GreekRide, an app that helps greek organizations coordinate sober rides, was awarded $5,000 and space in the Hoosier Hatchery at the business school.
The app was created and developed by IU students Liam Bolling, Martin Aguinis and Ben Gavette last year.
For the past year, they have been developing and improving their system. They launched the first version of the app last semester and the final product a few weeks ago.
Bolling, Aguinis and Gavette have experienced the difficulty of getting safe rides to and from greek events in the past, which served as the inspiration for their app.
Greek drivers usually have their numbers texted to people, which are often forwarded all over campus in a matter of hours, Aguinis said.
In addition to taking texts and calls all night from people they don’t know, many times these drivers have no idea who they are picking up or how long it will take for them to get there.
Riders have no confirmation that the person they talked to on the phone is the person who is picking them up.
These factors made the system unsafe for both riders and drivers, so the three IU students decided to build an app around the system that already exists, streamlining it and creating a safer way to get sober rides for greek ?students.
Throughout their ?development process, they met with fraternities and sororities to sign them up for the app system.
“The hardest part is getting people to try it out for the first time,” Aguinis said. “It’s hard for people to switch to something they’re not used to, but the response has been amazing.”
Members can join their greek organization on the app and organizations can filter who uses their rides that night.
Each user can see the Facebook profile picture, name and organization the rider and driver are members of. In addition, the app tracks the driver so riders know when they will arrive and how long they have to wait.
During the competition this weekend, the GreekRide creators had to present their business model and answer questions from a panel and audience members who watched the competition.
Aguinis delivered a two-minute pitch to a panel of judges, along with 18 other semifinalists.
For him, that was the hardest part. Explaining the current greek sober ride system to the panelists and showing GreekRide’s business plan to the judges in only two minutes by himself was a difficult challenge, ?he said.
After those initial pitches, the panel narrowed the finalists down to six teams. Those teams were then asked to give a five-minute presentation and answer questions from the panel judges and audience members.
In the end, GreekRide and Sprouts Products from Babson College were selected as winners, splitting the $10,000 prize money.
With their share of the money, GreekRide plans to expand their services to other colleges.
Other greek systems have reached out to the company and asked to be signed up for the program.
Aguinis said they could support about 20 other universities with their current system, but with the prize money, they can expand their servers and increase their user base.
To learn more about GreekRide and their services, follow them on Twitter @GreekRide or visit GreekRide.com.
