San Jose State University hosted the Sunstone California State University Startup Launch Competition in the Student Union on Friday.
Mohamed Abousalem, SJSU’s inaugural Vice President for Research and Innovation, said the CSU Startup Launch competition took the university’s Office of Innovation a year to prepare.
“The idea is what can we do to help our students to become stronger and more ready for their entrepreneurial journey in Silicon Valley or anywhere else,” Abousalem said. “They get training and mentorship along the way and opportunities to connect with partners, supporters, employees or investors.”
He said this CSU Startup Launch competition was the first system-wide pitch competition.
The competition involved 18 of the 23 CSU campuses, with two pre-qualified teams of student entrepreneurs from each institution pitching their startups in 8-minute presentations followed by a 5-minute Q&A session to compete for prize money sponsored by Sunstone, according to the SJSU website.
Sunstone Management is a private capital firm that invests in early-stage technology entrepreneurs who seek to build companies, according to its site.
The event featured five competition tracks: two product tracks, two service tracks and one social entrepreneurship track.
Each of the five tracks had first, second and third place winners each winning $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.
SJSU’s two winning startup companies were FutPlay, which won second place, and Creditcliq, which won third place.
Xavier Verdú, business and data analytics student, is the co-founder of FutPlay and delivered his pitch to the panel of judges.
He said FutPlay is an app and a reservation system based in Costa Rica, that helps amateur soccer players create teams with friends, challenge others in their local area and rent soccer venues.
“I help the field owners by giving them a free reservation system so they can manage their bookings and get new ones,” he said. “The passion I’ve seen of the people when they download it and go play and participate in tournaments is very special to see them play for fun with their friends.”
Verdú said he was disappointed in placing second because he put a lot of effort into his presentation.
“I feel I reached such a good level of pitching and everything, but no, I’m just gonna keep it going,” he said. “I needed the money so badly because I’m actually working on it because it’s not an experiment, [FutPlay] works and has traction.”
Regardless of the outcome, Verdú said he is proud of what he’s done with FutPlay because it’s his first startup.
Entrepreneurship senior Angel Idusuyi is the co-founder of Credit Cliq.
She said Credit Cliq is a medium that provides a 360-degree overview and user-friendly tools to monitor, understand and build credit. The platform is specifically designed for Africans who have never had a financial product.
“With the rise and adoption of biometric identification numbers on the continent of Africa, a lot of consumers pose a threat to fraud,” Idusuyi said.
Idusuyi said she is grateful to win third place because it takes a lot of dedication to build a startup company.
“This is just conviction that we’re onto something,” she said. “Third place in the competition, but that doesn’t stop us from being first in the markets.”
Idusuyi said Credit Cliq uses financial literacy to explain credit history to users.
“We went one step further to build a credit portfolio so users can see their financial accounts, and credit accounts across various financial institutions all in one place,” she said.
Idusuyi said financial independence is happening across the globe and believes Africa is the last frontier for finance.
“We want to take the credit pressure rate from 3% to 6%, which is about $8 billion of opportunity over the next 10 years,” she said.
During her presentation, Idusuyi said there are currently 760 people on the waiting list because the app recently launched.
“Credit Cliq helps the next generation of Africans achieve financial independence, that’s 1.3 billion Africans plus Credit Cliq equals equitable prosperity,” Idusuyi said.
Idusuyi and Verdú said a mentor for their startup pitches was Michael Ashley.
Ashley is the launch director of the SpartUp Incubator and worked alongside the entrepreneurs.
The SpartUp Incubator Program provides support for SJSU’s entrepreneurs through building their startups from conception, through prototype, to planning and fundraising, according to its website.
“To see them culminate in this huge competition and actually come away with second and third-place prizes is such an amazing feeling,” Ashley said. “I can’t be more proud of them and of the university and what’s happening here.”
Ashley said Idusuyi and Verdú have the ambition to solve problems around the world.
