This thesis will bring together students to engage in entrepreneurship by finding, measuring and sharing strategic market opportunities. From a student’s perspective, it will take a deep dive into the world of startup ecosystems, markets and trends utilizing both qualitative and quantitative market research techniques. The information gathered has been curated into a productive, meaningful manner, through a report titled “The State of Startups: A Student Perspective.” <br/> The first key theme of this thesis is that market intelligence can be a powerful tool. The second key theme is the power of knowledge implementation towards competitive strategies. The first section of the thesis will focus on identifying and understanding the current “startup” landscape as a basis on which to build strategic and impactful business decisions. This will be accomplished as the team conducts a landscape analysis focused on the student perspective of the student-based North American “entrepreneurial” ecosystem. The second section of the thesis will focus specifically on the personal experiences of student startup founders. This will be accomplished through the analysis of interviews with founders of the startups researched from the first section of the thesis. This will provide us with a direct insight into the student perspective of the student-based North American “entrepreneurial” ecosystem.

The NCAA is changing the current rules and regulations around a student-athlete’s name, image, and likeness. Previously, student-athletes were not allowed to participate in business activities or noninstitutional promotional activities. With the new rule changes, student-athletes will be able to engage in business activities related to their own name, image, and likeness. The goal of the team was to help “prepare athletes to understand and properly navigate the evolving restrictions and guidelines around athlete name, image, and likeness”. In order to accomplish this, the team had to understand the problems student-athletes face with these changing rules and regulations. The team conducted basic market research to identify the problem. The problem discovered was the lack of communication between student-athletes and businesses. In order to verify this problem, the team conducted several interviews with Arizona State University Athletic Department personnel. From the interviews, the team identified that the user is the student-athletes and the buyer is the brands and businesses. Once the problem was verified and the user and buyer were identified, a solution that would best fit the customers was formulated. The solution is a platform that assists student-athletes navigate the changing rules of the NCAA by providing access to a marketplace optimized to working with student-athletes and offering an ease of maintaining relationships between student-athletes and businesses. The solution was validated through meetings with interested brands. The team used the business model and market potential to pitch the business idea to the brands. Finally, the team gained traction by initiating company partnerships.

When examining the average college campus, it becomes obvious that students feel rushed from one place to another as they try to participate in class, clubs, and extracurricular activities. One way that students can feel more comfortable and relaxed around campus is to introduce the aspect of gaming. Studies show that “Moderate videogame play has been found to contribute to emotional stability” (Jones, 2014). This demonstrates that the stress of college can be mitigated by introducing the ability to interact with video games. This same concept has been applied in the workplace, where studies have shown that “Gaming principles such as challenges, competition, rewards and personalization keep employees engaged and learning” (Clark, 2020). This means that if we manage to gamify the college experience, students will be more engaged which will increase and stabilize the retention rate of colleges which utilize this type of experience. Gaming allows students to connect with their peers in a casual environment while also allowing them to find resources around campus and find new places to eat and relax. We plan to gamify the college experience by introducing augmented reality in the form of an app. Augmented reality is “. . . a technology that combines virtual information with the real world” (Chen, 2019). College students will be able to utilize the resources and amenities available to them on campus while completing quests that help them within the application. This demonstrates the ability for video games to engage students using artificial tasks but real actions and experiences which help them feel more connected to campus. Our Founders Lab team has developed and tested an AR application that can be used to connect students with their campus and the resources available to them.

When examining the average college campus, it becomes obvious that students feel rushed from one place to another as they try to participate in class, clubs, and extracurricular activities. One way that students can feel more comfortable and relaxed around campus is to introduce the aspect of gaming. Studies show that “Moderate videogame play has been found to contribute to emotional stability” (Jones, 2014). This demonstrates that the stress of college can be mitigated by introducing the ability to interact with video games. This same concept has been applied in the workplace, where studies have shown that “Gaming principles such as challenges, competition, rewards and personalization keep employees engaged and learning” (Clark, 2020). This means that if we manage to gamify the college experience, students will be more engaged which will increase and stabilize the retention rate of colleges which utilize this type of experience. Gaming allows students to connect with their peers in a casual environment while also allowing them to find resources around campus and find new places to eat and relax. We plan to gamify the college experience by introducing augmented reality in the form of an app. Augmented reality is “. . . a technology that combines virtual information with the real world” (Chen, 2019). College students will be able to utilize the resources and amenities available to them on campus while completing quests that help them within the application. This demonstrates the ability for video games to engage students using artificial tasks but real actions and experiences which help them feel more connected to campus. Our Founders Lab team has developed and tested an AR application that can be used to connect students with their campus and the resources available to them.

