EMA students place in 48-hour entrepreneurship challenge
calendar icon19 Feb 2024
Lincoln, Neb.--Emerging Media Arts students Hannah Gish, Alexah Fort and Micah Fullinfaw participated in the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship’s 48-Hour Challenge Feb. 15-17 and earned second and third place in the competition with their respective teams.
Students present an idea, form a team and start a company at this 48-hour event. Beginning with Thursday night pitches and continuing through testing, business model development and basic prototype creation, the 48-hour challenge culminates with Saturday night demos to a panel of potential investors and local entrepreneurs. The event was open to all University of Nebraska–Lincoln undergraduate and graduate students.
“Participating in the 48-Hour Challenge showed me how my skills are compatible with those of other students,” said Fullinfaw, a senior emerging media arts student from Omaha, Nebraska. “I learned how important it is to work with people of different backgrounds and skills sets. On Thursday, I pitched an idea for a smart pantry, and I gathered five students to join my team. Over the next two days, we constantly pivoted our idea until we landed on a new, solid business plan.”
Eventually, his team designed a business that connects “mom and pop” restaurants with individuals who want to escape fast food and chain restaurants.
“Restaurants would pay to be featured on the app, and users would connect with each other over their pursuit of finding new restaurants,” he said. “The app would be called ‘Foodi.’”
Fullinfaw’s team placed 2nd place in the competition.
“The 48-Hour Challenge proved to be an enriching experience for me, offering an amazing opportunity to step beyond the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and explore new avenues of thinking, learning and collaboration,” said Gish, a junior emerging media arts student from Lincoln. “I learned valuable lessons from a group of diverse mentors who guided my team through the development of a business model for an AI GPT-based travel booking service. Over the course of 48 hours, we went from a basic idea to a complete business proposition that we pitched in front of a panel of judges. The 48-Hour Challenge allowed me to gain experience in pitching, as it was a first for me, and overcome challenges during development.”
Gish and Fort’s team placed third in the competition.
“I’m grateful that the UNL Center for Entrepreneurship allows all students the opportunity to connect with others from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise,” Gish said. “Creative individuals are catalysts for startup development and are a great help for all steps of the process.”
Fullinfaw hopes more students participate in these kinds of opportunities.
“I hope more students in the College of Fine and Performing Arts seize these low-stakes opportunities and meet students of other disciplines,” he said. “It’s incredibly important to put yourself in uncomfortable situations if we want to learn more about the world and innovate with our creations.”