The public is invited to hear the final pitches

The Moore School is hosting the SEC Student Pitch Competition April 4 with the final round of student entrepreneurial presentations open to the public at 7 p.m. at the Pastides Alumni Center.

For the competition, students at the undergraduate and graduate level showcase their entrepreneurial ideas for groundbreaking products and services to a panel of judges, including SEC alumni, who primarily work in the business sector. This will be the first time USC has hosted the SEC Student Pitch Competition, and it will be the first in-person competition since 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the 2022 SEC Student Pitch Competition, 12 Southeastern Conference universities have a team competing in the preliminary rounds of pitches. Judges will select three teams for the final round; each of the three finalist teams will receive prizes and awards. The first-place team will win $5,000 with second place winning $3,000 and third place winning $1,500.

The USC team in the competition includes juniors Parth Vashi, Max Wile and Stephen Voelk and their idea for athletic supplement Spuradix, a carbohydrate and menthol oral rinse that activates brain circuits responsible for feeling more energetic and less fatigued. From Greenville, South Carolina, Vashi is majoring in public health; also from Greenville, Voelk is majoring in economics and operations and supply chain; from Ridgefield, Connecticut, Wile is majoring in finance and international business.

“We’re thrilled to host the 2022 SEC Student Pitch Competition at the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business,” said Dean Peter Brews. “This competition is an excellent opportunity for our students and their contemporaries from other top universities to hone their pitching skills in front of experienced investors. We look forward to hearing the pitches of these talented young entrepreneurs and to our first time hosting this prestigious event. May the best ideas win!”

Established in 2015, the SEC Student Pitch Competition has produced a number of innovative concepts, including: a platform of products that improve minimally invasive surgeries from a University of Arkansas team; user-hosted storage rentals from the University of Missouri; and a smart lock designed to revolutionize safety and reduce liability for hotels and apartments from the University of Tennessee.

The 2022 competition will be led by Dean Kress, director of the Moore School’s Faber Entrepreneurship Center. Each year, the Faber Entrepreneurship Center hosts a USC-specific entrepreneurial competition for undergraduate and graduate students and recent alumni called The Proving Ground.

Sponsors for the SEC Student Pitch Competition include Gateway Supply Company and AOS Specialty Contracting. For the USC SEC Student Pitch Competition, the public is invited to attend the final round of the team presentations at 7 p.m. April 4 at the Pastides Alumni Center in Columbia. Learn more or register.