Sixth Annual Aggie PITCH Awards McFerrin Cup, Cash Prizes

Twenty Aggie-led startups competed in the only university-wide business pitch competition.

By Lara Robertson, McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS April 22, 2024 – The McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship hosted its sixth annual Aggie PITCH April 15, awarding nearly $30,000 to Aggie-led startups. Open to both current and former students, Aggie PITCH is the only university-wide business pitch competition at Texas A&M and seeks to identify the best Aggie business pitches from across industries and sectors.

For the 2024 event, a total of 20 startups were selected to compete for the coveted McFerrin Cup and a share of nearly $30,000 in prize money. Split into three divisions —Full Pitch for both current and former students and Elevator Pitch open to both — the competition gives startup founders the opportunity to pitch their business in a fast-paced format to a panel of anonymous judges and an audience of students, professionals, mentors, possible investors and fellow Aggie entrepreneurs.

In the Full Pitch divisions, 10 teams were each given eight minutes for their pitch. In contrast, the Elevator Pitch competitors were only given a one-minute allotment for their pitches. Although the anonymous panel of judges was tasked with ranking and selecting the winners of the Full Pitch divisions, audience members were invited to take part and cast their vote to select for the winners of the Elevator Pitch Division, as well as a brand-new People’s Choice Award in both Full Pitch divisions.

ElastaScan claimed first place in the Full Pitch Division for current students and was awarded a McFerrin Cup and $7,500. The startup addresses the pressing issue of ineffective physical therapy treatments for neck and back pain via a wearable device that provides real-time monitoring of muscle activation during therapy sessions, offering precise feedback to optimize exercise effectiveness and enhance rehabilitation outcomes.

“This is some really amazing news,” Anish Easwaran ’25, a biomedical engineering major, said. “It shows that the work we’ve done and the results we’ve shown have really gone somewhere and shows that we have traction. It allows us to move forward and get some more opportunities, especially with this profile, we can really take this next step.”

As for how they’ll use their prize winnings, Richard Balbin ’25, also a biomedical engineering major noted, “[It] allows us to invest more in the technology. As we mentioned in our pitch, we’re currently limited to one application now, so we can move to the other parts of the body [with this funding].”

Unifi Technologies, which manufactures and sells robot pedestals and other related hardware, took home a total of $9,000 and the McFerrin Cup for first place in the Full Pitch Division for former students, as well as the People’s Choice Award for the same division.

“It’s beyond humbling. It’s very self-assuring to know that people like the idea, like the product. But more than anything, it means the world that the folks in the room thought it was worthy,” stated Unifi Technologies founder Tanner Hilton ’16. “Just being here with these other people with such amazing products and pitches themselves, it means a lot to me.”

As to why he founded Unifi Technologies, Hilton, who majored in industrial distribution said, “I sell the robots for my day job, and customers kept asking me ‘What do I mount this thing on?’ And I asked my competitors originally to build the thing that I ended up making. Nobody would do it, so I got backed in a corner and said, ‘I’m just gonna do it.’ So, we made a product that customers were begging for.”

The second People’s Choice Award, designated for the Full Pitch Division for current students, was awarded to Cosmic Leap Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education with a mission to empower educators to create transformative learning experiences through the lens of space exploration, who also claimed third place in the division.

President and CEO Natasha Wilkerson ’09, ’21, ’24 and Rachelle Pedersen ’21, ’24 are currently enrolled in the School of Education and Human Development, pursuing their doctorate degrees in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in engineering education. Wilkerson also received her undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M and both earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.

Wilkerson founded an after-school STEM program for low-income middle schools in San Antonio in 2014 to motivate and inspire at-risk kids, which led to the formation of Cosmic Leap Foundation.

“Through the support of an incredible team, we now reach 370 schools worldwide,” Wilkerson said. “And while we know our programs have a proven track record to not only inspire kids but prepare them for STEM pathways, building a nonprofit has been a long and tiring journey.”

“But winning third place — and especially People’s Choice — at Aggie PITCH, showed us how many people believed in our mission,” she continued. “Rachelle and I met so many incredible entrepreneurs and potential partners who want to amplify and support our efforts in ways we couldn’t imagine. I feel like this competition is a launching point for us to take things to the next level!”

