A culmination of months of work, four startups will compete in the Louis H. Stumberg Venture Competition final round for a grand prize of $25,000 on October 19, 2023. The Stumberg Competition is open to students with a desire to have a positive impact on the world.
Not for the faint of heart, the Stumberg Seed Round and Trinity Accelerator push student's dedication, perseverance, and passion. Meet these incredible students.
BFit is a team focused on bringing accessible fitness training and nutrition advice to users using AI. Made up of Marcos Morales ’25, WooJin Han ’26, and Mollee Priddy ’24, BFit brings students with diverse skill sets and a love of fitness to the Stumberg Competition.
Mollee Priddy’s fitness journey began four years ago when she was inspired to create BFit by the difficulties in accessibility she experienced with gyms and trainers. “If I can help even just one person in their health and fitness journey by providing a service that is affordable and accessible to anyone, I will be so blessed and excited!” she says.
WooJin Han, an international student from South Korea, appreciates the opportunities the Stumberg Competition gave him to develop as an entrepreneur. “Before Stumberg, I didn’t have any experience in entrepreneurship. It was all new to me and challenging to try new things. Especially, as an app developer, there was lots of new stuff to learn and get adjusted to,” Han says. “Also, in South Korea, I cannot get experiences like the Stumberg because they don't offer students the opportunity to get real-world experience.” As a computer science major, he was able to learn more in the fields of finance, management, business, accounting, and programming.
Similarly, the experience gave Marcos Morales a chance to learn about startups in a way he never was able to in his home country of Guatemala. “Even while coming from a developing country where opportunities were scarce, here I am now capable of giving it my all in the hopes of reaching thousands to help them reach new heights in their fitness journey,” he says, “I hope my story can help inspire new entrepreneurs, help them take the jump of starting their new venture, and with that bring growth to their community.” Working on BFit through the Stumberg has helped him think creatively about both entrepreneurship and his own future.
Cade Harger '25 discussed his startup Glass Brain with attendees of the Stumberg Seed Round.
Cade Harger ’25 saw a gap in the way machine learning is taught. His startup, GlassBrain, uses a playground-style building block interface that allows students to quickly and intuitively experiment and design neural networks.
Inspired by friends who also participated in Stumberg, Harger has experienced firsthand the positive impact of the competition. By creating his startup, he learned web development and machine learning skills that will be useful for his future career as well as entrepreneurship and marketing skills. “I hope GlassBrain gets people who use it to see the patterns that emerge in machine learning algorithms and helps them understand how they can be creative and innovate with them,” Harger says.
James Ogunrin ’24 shows off a Beast Collection hoodie.
James Ogunrin ’24 strives to promote the “beast mentality” with his startup, The Beast Collection, a sports and fitness apparel company providing customers with the finest high-quality athletic wear. Ogunrin has used his experience as a football player and a business administration major with a concentration in marketing to create the Beast Collection. “I initiated this startup to provide athletes like myself and individuals with a brand that embodies their relentless grind and unwavering commitment to greatness,” he says.
Sofia Ortiz ’24’s business, Well and Worthy, was “inspired by a lot of the alternative healthcare practitioners who inspired me throughout my chronic illness journey and have helped me rethink treatment for my chronic symptoms.” Ashleigh Reese ’26 and Ortiz’s startup is an app designed to provide a personalized wellness and lifestyle plan for each individual woman via a menstrual cycle-based lifestyle approach.
Ortiz is passionate about women’s health, especially when it comes to alternative medicinal practices. “I hope that we can allow for women to become familiar with the concept of cycle-syncing in order to readdress their own needs in a world that isn't built for them and to help women reclaim the power that our bodies have,” she says.
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