February 26, 2021
Providence College team wins BIG EAST Startup Challenge
By Vicki-Ann Downing
Providence College topped 10 other BIG EAST Conference schools to win this year’s BIG EAST Startup Challenge, an annual competition in which teams pitch product ideas to a judging panel of experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and BIG EAST alumni.
The three-student PC team won first place and $750 for “UMeal,” a meal kit that can be assembled from ingredients in a college dining hall and prepared in a student room.
Under the UMeal concept, college students would create an online profile with “pickiness preferences” and dietary restrictions, order ingredients for their kit, and pick them up from the dining hall at their convenience. Meal preparation videos would be available online, with new recipes added weekly, tailored to whatever kitchen equipment students had available — microwaves, blenders, or stoves.
During the 2019 competition at St. John’s University, the PC team placed third. After the 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s team decided to update and expand that team’s startup proposal. The competition took place virtually on Feb. 25 and aired on Facebook Live.
Students on the winning team are Owen Delaney ’22 (Hopkinton, Mass.), a finance major and member of the 2020 team; Jacquelyn Ryan ’21 (Acton, Mass.), a history major and business and innovation minor; and Faith Linscott ’21 (Tucson, Ariz.), a psychology major and business and innovation minor.
Eric E. Sung, associate professor of photography and director of the Business and Innovation Minor Program, shepherded the team from start to finish, from recruiting students and finding appropriate faculty members and volunteers from PC’s National Board of Overseers for training, to overseeing the final production of the video by PCTV.
Sung was assisted by Megan A. Chang, assistant professor of voice and diction in the Department of Theatre, Dance, & Film, and Rebeka Mazzone, a member of the adjunct faculty in finance. Dr. Kathleen A. Cornely, the Robert H. Walsh ’39 Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, served as communications director. Board of Overseers members Paul Bachman ’90, Mark Ruggeri ’93, and Christopher Walker ’86 met with the students to share feedback, and PCTV filmed the startup pitch.
“The partnership of team members with a wide range of backgrounds and academic specialties contributed to the win,” Sung said. “It was my privilege to lead the project as program director for the business and innovation minor, which is a true working model — and a positive model — of deeply integrated interdisciplinary studies for engaged and practical learning.”
PC’s team was supported with a grant from the Anne Goss Foundation, a connection made through Steven Sciarretta ’82, a foundation trustee.
The BIG EAST Startup Challenge began in 2019 to coincide with the BIG EAST men’s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden. “As their sports teams battle for gold, BIG EAST schools are sending their most promising entrepreneurs to compete for entrepreneurial glory,” the conference said.
Teams were judged on idea and concept, market need, value proposition, feasibility, and passion, and presentation. The top two teams receive an honorarium to be used to help grow their startup business.
Sung credited last year’s team of students who created the idea for UMeal but were unable to present it. In addition to Delaney, they were Stephanie Gilet ’21 (Chelmsford, Mass.), Kaitlin Furey ’21 (Southborough, Mass.), and Kieran Tirone ’21 (White Plains, N.Y.).
The Business and Innovation Minor Program, which began in 2018, allows students who are not business majors to learn about entrepreneurship. Students study accountancy, computer science, and art while pursuing one of four tracks — organization and entrepreneurship, global engagement, applied science, and design thinking.
Watch the 2021 BIG EAST Startup Challenge
Watch the pitch by Providence College’s team starting at 59:47.
