A team of four Hiram College entrepreneurship students walked away with $1,000 to share in early November after winning first place at the 2025 Ideablitz!, Hiram’s annual, Shark Tank-like competition in which student teams promoted their business ideas to a panel of local entrepreneurs. The team of Macy Fry, Elizabeth Doup, Ilyana Sterrett, and Ayrica DeHart won the competition by promoting their product FlowCrate, a stacked six-bottle holder designed to fit over a six-pack of Gatorade squeeze bottles to enable faster, mess-free refills during sporting events.
Ideablitz! is one of two annual entrepreneurial competitions hosted by the Hiram College Center for Integrated Entrepreneurship. The follow-up event in the spring—Ideabuild!—allows student teams to further develop their project ideas in pursuit of potentially bringing such ideas to the market. Both events are made possible by a grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.
“The event was exceptional and is reflective of the great things happening at Hiram and in our entrepreneurship program. The students brought forth impressive business ideas and were exceptionally prepared and polished in front of the panel, a testament to their hard work and the guidance of David Kukurza, M.B.A, Director of Academic Programming for Entrepreneurship,” said Russell Ormiston, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Integrated Entrepreneurship.
The event featured six student teams of two-to-four students each. Groups had five minutes to present their business idea in front of an audience, with two minutes of Q&A from the panel of successful local entrepreneurs.
“The best student team presentations resulted from their practice and making key changes based on feedback from the class and me. They were ready and motivated for the competition,” said Kukurza.
The full set of winners from the 2025 Ideablitz! Competition include:
First Place ($1,000): FlowCrate
Team Members: Macy Fry, Elizabeth Doup, Ilyana Sterrett, and Ayrica DeHart
Product Description: A stacked six-bottle holder designed to fit over a six-pack of Gatorade squeeze bottles to enable faster, mess-free refills during sporting events.
Second Place ($600): AURA Emotion Oil Diffuser
Team Members: Tristan Martin-Marshall, McKayla Carpenter, Donald Davey, and Kevin Ina Product Description: An oil diffuser that creates custom blends of oil blends based on an AI-generated survey that inputs the user’s answers.
Third Place ($400): Lens Buddy
Team Members: Elijah Southern, Ben Hamilton, and Jake Colwell
Product Description: A disposable, stick-on lens protector for professional camera lenses.
Sustainability Prize ($300): Solar Spark
Team Members: Kendrick Miller, Evan Seawell, Tez Carter, and Nate Brown
Product Description: A compact portable solar charger to be used in emergency situations.
