Jul 26, 2021 By: yunews
A team of intrepid contestants from the 鈥擠avid Schmidt (鈥21SB), Ariel Schneider (鈥22SB), Alexander Wildes (鈥21SB), and Gabriel Miller (鈥21SB)鈥攑laced third out of more than 340 submissions and 7 finalists in the , an international contest hosted by the Bengis Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Guilford Glazer Faculty for Business and Management at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
The challenge this year, according to the contest website, was to 鈥渃ome up with a business idea that will create shared value ... and sustainable management,鈥 or as Schmidt put it concisely, a company that would 鈥渂oth help the world improve in some area, usually aligned with the U.N. Sustainability Goals, while also being profitable.鈥 Sy Syms faced teams from New York, Pennsylvania, Lithuania, Israel and Italy.
Their submission, an app named 鈥淓at IT,鈥 was intended to eliminate the intense food waste dilemma many wealthy countries face and help save families money while simultaneously removing 6% to 7% of greenhouse gases emitted yearly.
Their idea came out of work they had been doing in Dr. Tamar Avnet鈥檚 Marketing capstone class. She encouraged them to submit their completed assignment to the contest and, as Schmidt explained, 鈥渋t was simply editing our presentation down to six minutes and recording it for the presentation format.鈥
The quartet praised both Dr. Avnet and Dr. Gil Peleg, clinical assistant professor of marketing, for their support, assistance and encouragement throughout the process.
鈥淲e are all just really happy we can represent YU on a global scale so that other universities know the great work that鈥檚 done here by all the students,鈥 said Schmidt. Miller added that working with his team and to have that work validated by the prize 鈥済ives me confidence in my work efforts and abilities as I move on to the work force,鈥 and Wildes felt proud being able to 鈥渟howcase the skills and entrepreneurial spirit that we had picked up at YU鈥 and to 鈥渞epresent our alma mater in such a positive way.鈥
