O-Tech Affordable: Duy Ha ’14, Gabriel Trejos ’14, Weijia Zheng ‘14
O-Tech Affordable (OTA) is a St. Olaf-based company that provides high quality and affordable technology solutions to the St. Olaf and Northfield community, as well as any entities with limited financial capacity (non-profits, startups, small businesses etc.). Besides satisfying customers’ technology needs, OTA promotes the scope of computer science development at St. Olaf and in Northfield by enabling Computer Science and Studio Arts students to work on real world projects with significant individual and community impacts. OTA strives to not only make a difference among emerging organizations in the cloud-based era, but also empower students through professional development opportunities.

Over The Boards Hockey: Jasper Kozak-Miller ‘16
Over The Boards LLC is a North American media outlet focused on the development of hockey players and the sport itself, as well as college hockey and amateur hockey news. It is divided into Over The Boards, a typical advertising model news site with a focus on amateur hockey and college recruiting, and OTB Elite, a subscription- based scouting service designed for hockey professionals and interested fans. The two sites share player and hockey information, and that reciprocal relationship betters both products.

Women for Women Empowerment: Love Odetola ‘14
Less than 25% of Senegalese girls complete High School. Although young dropouts want to become tailors, most join their parents on farms with inadequate storage facilities that waste over 50% of crops. Consequently, the establishment of Women for Women Empowerment (WWE) will offer: (1) A holistic tailoring program that features health and entrepreneurship skills for the dropouts; (2) Microloans to experienced female farmers so that they can purchase additional crops and store them in WWE’s storage facility. By selling their crops at a later time, the women’s profits should triple. WWE’s goal is to empower women to make healthier decisions.

All About Olaf: Drew Volz ’16, Dan Frankenfeld ‘15
All About OlafTM is a mobile application design company that currently works primarily with small liberal arts colleges to bring information and resources to students through an efficient, effective, and custom-designed mobile application. All About OlafTM is the premier design for St. Olaf College, which complements and integrates the St. Olaf website into an easy-access application. All About OlafTM revenue comprises two streams: fees for initial design and maintenance; and advertisements for local businesses within the app. Earnings from advertisements are split between All About OlafTM and the college, investing additional money into student life on campus.

Squirrel: Tanner Block ‘17
Texting and driving is a rising epidemic in America. The behavior has a risk factor comparable to drunk driving, increasing the probability of a car accident by 23 times. Squirrel is an engaging cell phone application that attempts to modify this dangerous habit through gamification. Squirrel alters the habit of texting and driving by making the behavior of not texting and driving competitive and engaging. As of today, nothing like Squirrel exists on the market. Squirrel is new, innovative, exciting, and helps make the roads safer for everyone.

KO Photography: Kyle Obermann ’14
China sits in a unique global position. It has one the world’s worst environmental quality indexes and is the largest emitter of CO2 gas. Conversely, the outdoor and adventure sport industry is booming. Sales of outdoor products have grown at almost 50 percent annually for the last ten years. KO Photography seeks to capture the growing Chinese outdoor lifestyle, building appreciation and connection for China’s environment. Capturing Chinese interacting with the outdoors, KO Photography’s professional photos will be widely demanded by environmental NGOs, outdoor retail companies, and travel/adventure magazines, encouraging China’s drive towards a sustainable, environmentally friendly future.

IceBot: Paul Berg ‘14
Over 70 years old, ice resurfacers (commonly referred to as Zambonis®) are possibly the most outdated product in any industry. They are extremely expensive, labor-intensive, and release hazardous gases, causing danger for players and fans alike. The IceBot changes everything. IceBot allows hot water intake, snow exhaust, and electricity to be supplied to through a track on the ceiling, eliminating the need for large storage tanks and dangerous propane emissions. The IceBot is a fully robotic, labor-free operation. Early projections estimate a 70% reduction in annual operational costs. Icebot’s mission is to make ice sports safer and more affordable worldwide.

Ole Thrift Shop: Lisa Swanson ‘16
St. Olaf College promotes an environmentally friendly lifestyle, but lacks a venue for students to effortlessly donate their gently used possessions that would normally end up in landfills. Grounded in environmental and ethical values, the Ole Thrift Shop dedicates itself to increase the sustainability of the St. Olaf campus by collecting donated goods and reselling them for affordable prices annually. In the fall of 2013, Ole Thrift Shop earned a profit of around $6,000, doubling the investment and predicted returns. The success of Ole Thrift Store proves that St. Olaf students eagerly embrace innovative, sustainable businesses.

Nigerian Water Well Project: Joseph Adetola Adedigba ’14 (Third Prize)
As a native Nigerian, Joseph Adetola Adedigba chose to make a significant impact in his native country by constructing a water well in the community of Saki, Nigeria. Joseph’s venture funded the construction of the Saki Water Well; this water well not only improved access to clean water in Saki, but also provided employment to women in this community. Nigerian Water Wells’s mission is to build more water wells in Nigeria following the successful Saki Water Well model.

Jolly Fly Fishing, LLC: Ben Carlson ‘17
Jolly Fly Fishing, LLC is a registered, insured, and licensed fly fishing guide service that has already generated revenue in its first months of operation. Jolly Fly Fishing provides guided fly fishing trips and fly fishing instruction, as well as maintaining a website and blog that keeps fly fishing community members updated on the happenings in the Midwestern fly fishing world. The key to this Midwestern fly fishing world is diversity. Unlike many typical fly fishing operations in the east and west United States, the Midwest has a huge variety in fishing options, including location, species, type of water, and access to water (boat, wade). The key to gaining credibility in the Midwestern fly fishing world is to provide clients with options to better tailor a unique fishing experience for them. This credibility will lead to more clients, and drawing a larger demographic client base.

U-Swap.org: John Bruer ‘16 (Second Prize)
Each semester students around the country spend millions on textbooks, only to receive a small percent of what they spent when they resell their books to the bookstore. Because of this, we created (USWAP) www.U-Swap.org. USWAP is an online closed-network marketplace for students to buy and sell textbooks directly between each other. Our mission is to save students time and money. Users can only register with a St. Olaf or university-specific email. We launched a beta version at the University of Minnesota that yielded 8000 users through no marketing spending. Additionally, we have a framework ready for over 600 universities.

Judges Ole Cup 2014:

Greg Buck ’77, President, Productivity, Inc.
Brad Cleveland ‘82, former CEO, Protolabs
Adam Gettings ’04, CEO, RobotiX, Co-Founder at Leeo (Mr. Gettings will also be the keynote speaker)
Allison Gettings ’05, CEO, Alli Marie
Mark Jacobsen ’79, Managing Director, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures
Lars Leafblad ’99, Director, Bush Fellowship program, Bush Foundation
Sian Muir, Entrepreneur In-Residence, St. Olaf College (Moderator)
Jonathan Pearce ’01, CEO, Zipnosis
John Peterson ’09, Director, inGroove
Megan Tsui ’96, Executive Director, Northfield Enterprise Center
Roberto Zayas, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship