MedBerry, a company that makes stuffed animals with outfits, accessories, and stories for children to help reduce medical anxiety, won first place and $1,000 at Startup Games final pitches Oct. 5 inside the Pappajohn Business Building in Iowa City, Iowa. A total of $3,000 was awarded to five teams.
The 2024-25 edition of Startup Games kicked off Oct. 4 with 23 participants. Five teams delivered four-minute pitches in front of three judges in the finals Oct. 5. The students started planning for their business Friday evening, then spent all day Saturday assigning roles, doing research, customer discovery, and meeting with business coaches.
Second place and $750 went to Eye Shield, an automatic light-adjusting contact lens with different tint and filtration options. A Best Pivot Award of $500 went to Study Sync, an app that connects students to classmates to create study groups and help each other with assignments. An Industry Target Award of $500 went to In-Route, an indoor navigation software service for businesses with large properties. Zapam, a digital book company for physical book lovers, won a $250 Creativity and Vision Award.
Startup Games is sponsored by the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, the hub for entrepreneurial education and outreach at the University of Iowa.
About Iowa JPEC: Iowa JPEC fosters entrepreneurship and innovation across the state of Iowa by providing a range of educational and training programs and support services for entrepreneurial ventures and existing small-to-medium size businesses. Iowa JPEC is dedicated to nurturing the growth of new ventures and assisting them in reaching their full potential.
| AWARD | BUSINESS NAME | AMOUNT |
| 1st | MedBerry | $1,000 |
| Ella Brennan (open major), Nora McCloy (creative writing), Katrina Ng (pre-business), Fisher Muck (entrepreneurship), Branson Pearson (enterprise leadership) | ||
| 2nd | Eye Shield | $750 |
| Meaghan Cone (mechanical engineering with minors in mathematics and business administration), Abbagail Evans (civil and environmental engineering), Mitzi Evans (mechanical engineering), Anna Makarenko (finance) | ||
| Best Pivot | Study Sync | $500 |
| Abraham Acosta (business administration), Lauren Gill (biology, pre-physician assistant) | ||
| Industry Target | In-Route | $500 |
| Paul Conover (industrial engineering with a minor in business administration), Michael Darmody (mechanical engineering with a minor in business administration), Floyd L. Evans, Jr. (genetics PhD; computer science, microbiology), Will Fritz (accounting and finance and risk management and insurance), Maggie Lennon (industrial engineering) | ||
| Creativity & Vision | Zapam | $250 |
| Aceel Ali (art and pre-business), Kyara Dagnino-Cretin (creative writing with a minor in art history), Tori Hedley (psychology and criminology, law, and justice), Mia Robson (creative writing and French) |
