A pair of Grove City College student entrepreneurs won $10,000 to advance their nascent business at e-Fest 2022 at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minn.
Sophomores Ethan David and Luke Gilligan earned the prize over the weekend for their company Resense, which is developing and making toolkits for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and their caregivers. Competing in a field of 25 finalists, they took fifth place in the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge, e-Fest’s main event.
“E-Fest was an absolute blast! The experience we gained and the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs and discuss great ideas was invaluable,” David said. “We got to pitch to an amazing panel of judges, including the founder of Best Buy Dick Schulze. They also provided us feedback that will be instrumental in the development of Resense.”
David, a double Entrepreneurship and Biblical and Religious Studies major from Mars, Pa., and Gilligan, an Entrepreneurship major from Fishers, Ind., came up with the idea in in a Grove City College entrepreneurship class. Resense is part of the College’s Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation’s VentureLab program, which helps students conceive and develop new business ideas.
Resense’s Memory Box is filled with activities designed to exercise and strengthen specific senses that are lost as the disease progresses with the goal of increasing memory recall. In addition, the items in the box -- including logical games and puzzles that exercise the mind, essential oils that stimulate the senses, and adult coloring books to improve focus and soothe agitation – help relieve the stress on caregivers, most often family members, to find something for their loved ones to do.
David and Gilligan will put their winnings into the company for product development, marketing, and inventory. Their Memory Box is available on the Resense website for individual purchase and they’re trying to get nursing homes and care programs interested.
The pair said they were grateful to the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship for the e-Fest experience and The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation at Grove City College for “helping us get to the competition and where we are today.”
“As Resense continues to develop, our goal remains the same: to bring comfort and joy to those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia,” David said.
For more about Resense, visit resensebox.com.
For more about The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation, visit gccentrepreneurship.com. For more about Grove City College, visit gcc.edu.