March 24, 2021

Drexel’s Ciright Dragon Startup Competition was held this February and brought together many innovators from the Drexel community. With $20k in prize money that was split amongst five of the competitors and a ton of great ideas, it’s safe to say that the competition was a hit! 

The competition not only helps students fund their business/startup but also allows them to practice their pitching skills, get insightful feedback, and identify potential mentors to help them further develop their ideas. While the competition is all about innovation and startups, the focus was on companies who aim to bring solutions to our campus and the surrounding community through mobile app-based technologies. 

Joe Callahan, the founder of Ciright and a Drexel alum, was very gracious in donating the use of the Ciright platform to students during the competition. Outside of the competition, Ciright is committed to providing access to their technology to support Drexel students, faculty/staff, and administrative needs. As Joe Callahan said, “I’m happy to give back philanthropically through the Ciright Dragon Startup Competition and support the entrepreneurial efforts of Drexel Student Startups that have a desire to create app-based solutions to address challenges on campus and throughout our community.” Joe also took on a handful of Drexel co-op students to assist in developing the Ciright platform for Drexel to use. Joe currently serves as the CEO of Ciright Companies where he and his team continue to develop technologies with a focus on supporting their channel and business partners and helping business visionaries create, change and push new ideas to the extreme. 

With all that in mind, the entries were judged based on a few different criteria including technical viability, commercial potential, and quality of the presentation. Below are the winners from the competition and more information about their companies!

Campus Solutions:

Emily DiSomma of Lunafy - $5,000

• Lunafy is a Mobile App idea that has the potential to provide campus solutions to many problems faced by the students and the staff members at different universities.

Lindsey Smith of College Bird - $3,000

• College Bird connects students to emerging growth companies, consulting for companies in a variety of industries, and gaining valuable problem-solving experience.

Faraaz Khan of Dormdine - $2,000

• Dormdine is a meal plan that students can use at restaurants that partner with the app. Together they create custom and affordable menus for students on the Dormdine meal plan. In the long run, you save hundreds of dollars from being undercharged for high-quality meals. 

Community Solutions

Saem Jeon of Don’t Waste Good Taste - $6,000

• Don’t Waste Good Taste is an app that allows local restaurants to sell unconsumed food cheaper at the end of the day instead of throwing it away.

Adit Gupta of Lula Deliveries - $4,000

• Lula is a convenience goods delivery service that saves local-retail and the environment. There are over 150,000 convenience stores in the US which do not have any relevant sales channel through e-commerce.  We offer a SaaS platform for convenience and other retail stores to transform their store into a “mini-Amazon warehouse”. 

For more information on the competition and to stay up to date on future events including next year’s Ciright Dragon Competition, click here!