A team of Grove City College students’ plan to develop a smart pill bottle earned a Next Big Idea award at Allegheny College’s annual Zingale Big Idea Competition.
The team collected a $1,000 prize to further explore the business model for Medicap, a smart pill bottle that helps patients take their medications and caretakers make sure they have, and return for next year’s competition.
Sophomores Truman Eichler (Entrepreneurship) and Jonathan Steen (Economics) and junior Zachary Wilson (Electrical Engineering) made the pitch for Medicap last month at the competition in Meadville, Pa., which emulates “Shark Tank,” but “with a heart,” according to organizers at the Bruce R. Thompson Center for Business & Economics.
Students from 11 colleges and universities pitched their seed-level new business ideas to a panel of business professionals who also offered constructive feedback, coaching and encouragement.
Medicap team leader Eichler, from Louisville, Ky., said the experience was “beyond encouraging.”
“The Zingale Big Idea Competition is a prime example of how to grow and encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. The feedback we received from the judges was invaluable and their mission remains clear: Focusing not simply on the competition aspect but preparing young entrepreneurs for the real world,” Eichler said.
The team also won $2,325 with their Medicap pitch in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s 2026 Wolverine Venture Battle competition at Grove City College last month.
For more about the Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation at Grove City College, visit www.gccentrepreneurship.com.