First-place winner Chris Dopson

Louisiana Tech student teams Dealer Xpress, Wildfire Portable Firepit, and JAM Shoe Insert earned the most student votes to place first, second, and third in the recent 2021 TOP DOG Idea Pitch sponsored by Tech’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Information Technology and Bulldog Entrepreneurs.

The Idea Pitch gives teams exposure, both to experts who give feedback about the students’ ideas and to potential customers, who help teams gauge market interest.

At the Idea Pitch, presenting in front of fellow students and professional judges, teams delivered five-minute pitches about their new product/service ideas, and professional judges rated their concepts. Tech students visited with teams to learn about their projects and voted for their favorite ideas.

Second-place winners Desmond Lamb, Jody Johnson, and Jacob Moore.

For earning the most votes, Dealer Xpress won $500, Wildfire Portable Firepit $250, and JAM Shoe Insert $150.

The next event for the Idea Pitch teams is the preliminary round of the TOP DOG New Venture Championship. Teams passing this round progress to the final round April 22.

This event offers teams a chance to win money and six-months’ incubator space at Tech to help them make progress toward turning their ideas into reality.

Teams are mentored by business professionals, and Bulldog Entrepreneurs sponsors helpful business planning seminars in the months before the New Venture Championship.

Third-place winners Jackson Meyers, Anna Quinlan, and Mike Marchman.

Here are the teams and students (along with their listed majors) who participated in the 2021 TOP DOG Idea Pitch.

• Dealer Xpress: Chris Dopson (Finance), first place, $500
• Wildfire Portable Firepit: Jody Johnson and Desmond Lamb (Mechanical Engineering), Jacob Moore (Management/Entrepreneurship), second place, $250
• JAM Shoe Insert: Anna Quinlan and Jackson Meyers (Management/Entrepreneurship), Mike Marchman (NanoSystems Engineering), third place, $100
• AccuRack: John Doherty (Computer Science), Gregory Whitehurst and Travis Knippers (Cyber Engineering)
• App-Connected Pill Cases: Amelia Boudreau (Biomedical Engineering)
• Automated Pressure Washer: Zack Broussard (Electrical Engineering), Jacob Bridges (Management/Entrepreneurship), and Nolan Taylor (Mechanical Engineering)
• Forget Me Not Car-seat: Joshua L Bass (Instrumentation & Control Systems Engineering
• My Why: Daquonte Bell (Biology)
• Node Traders: Jacob Hicks (Computer Science)
• Pulse Tools: Jackson Torrey (Instrumentation & Control Systems ENGR Technology), Bradley Reed (Biomedical Engineering)
• Recovery Time: Catherine Lacey (Biomedical Engineering)
• SNAP City Domes: Trey Achee (Management/Entrepreneurship), Lori Hawkins (Civil Engineering), Kyla Wilkens (Management/Entrepreneurship), Bob Simmons (Mechanical Engineering)
• Tissue Regeneration: Femi Alakija (Molecular Science and Nanotechnology Engineering)

For more information about the TOP DOG events, contact Debbie Inman at debinman@latech.edu.