{"id":147259,"date":"2022-06-09T10:25:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=147259"},"modified":"2022-06-10T11:28:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T15:28:38","slug":"bobcats-make-a-venture-into-crypto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/06\/09\/bobcats-make-a-venture-into-crypto\/","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency banking pitch wins 2022 Bobcat Ventures competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dollar for dollar, the best pitch at this year\u2019s Bobcat Ventures competition was a startup that seeks to take cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Described as a \u201cnext-gen payroll provider\u201d by Justin Soh \u201922 of Singapore and partner Shaun Wong, their startup, Stable, aims to solve a major obstacle preventing the widespread adoption of decentralized cryptocurrencies: how to convert them to a centralized currency, like the U.S. dollar, for practical purposes, such as a business needing to pay its employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Justin Soh ’22 (right) and partner Sean Wong, creators of winning Bobcat Ventures startup, Stable, pose in Singapore. (Photo courtesy of Justin Soh)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Soh and Wong\u2019s successful pitch took home the $10,000 first prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than strictly a pitch competition, the student-run Bobcat Ventures program works in partnership with the college\u2019s Center for Purposeful Work to provide year-round, wall-to-wall support for student entrepreneurs<\/a>. A loyal group of alumni serve as mentors and competition judges. This year\u2019s panel comprised Ben Schippers \u201904, Chris Barbin \u201993, and Emma Sprague \u201910. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soh and Wong \u201chad an incredibly clear value proposition,\u201d said Schippers. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The competition, which featured six pitches, was a step up from 2021, when the entire thing was held online. This year, the competition was a hybrid effort, with the judges and some of the students on Zoom and the rest in Pettengill. Even with this hybrid model, the teams effectively connected with the judges, said Emma Sprague \u201910. \u201cAcross the board, we were just so impressed, excited and energized\u201d by the student pitches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soh and Wong \u201chad an incredibly clear value proposition,\u201d said Schippers. \u201cAs we look into this year and next year, it\u2019s really dialed-in, and as a result of that, we feel that the success of the product is going to have a lot of momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Title
Women inspect currency at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1907. A challenge for cryptocurrency is how to convert it to a centralized currency, like the U.S. dollar. (Underwood & Underwood\/Library of Congress)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Soh and Wong met in middle school, and have been friends ever since. A shared interest in digital currency and non-fungible tokens \u2014 NFTs \u2014 became Stable, an idea to solve the banking problem in cryptocurrency. The duo say that Stable will require no transfer or processing fees, making the platform compatible with networks operating off the blockchain<\/a>. It will support over 300 decentralized digital currencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Bitcoin and other digital currencies are nearly household names, their \u201cmass adoption remains far in sight,\u201d says Soh. But like any startup, the duo are looking to anticipate and stay ahead of the curve. \u201cWe as Gen Z will \u2014 and should \u2014 partake to engender a financially inclusive borderless world that accepts all forms of payment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The runner-up prize of $5,000 went to a pitch by Ben Aguilar \u201922 of Belmont, Mass., and his partner, Bob Ranalli, a Tufts student, for an online platform aiming to do what an in-person campus tour or overnight visit does for a prospective college student: connect them with current college students. The site promises to do what a subreddit can\u2019t: provide expert curation of expert insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea comes as many U.S. colleges, including Bates, work to integrate relatively new online offerings forced by the pandemic, such as online tours and \u201cask me anything\u201d Zoom sessions, with more traditional in-person approaches to recruitment, such as high school visits and college fairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe college application process is pretty anxiety inducing \u2014 it’s just considered normal to be completely lost,\u201d says Aguilar. \u201cThis has resulted in a lot of people making this major life decision on pretty superficial factors. I’ve even seen someone legitimately choose a school for their colors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their website, Nescacguide.com \u2014 which is unaffiliated with the athletic conference \u2014 features a network of students who attend NESCAC schools and have volunteered to answer questions from curious prospective applicants, as well as an advisory board that has helped guide the venture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think what we were most impressed with was the ability to tell a great, compelling story and lay out not only a problem, but also a solution,\u201d says Chris Barbin \u201993. \u201cAnd having it already active, and solving a real-word problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The $10,000 first prize in the 2022 Bates College student pitch competition was won by a cryptocurrency banking startup that seeks to usher in a new, “borderless world that accepts all forms of payment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":147315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[243,11012],"tags":[10707],"class_list":["post-147259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-events","category-student-life","tag-bobcat-ventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147259"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147321,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147259\/revisions\/147321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}