Future Founders Announces Finalists for New Culminating Expo

April 15, 2016

Over the past two weeks, Future Founders hosted competitions for our Ignite schools so students could showcase the business plans they created during the school year. From each school’s competition, judges selected 2-4 plans to advance to the Future Founders finalist pool.

After reviewing the high caliber finalists, we are pleased to announce the 17 finalists that will be featured at the first annual Future Founders adVENTURE Expo. This trade show meets entrepreneurship competition will take place on Wednesday, May 11 at TechNexus.

This year’s competition will consist of each student creating an interactive station for attendees to visit to hear their 30 second pitch and interactive demo of their product or service created over the course of the school year.

At this point, we’d like to announce and congratulate our 2016 CITYWIDE FINALISTS:

• Deandre Allen (Junior), Profs Academy, Chicago Tech Academy
• Jessica Booker (Junior), Plushie Pals, Holy Trinity High School
• Taylor Coffey (Senior), Snapped, Thornwood High School
• Gabriella Del Raso (Junior), Vulpecula, Holy Trinity High School
• Olamide Eletu (Junior), Can Move, EPIC Academy
• Cristina Guzman (Junior), You Shine, Holy Trinity High School
• Renia Hamilton & Ashleey Williams (Juniors), Pure Diets, Austin Business & Entrepreneurship Academy
• Luqman Muhammad (Senior), Fold Away, Thornwood High School
• De’Vonte O’Neil (Senior), Snow-Be-Gone, Legal Prep Charter School
• Emma Patterson & Arianna Melendez (Juniors), Belganda, Thornwood High School
• Jesica Perez (Junior), Nutrijuice, EPIC Academy
• Michayla Richards (Sophomore), Kurls, Chicago Tech Academy
• Kayla Richardson (Senior), I Need A Doctor, CICS Ralph Ellison
• Malachi Smith (Senior), Mini Me, Thornwood High School
• Markayle Tolliver (Junior), Tech on the Go, Holy Trinity High School
• Abraham Valle (Sophomore), Luxer, Chicago Tech Academy
• Luis Vazquez (Junior), Dexteri Tie, Holy Trinity High School

Good luck to all of our finalists and special thanks to our class business plan competition judges: Don Campbell, Renew or Die; Seth Franz, Urban Brain & Body; Aaron Gillium, Caerus Investment Partners; Gary Guibert, Northern Trust; Phil Hammer, Ticket Compass; Jason Jacobsohn, The Founder Institute, Ryan Jeffrey, Ronin; Tom Klehr, Bank of America; Denise Maple, The Private Bank; Andy Marsh, Tagprints Digital; Reva Minkoff, Digital4Startups; Heather Polk, UCB Pharma; Eduardo Reyes, Alumni; Jim Rhodes, Mobilocity; Tchicaya Robertson, Accenture; Justin Romano, Backspace App; Matt Schaefer, ParqEx; Jackie Schwartz, Baxter Healthcare; Sherry White, Baxter Healthcare; Asim Zaidi, Social Emotive Labs