When examining the average college campus, it becomes obvious that students feel rushed from one place to another as they try to participate in class, clubs, and extracurricular activities. One way that students can feel more comfortable and relaxed around campus is to introduce the aspect of gaming. Studies show that “Moderate videogame play has been found to contribute to emotional stability” (Jones, 2014). This demonstrates that the stress of college can be mitigated by introducing the ability to interact with video games. This same concept has been applied in the workplace, where studies have shown that “Gaming principles such as challenges, competition, rewards and personalization keep employees engaged and learning” (Clark, 2020). This means that if we manage to gamify the college experience, students will be more engaged which will increase and stabilize the retention rate of colleges which utilize this type of experience. Gaming allows students to connect with their peers in a casual environment while also allowing them to find resources around campus and find new places to eat and relax. We plan to gamify the college experience by introducing augmented reality in the form of an app. Augmented reality is “. . . a technology that combines virtual information with the real world” (Chen, 2019). College students will be able to utilize the resources and amenities available to them on campus while completing quests that help them within the application. This demonstrates the ability for video games to engage students using artificial tasks but real actions and experiences which help them feel more connected to campus. Our Founders Lab team has developed and tested an AR application that can be used to connect students with their campus and the resources available to them.

Human beings have long sought to conquer the unconquerable and to push the boundaries of human endurance. There are few such endeavors more challenging than venturing into the coldest and harshest environments on the planet. The challenges these adventurers face are nearly countless, but one that is often underestimated is the massive risk of dehydration in high mountains and the lack of sufficient technology to meet this important need. Astronauts and mountaineers of NASA's Johnson Space Center have created a technology that solves this problem: a freeze-resistant hydration system that helps stop water from freezing at sub-zero temperatures by using cutting-edge technology and materials science to insulate and heat enough water to prevent dehydration over the course of the day, so that adventurers no longer need to worry about their equipment stopping them. This patented technology is the basis of the founding of Aeropak, an advanced outdoor hydration brand developed by three ASU students (Kendall Robinson, Derek Stein, and Thomas Goers) in collaboration with W.P. Carey’s Founder’s Lab. The primary goal was to develop traction among winter sport enthusiasts to create a robust customer base and evaluate the potential for partnership with hydration solution companies as well as direct sales through online and brick-and-mortar retail avenues. To this end, the Aeropak team performed market research to determine the usefulness and need for the product through a survey sent out to a number of outdoor sporting clubs on Arizona State University’s campus. After determining an interest in a potential product, the team developed a marketing strategy and business model which was executed through Instagram as well as a standalone website, with the goal of garnering interest and traction for a future product. Future goals of the project will be to bring a product to market and expand Aeropak’s reach into a variety of winter sport subcommunities, as well as evaluate the potential for further expansion into large-scale retailers and collaboration with established companies.

This thesis will bring together students to engage in entrepreneurship by finding, measuring and sharing strategic market opportunities. From a student’s perspective, it will take a deep dive into the world of startup ecosystems, markets and trends utilizing both qualitative and quantitative market research techniques. The information gathered has been curated into a productive, meaningful manner, through a report titled “The State of Startups: A Student Perspective.” <br/>The first key theme of this thesis is that market intelligence can be a powerful tool. The second key theme is the power of knowledge implementation towards competitive strategies. The first section of the thesis will focus on identifying and understanding the current “startup” landscape as a basis on which to build strategic and impactful business decisions. This will be accomplished as the team conducts a landscape analysis focused on the student perspective of the student-based North American “entrepreneurial” ecosystem. The second section of the thesis will focus specifically on the personal experiences of student startup founders. This will be accomplished through the analysis of interviews with founders of the startups researched from the first section of the thesis. This will provide us with a direct insight into the student perspective of the student-based North American “entrepreneurial” ecosystem.

In this paper, our Founders Lab team members — Jacob Benevento, Sydney Evans, and Alec Whiteley — recount the year-long entrepreneurial journey that led to the creation and launch of our venture, Certified Circular. Certified Circular is a program that certifies on-campus events for implementing circular practices into their activities as well as off-campus businesses. The venture was formed in response to our group’s propelling question and industry selection, which called on us to create and market a venture within the ethical circular economy.

The Founders lab is a year-long program that gives its students an opportunity to participate in a unique team-based, experiential Barrett honors thesis project to design and apply marketing and sales strategies, as well as business and financial models to start up and launch a new business. This honors thesis project focuses on increasing the rate of vaccination outcomes in a country where people are increasingly busy (less time) and unwilling to get a needle through a new business venture that provides a service that brings vaccinations straight to businesses, making them available for their employees. Through our work with the Founders Lab, our team was able to create this pitch deck.

The product our team is commercializing is a NASA designed technology designed to store waste in space. This product works on Earth as well and has applicable multi-use capabilities. Throughout the last several months, the team has identified different markets to determine which of them would experience the most value from this product. The team conducted 25 interviews to grasp the landscape of the different markets related to this product. After a thorough analysis, it was found that vendors who support the disposal of different types of waste and sludge would be the best fit for this product. Vendors like Waste Management, Sharps, Stericycle, Sludge USA, etc.,” have large contracts with hospitals, biotech firms, labs, and cities to manage a wide spectrum of waste. The companies bring value to their clients by making a difficult process easier. However, the process is not seamless and, with certain types of waste, there are significant costs associated with not following an exact process. Throughout this process and interviews with companies like Sludge USA and Waste Management, the team identified a niche market in supporting sludge processes. Caked: Sludge Management is designed to bring value to this market by making their waste disposal process seamless, and saving these institutions significant costs in the long run, while creating additional value.