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Cell phone case using solar power while suppressing radiation wins Miclot contest

Tom Coyne

Spencer Reagan (center), founder of S.R. Eco and the creator of the Eclipse cell phone case, with judges Jacqueline McCloskey and Francis Ellert. (Photo by Tom Coyne)

 

A Culver Military Academy first classman won the $5,000 first prize in the Miclot Family Business Plan Competition for his plan to market a cell phone case that would use solar power to recharge wirelessly while protecting people from radiation exposure.

Spencer Reagan of Salt Lake City, Utah, is the founder of S.R. Eco and the creator of the Eclipse cell phone case that has an ingrained solar panel that eliminates the need for portable chargers and uses copper to suppress electromagnetic fields that can lead to brain cancer, impact cognitive function and cause fatigue.

Reagan was selected as the winner of the Miclot Business Plan Competition at The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur at Culver Academies by judges Jacqueline McCloskey ’13, director of business development at Fair Oaks Farms, and Francis Ellert SS’85, plant manager at Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

Linda (Qiyan) Su ’24 from Xiamen, China, won the $1,000 second prize for CareEase, an app to support caregivers of people who have dementia. Michael Mosley ’24 from Culver won $500 for finishing in third for Cleat Cleaner, a handheld device to clean cleats.

 

Linda (Qiyan) Su presents CareEase, an app to support caregivers of people who have dementia.. (Photo by Tom Coyne)

 

The competition, in its 11th year, is endowed by Andy and Sharlene Miclot of Austin, Texas, who are the parents of Christopher ’08 and Caitlin ’10. The competition provides Culver students with realistic competition requiring teamwork, collaboration and field research under the guidance of a mentor entrepreneur.

Fourteen individuals or teams entered the contest, totaling 21 participating Academy students. Each entry was required to provide an executive summary of a business idea. Faculty in the Rubin School narrowed the entries to the six finalists who presented their ideas.

Students were told to explain the market needs for their products, their financial understanding of cost structures, revenue streams, and risk assessment, their product feasibility and how they can gain more customers. They also were judged on the polish of their presentations.

Each finalist was given 10 minutes to present and four minutes to answer questions from the judges.

Reagan said the Eclipse would fit into three markets: wireless charging, global battery case and the EMF shield device. He said each market is expected to be in the billions.

He said the phone cases would cost $48 to make and would be sold for $150, and a case for tablets and iPads would cost $80 to make and would sell for $225.

Su is the founder of CareEase, a business model featuring a computer app that provides emotional and educational support for caregivers of loved ones with dementia.

“The reason I want to develop CareEase is my mother is a caregiver and I want to help her out,” Su said. “I realized that she is not alone in her suffering. There are millions of caregivers that are suffering from the same problem.”

She said caregivers are facing high stress situations and a lack of professional help. Su said the app would provide caregivers with educational resources and also would offer personalized coaching.

She said CareEase subscription cost would be $30 a year and therapy costs would be $150 an hour.

 

Michael Mosley ’24 shows the judges his Cleat Cleaner, handheld devices to clean cleats. (Photo by Tom Coyne)

 

 

Mosley is the founder of Cleat Care, a product that will help athletes knock the dirt and mud off their cleats. He said it also could help reduce knee injuries. He said about 97 percent of high school athletes don’t have access to a cleat cleaner on their benches.

He said 80 million athletes who compete on grass need access to cleat cleaners. He said he plans to sell the Cleat Care for $8 each and would need to sell about 1,500 to break even. He said the Cleat Care is made through 3D printing. He used the 3D printing capabilities in the Paul Pigott Center for Advanced Design at Culver to iterate and produce his prototype.

He said the Culver baseball team has been testing the cleaner for several weeks.

The other finalists were:

·        Shannon (Xiangning) Li ’27 of Qingao, China, is the founder of AirPeelz, which she described as a sustainable packaging business that uses biodegradable material from banana peels. She said her innovation would reduce plastic pollution and food waste and is 100 percent degradable in soil and helps to repair soil. She said her product is less expensive than other alternatives.

·        Erin Zhu ’24 of Elgin, Illinois, founder of Fin Fit, a personal finance platform to help high school students learn how to start investing. Zhu said 75 percent of students plan to begin investing before they graduate from college and 73 percent want more personal finance education.

·        Shem Ndashimye ’24 from Cote du Djoue, Congo, and Aidan Cartmel ’25 from Mercer Island, Washington, are founders of Powder Feeds, which would allow farmers to apply a serving of powder to a gallon of water to meet the nutritional requirements of a variety of animals, including cattle, sheep, poultry, pigs and horses. They said their Powder Feed would be easier and less expensive than commercial feed.

 

All the finalists for the Miclot Family Business Plan Competition with the judges. (Photo by Tom Coyne)

 

 

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