Unleash Your Potential: Aspiring Entrepreneurs, Roar into Chapman University’s Panther Cage Match Competition!
The Panther Cage Match at Chapman University was a vibrant celebration of entrepreneurial spirit, featuring a keynote from Colleen Schwab of Amazon Web Services and a series of compelling pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs. Finalists impressed the audience and a distinguished panel of judges with their innovative business ideas, each getting the chance to shine during their presentations.
Congratulations to Lauren Cho and Mandy Shi, two high school students from Beckman High School in Irvine, for winning the $1500 prize in the student-led startup category, with SimpliFly, a unified travel app. These poised young women had performed the research, created the relationships, and presented in the most professional manner, that it was no surprise they won!
Congratulations to Cornelius Hojatkashani for winning the community-led prize, with his patent-pending, no-tangle dog leash and his company, The Lucky Dog BrandTM. Cornelius is a serial entrepreneur with a background in physics, math, computer science and neuroscience, yet decided to embark on solving this problem after years of frustration. His dog, Snowy, was the most popular contestant of the day.
We are grateful to Keith Pham, a Chapman MBA Alum ‘05, for his endowment that funds our cash prizes. Many thanks to Amazon for being a sponsor. Additionally, acknowledgments to CalOSBA, who provided our Inclusive Innovation Hub grant, and attended the event.
A huge shout out to our panel of judges—Xandra Laskowski, Lisa Walker, Jennifer Yturralde, Ray Chan, Justin Sanders, Esq., Shaun Sanders, J.D., JJ Richa, and Anshuman Sinha—for their insightful questions and feedback.
We also extend our gratitude to Startup Steroid for providing the Demo Day Platform and App which was used for judging and providing feedback to each contestant. Thanks to the team at Startup Steroid for their training and support.
This year’s Panther Cage Match was a testament to the vibrant entrepreneurial spirit within and beyond the Chapman community, and we look forward to building on this success in our future events.
