As a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the final round of BizPitch took place on Nov. 11 from 5-7 p.m. in the Terrace Room, crowning EZ Tap as this year’s winner. A panel of successful University alumni sat before five teams of students who presented their business ventures. Each team went through three rounds of critique to make their final five-minute pitch.

After each team competed, the judges left the room and the audience was able to vote on their phones while the judges decided on their final top three winners.

The winning team was made up of Austin Honigford ’18, Kaelyn Taylor ’18, Chris Ouellette ’18, and Evan Harrington ’18. Their idea, EZ Tap, is a system that replaces the physical University student ID card with an iPhone app. The ID card app would also include a password lock and other information that students could quickly access. The creators of EZ Tap said that with the app, students would never be locked out of a building.

“Developing EZ Tap and being involved in the competition is an experience I have not had before. I definitely learned a lot and how much work and organization it takes to be successful,” Taylor said.

Taylor was the only female participant in this year’s competition.

“EZ Tap is the first grand prize-winning team including a female student. I hope that this raises awareness that entrepreneurship at Bucknell is a pursuit open to and actively welcoming of all students, and that diverse ecosystems are the most robust and innovative,” Director of the Small Business Development Center Steven Stumbris said.

The second-place winner was Ignite (created by Cole McCollum ’17 and Alejandro Ramirez ’16), which helps the development of small businesses. The third-place winner was another app called Power Fitness (created by Henry Kwan ’17, Maximilian Ororbia ’17, and Li Li ’16) to help gym users and trainers track their workouts.

“One of the most inspiring takeaways from this year’s Business Pitch Competition is that the winners, and indeed, all of the finalists, will be students at Bucknell for several years to come. I’m thrilled that the team of consultants at the Small Business Development Center will have the opportunity to continue working with them as they develop these pitches into ventures,” Stumbris said.