{"id":152910,"date":"2023-04-14T10:52:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T14:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=152910"},"modified":"2025-01-31T12:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T17:22:06","slug":"magic-and-soccer-take-home-first-prize-at-the-2023-bobcat-ventures-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/14\/magic-and-soccer-take-home-first-prize-at-the-2023-bobcat-ventures-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer and magic: Announcing the $12,000 winning pitches at the 2023 Bobcat Ventures competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Breaking barriers and providing access to higher education \u2014 that’s how two Bates students will use their $6,000 first-place prizes from this year’s Bobcat Ventures pitch competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Iwowo \u201923, a politics major from Beckenham, England, won for his startup, Up Next Academy, connecting young soccer players around the world with opportunities to play soccer at U.S. colleges through scholarship support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abby Segal ’23, a psychology major from Chelmsford, Mass., started her own business, Magic by Abby Segal, to inspire and encourage women to break into the male-dominated world of professional magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two
This year’s first-place winners, Abby Segal ’23 (left) of Chelmsford, Mass., and Jacob Iwowo \u201923 of Beckenham, England, brandish their winning “check” on April 1, 2023. (The check’s amount says $4,000 each, but the prize was later bumped to $6,000 each.) (Ken Williams ’23 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both first-place winners have something big in common, the judges noted. Both their businesses are already up and running and making money, \u201can impressive place for a student-run startup to be,\u201d said judge Emma Sprague \u201910, a Bates trustee whose business, Upswing Strategies, just merged with KNP Communications.<\/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 support for student entrepreneurs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, a loyal group of alumni come to Bates to serve as competition judges. This year, joining Sprague were Pranav Ghai \u201993, co-founder and CEO of Calcbench Inc., who stepped in when longtime judge Chris Barbin \u201993 could not attend, and Ben Schippers \u201904, CEO and co-founder of HappyFunCorp. In addition to the judges, some 20 additional Bates alumni, parents, and friends serve as Bobcat Ventures mentors and guest speakers throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bates
From left, judges Ben Schippers ’04, Emma Sprague ’10, and Pranav Ghai ’93 deliberate after students presented their pitches at this year’s Bobcat Ventures competition on April 1, 2023. (Ken Williams ’23 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery year our work seems to get harder and harder,\u201d said Schippers. \u201cThis year was definitely the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghai, a parent of a first-year Bates student, described the pitches as \u201chigh caliber,\u201d and explained why. \u201cIt’s a complex thing to do: merge all of these different sources, make your story coherent, and then go in front of people who are judging you. And they pulled it off. They just really did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since founding Up Next Academy in 2020, Iwowo has helped connect international clients, mostly from the United Kingdom, with a network of more than 700 coaches at colleges and prep schools across the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"
Jacob Iwowo \u201923 is a politics major and soccer captain from Beckenham, England. He won for his startup, Up Next Academy, connecting young soccer players around the world with opportunities to play soccer at U.S. colleges. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Soccer\u2019s popularity in the U.S. has long lagged behind the rest of the world, yet the U.S. provides the best opportunities for young players to get a college education while playing the sport they love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where Up Next Academy comes in, says Iwowo, whose experience as an international student who came to Bates to study and play soccer spurred him to start his business, a \u201cvehicle to provide access to the only further-education system in the world that allows students to effectively combine high level academia and high level athletics.\u201d Along the way, his clients have secured over $8 million in scholarships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bates
Winners and judges at this year’s Bobcat Ventures pitch competition: From left, Ella Blum ’24, Kami Lambert ’23, Grace Biddle ’23, Pranav Ghai ’93, Abby Segal ’23, Ben Schippers ’04, Emma Sprague ’10, Jacob Iwowo ’23, Richie Nuzum \u201923, and Gus McAllister \u201923 (Ken Williams ’23 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Iwowo pitched his business last year, coming up empty. Returning this year shows his \u201chustle is real,\u201d says Sprague, who, along with other judges have kept in touch with Iwowo and kept the encouragement flowing. \u201cHis determination and focus is really admirable. There are new, talented students at U.S. institutions because of what Jacob\u2019s doing. That’s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segal is trying to break the top-hat-and-tails male stereotype of professional magic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMagic is a boys only club, deeply rooted in sexism that I’ve experienced firsthand,\u201d Segal said. \u201cMagic is joyful. It’s inspiring, it’s interactive, it’s intimate and it’s memorable. And I want to be part of the solution to making magic more mainstream, young and inclusive. So let’s make some magic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her pitch, Segal performed two sleight-of-hand tricks in front of the room, and completely captivated the judges. They could \u201cfeel it in her bones how much she felt that this business needed to happen and she was the person to make it happen,\u201d said Schippers. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see how she dominates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Portraits
Abby Segal ’23 of Chelmsford, Mass., one of this year’s Bobcat Ventures winners, poses for a portrait on Oct. 10, 2020, prior to her appearance on Penn and Teller: Fool Us in 2021.<\/em> (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Segal has been running her magic business since she was a pre-teen, doing shows across New England at schools, special occasions, fundraisers, and magic venues. In February 2021, she appeared on the magic show Penn and Teller: Fool Us<\/em><\/a>, where she demonstrated a nifty trick with an Etch A Sketch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She will use her funding to stage a magic show in Chicago, which she says will be the city\u2019s first one-woman, closeup-style magic act. That\u2019s just the beginning: she wants to inspire and encourage more women to join the magic scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning $1,500 second-place prizes were Grace Biddle \u201923 of State College, Pa., pitching NESCA$H, a prepaid card system for dining at local eateries in the NESCAC area, and Richie Nuzum \u201923 of White Plains, N.Y., and Gus McAllister \u201923 of San Francisco, with their Tinder-style restaurant decision app, Crave Swipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by Penn State University\u2019s \u201cLionCash\u201d card system, Biddle wants to encourage students at NESCAC schools to dine locally, by turning school ID cards into credit cards usable at partnering dining businesses, and connected to an online cash account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bates
The big crew behind Crave Swipe pose for a photo after their pitch at this year’s Bobcat Ventures competition on April 1, 2023. (Ken Williams ’23 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nuzum and McAllister\u2019s Crave Swipe is an algorithm-based app, relying on user input to figure out food preferences. They say it fills a gap in the restaurant decision app market, where most apps spit out randomized choices based on location, and can\u2019t learn a user\u2019s tastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bobcat Ventures, a startup of its own back in 2015, has proven to be sustainable, and that\u2019s impressive, said Sprague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most gratifying parts of this program is how all of us, Bates students, staff, and alumni, are carrying it forward together,\u201d said Sprague. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s all about the people. Our investment and enthusiasm are in large part about the students behind the businesses, and all that we can see they are capable of in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abby Segal ’23 and Jacob Iwowo ’23 won first-place prizes for startups that focus on access and community, in two very different realms: magic and soccer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":153068,"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":"Abby Segal '23 and Jacob Iwowo '23 won first-place prizes for startups that focus on access and community.","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"Announcing the $12,000 winning pitches at the 2023 Bobcat Ventures competition","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[243,11012],"tags":[10707],"class_list":["post-152910","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\/152910","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=152910"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167217,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152910\/revisions\/167217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}