Lowder Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship names Techstars Startup Weekend winner

From March 24-26, the Lowder Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship hosted the Techstars Startup Weekend for local entrepreneurs and Auburn University students.

Startup Weekend is an annual event that brings together entrepreneurs, designers, developers and startup enthusiasts to form teams and create a new company in just 54 hours. Teams generate a business idea, create an outline for their prototype and present their pitch to a panel of judges over the course of one weekend.

Before the award ceremony, Joshua Sahib, managing director of the Lowder Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship, spoke to the participants and gave them a few words of encouragement.

“It doesn’t have to be the next billion-dollar company, but it can be something that can really make an impact on your lives,” Sahib said. “So, I encourage you, win, lose or draw, whatever happens this weekend, to continue building, continue working and I really hope to see you all again next year.”

This year’s ideas were nothing short of impressive, according to event organizers. The first-place trophy was awarded to “Price Scout,” followed by “Block Party Entertainment” and “Ready, Set, Break.”

The winning team, “Price Scout,” described its concept as an app that allows users to input their grocery lists and leverage application programming interfaces, or APIs, to compare prices from different grocery stores in the area, including Publix, Kroger, Target and Walmart. The app would calculate which store would be the least expensive. The app also would be able to calculate gas prices to ensure users are saving the most money.

Submitted by: Andrew Hattery