The Fund Run
Family, friends, alumni and all other Drexel supporters have an exciting, brand new way to support programs and initiatives that help students and recent alumni incubating in the Baiada Institute. The Fund Run is a microdonation and engagement contest that allows alumni and friends of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship to support programs and initiatives that help student and alumni companies incubating in the Laurence A. Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship. This annual competition is powered by Alma Matters - a program that helps alumni connect with their alma maters.
Student and alumni companies, referred to as “teams”, are competing with one another in a friendly contest starting February 1. These teams will reach out to their networks to gain “votes” for their startup. In order to cast a vote, you will need to make a monetary donation to the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship which will be used to fund programs and initiatives to help student startups. Participating teams have eight weeks to promote their startup and gain different levels and quantities of votes. The winning teams will be announced at the end of March 2021.
The participating teams are not only going for most votes overall. Similar to Day of Giving, there are different challenges that award bonus prizes each team can go after based on the different amount and classification of votes. Teams have to obtain at least five recurring roundup donations and 20 level one-time donations to qualify for the top 3 bonus prizes. Unlike the funds raised from voting, these bonus prizes are directly awarded to teams.
Each participating team can receive contest prizes in the following contest categories:
- Most number of unique donors contributing at least $20.21
- Most number of alumni donors
- Most funds raised
- Fastest to reach 25 unique donors contributing at least $20.21
Level 1 Vote
|
Level 2 Vote
|
|
$20.21
One Time
|
$20.21
Recurring Roundup
|
|
Most # Unique Donors |
Most # Alumni Donors |
Most Funds Raised |
Fastest to 25 Donors |
| 1st Place |
$1,250 |
$1,000 |
$1,250 |
$1,000 |
| 2nd Place |
$1,000 |
$750 |
$1,000 |
$750 |
| 3rd Place |
$500 |
$500 |
$500 |
$500 |
| 4th Place |
$375 |
$375 |
$375 |
$375 |
| 5th Place |
$250 |
$250 |
$250 |
$250 |
Winner take all - most round-up donations gets $2,500
Teams must go big or leave empty handed for this prize category. The startup that generates the most round-up recurring donations (minimum of $5.00) to the Close School during the remaining six weeks (Feb 18 - Mar 31) of the Fund Run will be awarded a bonus prize of $2,500 for their achievement.
Any roundup donations raised during this period will also count towards the other 4 prizes categories provided the criteria for those categories are also met.
How to cast your vote and support student entrepreneurs
Voting during the Drexel Fund Run takes place within the Alma Matters platform. Visit the Close School’s page within the Alma Matters platform for a preview of all participating teams or go directly to your favorite team’s page using their individual profile links.
Once you arrive at a participating team’s profile on the Alma Matter’s platform, you will have the option to select the level of support (One Time donation for a level 1 vote or Round-Up donation for level 2) you want to donate to The Close School of Entrepreneurship. Once selected, you’ll cast your vote for your favorite startup by submitting your donation.
That’s it! You’ve just voted for your favorite participating startup while providing funds for other entrepreneurs at Drexel.
As a small token of appreciation, individuals who make a recurring roundup donation of $20.21 or more will be eligible to receive a coupon for a free pair socks or two face masks from the Drexel collection of Timeless Tartans.
Companies
Lula is a convenience goods delivery service which 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”.
Vote for Lula on Alma Matters
To learn more, please visit www.luladelivery.com
About Founding Team
Lula was founded by Adit Gupta (BS 2019. PhD 2024) and Tom Falzani (BS 2020)
Achievements:
Consumer Store News - Eco-Friendly Startup Offers C-store Delivery Subscriptions
Technical.ly Philly RealLIST Engineers 2020: Meet 21 influential technologists building a better Philadelphia
Connect
Website: www.luladelivery.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/get_lula/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lula-delivery/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lula-104978541295100
Grow the skills that matter. College Bird connects students to emerging growth companies, consulting for companies in a variety of industries and gaining valuable problem solving experience.
Vote for College Bird on Alma Matters
About Founding Team
As a college student, Lindsey Smith wished she had a better idea of what the growing job roles were to help her navigate the job market. She saw so many students like her always looking for opportunities and problem-solving. Lindsey wants to give students access to MORE opportunities and ways to utilize the skills they are building in the classroom. She started College Bird to do exactly that and change the way that creative thinkers and companies worked together.
Connect
www.collegebird.co
collegebirdco@gmail.com
Follow us on Instagram
View our LinkedIn
Join our active student community
About Founding Team
The team was founded by Henry Nguyen with Jacalyn Rosa as COO. We have Kritika Jain as a marketing intern, while James Wackerman and Emmanual Marquiz are team members.
Vote for Ikanos Marketing on Alma Matters
Achievements:
Tied for 1st Place in the Dragons Pitch Competition
1st Place in StartupFest Fast Pitch Competition 2020
Connect
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ikanos-marketing/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ikanosfreelancing/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nHgSYrZFAY
About VodHavok
In North Philadelphia, born and raised, young Skvwalker spent his early childhood drawing pictures. Later in his life, he would begin looking for different ways to express himself. Throughout high school Skvwalker got involved with film editing, uploading a few small projects to his YouTube account. However, currently, Skvwalker has taken on the music industry with all his talents to create original thought-provoking projects under his brand name Vod Havok.