Cosmic Leap Foundation plans to use their $5,000 in prize money to upgrade their Cosmic Educator’s Portal to include more curriculum and training resources for their network of more than 500 educators. Having previously used personal funding, their winnings will now cover the expenses to maintain the website and technology tools to make the portal a continued reality and amplify their efforts to support teachers running STEM programming in more than 300 schools.

“Aggie PITCH shows us year-in and year-out that Aggies ARE entrepreneurs,” stated Blake Petty ’98, executive director of the McFerrin Center. “The Aggie entrepreneurial spirit is woven throughout and across our vast network of former and current students from all disciplines and in all industries. This event is always a great reminder for myself and our team that Aggie entrepreneurs are engineers, teachers, artists, scientists and more. No matter the idea being pitched, no matter the product being developed, entrepreneurship is accessible and attainable, and we’re honored that Aggie PITCH gets to showcase a sample of the innovative and impactful services and products developed by Aggies.”

Launched in 2018 by the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship and held annually, with the exception of 2020, Aggie PITCH serves as a platform to display the exceptional startups currently being developed by current and former students of Texas A&M. Ventures that compete at Aggie PITCH receive excellent exposure to possible investors, mentors, partners and more. In addition, Aggie PITCH serves as a networking event that allows Aggie entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, current and former students to gather, make connections and support one another as entrepreneurs.

Finalists’ ventures at this year’s Aggie PITCH represent a variety of industries including education, medical, manufacturing, consumer products and energy technology, among others, and are now admitted into an exclusive group of startup founders who are eligible to represent Texas A&M University at national and global entrepreneurial competitions.

2024 Aggie PITCH Winners

Full Pitch Division | Current Students
1^st Place ($7,500 – sponsored by StaffDNA): ElastaScan [Kaushik Avadhanula ’25, Richard Balbin ’25, Anish Easwaran ’25] 2^nd Place ($5,000): EHR Buddy [Nathaniel Fernandes ’24] 3^rd Place ($3,500): Cosmic Leap Foundation [Rachelle Pedersen ’21, ’24, Natasha Wilkerson ’09, ’21, ’24] People’s Choice ($1,500): Cosmic Leap Foundation [Rachelle Pedersen ’21, ’24, Natasha Wilkerson ’09, ’21, ’24]

Full Pitch Division | Former Students
1^st Place ($7,500 – sponsored by LiquidAgents Healthcare): Unifi Technologies [Tanner Hilton ’16] People’s Choice ($1,500): Unifi Technologies [Tanner Hilton ’16]

Elevator Pitch Division (sponsored by IndigoStone Advisors)
1^st Place ($1,500 – sponsored by Edmonds & Cmaidalka, P.C.): perugu [Janak Abraham ’26, Kieran Beirne ’24, Satwik Putluri ’26, Vikash Ravuri ’26] 2^nd Place ($1,000 – sponsored by Knife River): Switchless [Adis Lujinovic ’25, Nicholas Naugle ’25] 3^rd Place ($750 – sponsored by Daniel Browne, Ph.D. ’18): SpoonTrack [Fouzul Kansul ’25, Rachel Kurian ’25, Abhinaya Muruganandham ’25]

A list of past Aggie PITCH winners can be found at aggiepitch.com.

About McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship

The McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship serves as the hub for entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University. The McFerrin Center’s goal is to enhance entrepreneurial education by providing training, networking and assistance to enterprising students, faculty and former students.

The McFerrin Center enables the startup and growth of countless businesses and provides competitive opportunities, professional development and financial support to aspiring entrepreneurs in the Aggie community through the support of a robust volunteer mentor network, corporate supporters, faculty and staff.

The McFerrin Center defines entrepreneurship as an attitude that acts on opportunity. In this spirit, the McFerrin Center strives to deliver programs and events that are inspiring, engaging, motivating and life-changing. This philosophy has resulted in the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship offering more than 30 unique programs each year that positively impact the lives of thousands of current and former students, veterans and other professionals seeking to blaze their own trail as an entrepreneur.

###

Media Contact: Lara Robertson, communications manager, McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, lrobertson@tamu.edu