The competition was started four years ago by the Kelley School of Business and the School of Informatics and Computing to encourage student-led companies, according to the release.
The BEST competition awarded both winning companies $100,000 each, according to the release.
Chief Operating Officer of FundSponge Kevin Casimer said he and CEO Jason TenBarge were “fantastically excited” to win the $100,000 investment for their company.
Casimer said he and TenBarge attended Purdue University as undergraduates before enrolling as graduate students at the IU Maurer School of Law. He said they developed this fundraising program initially to raise money for the Starcraft Club at Purdue, a student organization for a video game they both enjoy.
The result, FundSponge, allows student ?organizations, non-profits and other causes to raise money when their supporters shop online, ?Casimer said.
Through FundSponge, he said, organizations provide supporters with a link to different retailers; if they shop through that link, a percentage of the money spent will go toward the organization.
“We designed it specifically with student organizations in mind,” Casimer said. “Basically, you’re asking somebody to do something with as much effort as liking something on Facebook.”
Once they started using this strategy for their own organization, Casimer said they realized they were onto something bigger.
“We could actually put together a platform where people could find ways to do something they were going to do anyway,” he said. “And raise money for a cause.”
Although their company was already making progress, he said understanding the product or service and being able to present its worth to others was important when pitching to an investor.
Casimer said their experience set their company apart in the BEST competition. They were already making traction — by the time they pitched, they had almost 100 organizations using the site, he said.
“We knew that we were at a place where we could use the win to grow really fast and make something really ?special,” he said.
Casimer said they have already used some of the investment to hire an experienced salesperson and plan to use the rest to develop both online and print advertising.
He said the BEST competition was one of the most rewarding things he has done at IU and that he hopes other universities adopt similar competitions to push students to pursue their own dreams.
“That’s something that’s really lacking in university and even high school education,” he said. “It never occurs to people that they can make their own job.”
