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Chicago Tribune
05-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Marist entrepreneurs win $10K toward their new OmniShake business
A team of five juniors at Marist High School in Chicago will receive up to $10,000 toward developing the product they pitched recently in their Innovative Design for Entrepreneurial Applications honors course. The young men came up with OmniShake – a leak-proof container designed to smoothly mix drinks, such as those that use protein powder. And they've already discussed how to use the prize money. 'We plan to spend the $10K on our first order, which will be about 1,500,' said team member Colin Vucko. 'That's going to leave us with some change to play around with. We might spend some on targeted ads, website development, but the first thing is getting some cups.' The money is provided by Marist, but it comes with stipulations, explained Tim Mulcahey, a 1993 Marist alum who has taught the IDEA class for two years after a 25-year career in software startups. 'We don't just give the kids a check for $10,000. They communicate any legitimate business expenses up to $10,000, and Marist will pay. So these guys are working with a supplier and an attorney,' he said. 'We give them full license – we don't guide them. They will make their own decisions, but they have to be legitimate business expenses.' Second-place team VitaBomb, which provides a fizzy way for children to take daily vitamins, received $5,000. They are seniors Eva Dawczak, Kate Donegan, Maddie Berry, Michael Fortner and Rorey Donnelly. Rise Button is a smart wake-up device that aims to get users to move before they hit the snooze button. Juniors Joey Hughes, Ryan Lawlor, Jacklyn Pigatto and Sara Winters and senior Lily Yocum received a third-place prize of $2,500. OmniShake team member Sean Carroll was surprised after the final pitch night presentations. 'They put Rise Button at third and it made me nervous because I thought the best ones were us and Vita Bomb. It made me kind of nervous,' he shared. 'They said Vita Bomb was second and OmniShake was first, so I was low-key shocked.' All 10 teams in the yearlong IDEAS class made pitches to a panel of four judges, who chose five teams for the finals. On the final pitch night, the judges were Footsteps2Brilliance founder and CEO Eugene Narciso, Bank of America Senior Vice President Alex Belan and Marist alum Kevin O'Finn, founder of Headphones+, who won the inaugural pitch night when he was a senior. O'Finn won in 2017 'and within 13 months of winning and taking first place at pitch night, he had his product for sale on Amazon and Walmart,' Mulcahey said. 'He won and then went on to Marquette (University). As a freshman, he was a guest speaker for the MBA program.' The judges made an impression on the students. 'I thought it was really cool we had actual CEOs and CFOs for our final judges,' shared Sameer Tadros of OmniShake. 'They all gave us really good advice at the end of it, and their words of encouragement really helped us see as a team what could make us grow as a business into something major instead of starting small.' OmniShake member Devin Feliciano said his favorite part about pitch night was being on stage with his team. 'We were able to communicate well up there and make our slides flow pretty well,' he said, despite a malfunctioning clicker and the mic cutting out. 'We sounded more confident because we had to talk loudly. I think it benefited our presentation.' Each has a favorite aspect of the product, with Carroll appreciating it being leakproof, so it keeps everything in a backpack dry. Feliciano explained that the bottle has a funnel inside the cap that's made of rubber, which helps prevent leaking. 'It goes around the mouthpiece and it goes around the inside.' Colin Vucko likes the measurement markings laser-engraved inside. 'I like to know how much liquid I'm putting into my drink,' he said. Tadros praised its stainless steel. 'It's more bio-friendly and safe for someone to drink out of,' he said. 'There's no microplastics from the stainless steel container.' Danny Kelly said the best thing is its removable sifter. 'Once you put the sifter in and put whatever powdered supplement and shake it, there's no clumps and a smooth drink.' Winning pitch night is not the end of the line for the team. 'In the future, we'd like to try and partner with a CFS Gym because they're local and only in Illinois. We also want to use TikTok and Instagram to market our company,' Kelly shared. 'We also recently made a Shopify account so people can buy online.' Preorders will be taken soon on the website, as the team works to create enough product to sell. Students in the class are helped by mentors such as Jason Berta, who began teaching math at Marist four years ago after practicing patent, trademark and copyright law for 12 years. 'When most people hear the word 'patents,' they think that if they come up with a new idea that it's theirs and it can be patented. It's not that simple. Patents don't protect ideas but rather new and useful inventions, and there's a lot of details that go into whether, and to what extent, an invention can be patented,' Berta said. 'Also, patents are only one area of intellectual property that might impact our students' innovations. I introduced them to trademarks, which cover branding issues, copyrights, which might apply to artistic, musical, and written works, and trade secrets.' Other mentors also made an impression. 'We had the (CFO) of Tuthill, Anthony Belmonte, come in and teach us about finance,' Kelly shared. 'He helped us guide our (company). We also had Mr. Berta. … He told us the different patents we could use and how to start a patent.' 'It's neat to have that subject matter expert in the building,' Mulcahey said. 'I use the framework of starting a business to help (students) develop soft skills,' he said of the IDEAS class, such as teamwork being persuasive, public speaking and 'the ability to receive criticism, the ability to offer feedback.' Mulcahey said he was proud of OmniShake and all the teams. 'I asked them at the beginning of the year to treat this class not as a class but as if they were going to work. I thought everyone did a great job with that.' He added that 'Omnishake (the judges) thought was the team that would be the fastest team to get revenue,' and 'two of the three judges asked if they could purchase or help fund OmniShake.' Mulcahey provides judges with a rubric, 'but ultimately what I ask the final judges to evaluate is the validity of the business idea and the effectiveness of the presentation,' he shared. 'All five that presented on final pitch night were fabulous. … Last year, eight out of 10 teams (presented) an app, and this year only one team was an app.' He explained that when the new class starts, he asks students to think of a problem to solve instead of trying to think of an amazing product. 'I think the things the teams found bugged them had more to do with the physical work than an app. That is my guess.' The course is one students will remember. 'The overall experience of the class was amazing,' Vucko said. 'I'm beyond grateful for the opportunity itself, and thank you to Mr. Mulcahey – he's a great mentor.'
