mission of building a better way to manage respiratory health,” said Delmonico. “Words cannot describe how much this means to us.”
Strados Labs co-founders Dr. Kan Au and Tanziyah Muqeem added that the prize money will allow the company to “not only build up our business model and validate our technology and make it more efficient and user-friendly, but also to gain meaningful connections to move our idea forward.”
The Be Your Own Boss Bowl features four distinct tracks: the Undergraduate Track, open to current Temple undergraduate students; the Upper Track, open to Temple graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff; the Social Impact Track, open to for-profit companies that are looking to do good for their communities; and the aforementioned Urban Health Track.
Winners from each track are:
- Social Impact: Reels on Wheels, a business founded by Anmol Gupta, Fox School Class of 2020, that will use vehicles to transport equipment and screen films as entertainment for the more than 304 million people in India who live without electricity.
- Undergraduate: Vitris Wireless LLC, a service launched by Jack Perrotta, Fox School Class of 2018, to aggregate device-repair prices from local shops and mobile technicians.
- Upper: ToothShower LLC, which has prototyped an in-shower oral care appliance founded by dental hygienist Lisa Guenst, TYL ’13.
- Urban Health: Strados Labs.
For the eighth year, IEI recognized students who best demonstrate the passion for entrepreneurship that was embodied by former Fox School professor Chris Pavlides. Junior Eleni Latsios and freshman Tarahgee Morris, both majoring in Entrepreneurship, received the Pavlides Family Award.
Be Your Own Boss Bowl 2017, by the numbers
| $400,000 | Value of total cash, products, services, and mentorship prizes awarded |
| $120,000 | Value of cash prizes sponsored by the Wolfington Famil |
| $40,000 | Value of the Bernard and Murray Spain Grand Prize |
| 226 | Preliminary judges |
| 204 | Overall participants in BYOBB, representing 13 of Temple University’s 17 schools and colleges |
| 87 | Registered company submissions |
| 80 | Senior executive mentors |
| 19 | Prize sponsors |
| 14 | Finalist teams representing five Temple schools and colleges |
| 10 | Presentation coaches |
| 6 | Finalist judges |
| 4 | Entrepreneurship strategists |
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