VodHavok’s mission is to bring quality art to people everywhere around the world. We want to illustrate our creative expression via mediums the team sees fit. This, in turn, will inspire others to express themselves creatively; to be an individual, unafraid to be true to themselves, and what they believe to be beautiful. We believe when presenting a piece of work, the audience appreciates the time, effort, and technique spent to capture the artistic vision. We practice and model these valued in every piece, conveying the skills we’ve learned from formal education and techniques picked up from experiences in life. Successes such as growing connections and our audience are the result of holding ourselves up to these standards with everything we do.
Vote for Vodhavok on Alma Matters
Achievements
- Uploading studio recordings to all online music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music
- Built a following of 4 thousand followers on Instagram alone
- Sold over 100 products of merchandise to Instagram followers
- Just broke 1000 subscribers on YouTube
- Received over 40k plays on the release of my LP ” Broke Music”
- Social Media Manager and Graphic designer for Calidelphia
- Received over 30k views on my YouTube Channel
- Garnered over 20k followers on tiktok.
- Made an Impression on 70k listeners
- Music streamed in over 80 countries worldwide
- As of now there are 202k likes to count for my tiktok profile
- Received a grant of 7.5k participating in the Entrepreneurship Program to back production and development of my start up business as an Entrepreneur from Drexel’s Baiada School of Entrepreneurship
- Commissioned for a 1000 dollar painting
- Collaborated with platinum producer Olivier Bassil, and Engineer Brian Sheil
- Received over 12k plays on Time Again as a single across all platforms
- Received over 50k plays for explosion kid across all platforms
Goals
In 5 years, I see VodHavok entering the competition with major labels and their artists; Emulating the same productive machine growing the business success garnered by a massive global audience, years of hard work, organization, and structure. The team would be elevated, doing things artists dream of like traveling, taking part in national performances, press-runs, and marketing; working on AAA creative projects involving animation, music videos, and cinematic films. To get here, I have smaller goals that I’m working to complete before the summer of 2021.
VodHavok 2021 Summer Plans
- Event Planning for a VodHavok showcase
-
Grow Patreon account
-
Grow Youtube channel
-
Acquire Verification Badge on Instagram to solidify our public image
-
Make an Impression on 500k listeners
-
Establish a structured team and work ethic to prepare Rollout Plans for 2021 and 2022
-
Acquire Wikipedia Write-Up
-
Establish, storyboard and script writing workflow
Connect
Sasas Mix aims to combine bold wholesome flavors with classic treats and foods that everyone knows and loves.
Vote for Sasas Mix on Alma Matters
About the Founder
Niaka Porte BA ‘22 loves baking and cooking wholesome foods. During her free time, she would serve her Liberian inspired banana bread at pop-up shops sponsored by Drexel and at local events. During Covid-19 she noticed people were baking a lot at home, so she decided to switch from selling them freshly made to creating a gluten free, vegan and allergy friendly banana bread baking mix. Niaka also noticed West African cuisine was not being shown in the grocery aisles during a time of heightened eagerness for global and novelty flavors.
Connect:
Instagram
Facebook
Description
The AeroPest spraying drone system allows for precise high altitude pest abatement. It requires less time and fewer pest professionals to eliminate elevated pests while lowering the risk of injury.
Vote for AeroPest on Alma Matters
About the Founder
Harrison Hertzberg nearly fell from the steep, second-story roof of his father’s home office building on a 98-degree summer day in Idaho after being tasked with spraying dozens of yellow jacket and hornet nests. He immediately began research to discover that current means of pest abatement in the pest control industry faced these exact same problems: worker injury liability due to use of dangerous ladders and roof climbers.
List of Achievements
Link
Connect:
Website - https://aeropest.squarespace.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/aeropestLLC
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aeropest
Description
Student Run Food Trucks bypasses the hurdles of extremely high restaurant start-up costs by offering a way to let students and food entrepreneurs share their creations and try their hand at restauranteering, regardless of monetary barriers, which will set them up for success in future endeavors.
We seek to provide all students and young entrepreneurs, regardless of economic background, a starting platform where they can hone their craft and gain the necessary skills at running a food truck in order to successfully own and operate their own restaurant down the line.
Vote for Student Run Food Trucks on Alma Matters
About the Founder
Solo-preneur, Jacalyn Rosa, graduating 2022.
List of Achievements
Won 3rd place in Start-Up Fest 2020
Description
banni is a fashion label redefining "the outcast" as the dynamic individual that does not follow the typical path, but rather navigates society creating their own trajectory toward success! Constructed with an emphasis on timelessness, our garments are manufactured with premium materials that best embody the stories that inspire our collections.
Vote for Banni on Alma Matters
About the Founder
Malcolm Jones is a fashion entrepreneur based out of his hometown, Philadelphia. Throughout his teen years, Malcolm’s passion for fashion flourished; not just as an interest in clothing styles, but a profound desire to influence the future of the fashion industry. During his high school years, Malcolm participated in a sewing apprenticeship where he learned sewing fundamentals and received an introduction to pattern making. While at Drexel University, Malcolm interned at Linda Gaunt Communications NY to learn the marketing side of fashion. Malcolm’s experiences have solidified the banni mentality well before he formally realized it as the foundation of his business and his motto for life!.
Achievements & Awards
Accepted for 2020 Baiada Institute Entrepreneurship Co-op
"At Milton Hershey School, I found my path. Now I just need to finish walking it out" - Milton Hershey School
"Oxford Circle native hopes to style the world" - North East Times
Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC Daymond John Event
View banni's Puma Brand Deal on instagram!
Connect:
banni.co
Instagram
Youtube
Email: malco@banni.co