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
27k youths to get jobs via skill devpt plan
Lucknow: In a move to provide skill training and employment opportunities to youth, the department of vocational education and skill development on Tuesday signed 22 Letters of Intent (LoIs) with different companies in a one-day academia-industry summit, 'Uttar Pradesh's Path Towards Entrepreneurial Development', organised in this, the UP govt aims to employ close to 27,000 youth in different sectors like tourism and hospitality, healthcare, pharma, automobile, banking and finance. Inaugurating the summit, minister for vocational education, skill development and entrepreneurship Kapil Dev Agarwal said, "Stakeholders, including sector skill council, industry, entrepreneurs, govt and academics, came together to determine the policies in implementation of skill development mission programmes properly."Agarwal said, "UP skill development mission will play an important role in achieving a target of $1 trillion economy. For this, govt is calling upon the industry to increase innovation, investment and participation in skill development." Agarwal said, "We aim to make youth as job creators instead of job seekers." We want our youth to compete at national and international level and also encouraging traditional indigenous industries."He also released the first-of-its-kind magazine 'Hunar Mitra'.Principal Secretary, vocational and skill development, Hariom said, "Industrial establishments, employers and other stakeholders should partner with govt to promote employment generation and economic director Pulkit Khare informed about the companies including Reliable First Edcon Private Limited, Ques Corp, Gacondes Exports, and Saranya Health Service Private Limited, that will train and provide employment to 26,811 panel discussions saw experts laying emphasis on creating awareness among the students about entrepreneurship right at the school level and the participation of industry in the evaluation process. Important suggestions like making skill training programs aspirational and doing internship of trainers were also received from the of Government Industrial Training Institute Barabanki, Gorakhpur and Bulandshahr were also honoured for their excellent performance and five training providers and project implementing agencies doing excellent work were honoured.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DeuteRx CEO Honored with Two Industry Awards for Entrepreneurial Success and Innovation in Biopharma R&D
Lead preclinical program, DRX-184 (d-S-bupropion), granted new US patent with term to May 2044. BOSTON, April 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- DeuteRx, LLC, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics, today announced that Chair, President, and CEO Sheila DeWitt, PhD, has been honored with two prestigious industry awards recognizing her groundbreaking contributions as a leader in drug discovery and biopharma entrepreneurship. Dr. DeWitt was awarded the 2025 Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for her achievements in deuterium-enabled therapeutics, microfluidics, and combinatorial chemistry. She accepted the award and delivered a lecture, "Reactions to Failure: Catalysts to My Success as a Drug Discovery Entrepreneur," at the ACS Spring Meeting in San Diego on March 23, 2025 (MEDI 4198051). Dr. DeWitt will receive her second award, the 2025 Gertrude Elion Medicinal Chemistry Award, at the ACS Fall Meeting in Washington, DC, on August 17. These two honors celebrate the legacies of trailblazers Kathryn Hach-Darrow and Gertrude Elion, and spotlight Dr. DeWitt's 35-year track record of innovation and leadership in pharma R&D. "It is a tremendous honor to receive these awards that recognize the groundbreaking work of two exceptional women, Kathryn (Kitty) Hach-Darrow and Gertrude Elion. While these awards reflect my individual achievements, they also pay tribute to the exceptional contributions of the colleagues and collaborators that I have had the opportunity to work with over my career as a scientist and business leader," states Dr. DeWitt. "Sheila's entrepreneurial achievements are vast in scope," said Dr. Bruce Ganem, Franz and Elisabeth Roessler Professor, Cornell University. "She has led the start-up or turnaround of nine biotechnology companies or business units and managed global R&D organizations with annual budgets of up to $30 million." A recognized pioneer in deuterated drug development, Dr. DeWitt invented Deuterium-Enabled Chiral Switching (DECS), a unique approach to create new chemical entities (NCEs) with composition of matter patent protection and the potential for expedited and derisked drug development versus traditional R&D. Using deuterium to stabilize and characterize the desired stereoisomer provides a never-before-realized opportunity to deliver a superior therapeutic with improved efficacy or tolerability for patients. Under her leadership, the team has completed three M&A transactions and advanced a pipeline of over 10 deuterated drug candidates from preclinical to Phase 2. DeuteRx is advancing several drug candidates including first-in-class NCEs for psychiatric, neuromuscular, dermatology, anti-infective, cardiorenal, and oncology indications. The lead program, deuterium-stabilized bupropion (DRX-184), is being advanced for major depressive disorder (MDD) with anhedonia. The compound was recently granted U.S. Patent 12,180,137, securing protection through at least May 2044. About DeuteRx, LLCDeuteRx is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing differentiated new medicines with improved therapeutic profiles for patients. The company has pioneered DECS (deuterium-enabled chiral switching) to create differentiated NCEs with new composition of matter patent protection and the potential for an expedited and derisked development path. Success to date includes 3 M&A transactions, a Phase 2b NASH drug candidate (PXL065 in collaboration with Poxel SA), remarkable discoveries with DECS, and >50 issued patents. For more information visit DeuteRx Contact: info@ Investors: mwallace@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE DeuteRx LLC
