A self-defense training community platform relying on physical and psychological teachings took home a first-place finish at the annual Randall Family Big Idea Competition, which is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Big Idea Center.
Despite its name, Underdog walked away as the top contender with a cash prize of $25,000 and a crowning of being the idea with the most startup potential as determined by the event's judges.
Founders Katie Gallo and Trinity Foster, undergraduate students at Pitt's College of Business Administration, are hoping to sell Underdog's event packages and toolkits to universities as part of an effort aimed at empowering students with free-to-them proactive and reactive self-defense resources.
Judges also awarded Underdog with the distinction of being the idea that had the best pitch video among the 17 finalists. All applicants had to submit a 1-2-minute elevator pitch video alongside their application for the competition.
Ember, which is looking to make a platform that can connect local experts with students for in-person lessons, and ScOAP-E, makers of a self-cleaning device that can be placed on the end of an endoscope, came in second place and each received a $15,000 prize award. Cyberpunk Reality, NoVRel and SpringE earned the third place cash award of $5,000, while Àkójọpọ̀ Publishing, La Recette and Gradient came in fourth place and received a $2,000 cash award each.
Formed in 2009, the annual Randall Family Big Idea Competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate-level students at Pitt and across all schools and departments, which can include post-doctoral fellows and UPMC-affiliated medical residents.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that some winners shared a cash prize award among their equally-placed competitors. Each winner received a cash award based on their placement in the competition. The article has since been updated to reflect this.
