On July 9, from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., DifferenceMaker hosted their annual Demo Day event. At this event, the 2024 DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge Finalists presented their updated and improved ideas since advancing in the 2024 DifferenceMaker Summer Boot Camp.
Steve Tello, Interim Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute, opened up the event for the evening. To start, he presented to the audience a brief overview of the DifferenceMaker program. DifferenceMaker is a campus-wide program that helps students define problems and create real-life solutions to those problems.
Then, Steve introduced Brian Rist, Chairman at Rist Family Foundation, to the audience. Brian Rist attended UMass Lowell himself and helps to support the Rist DifferenceMaker Program! Steve invited Brian up to join him in front of the audience so he could say a few words. While speaking to the audience Brian mentioned that he is impressed by the growth that he has seen leading up to this event and he ensured that the audience members continue to work hard in their futures! Brian even said, “I’m living proof that you don’t have to be a genius to be successful in business”.
Brian Rist then spoke about his appearance a week prior as a guest speaker during the DifferenceMaker Summer Boot Camp series. The $50,000 Idea Challenge finalists go through the DifferenceMaker Boot Camp to workshop their ideas and prepare for Demo Day! The objective of the Boot Camp is to increase teams’ understanding of their customer segments, business model, revenue streams, and more. Teams are also encouraged to develop a one-year project plan with milestones and tasks for utilizing their winning funds.
Steve thanked everyone who makes DifferenceMaker possible – faculty fellows, co-op students, mentors, and advisors. The Boot Camp Advisors this year were:
- Rajia Abdelaziz, CEO and Co-Founder of invisaWear (2016 DifferenceMaker Team), alumni from the Francis College of Engineering & Kennedy College of Sciences, ’16.
- Shirah Benarde, CEO and Co-Founder of Nightcap
- Ray Hamilton, CTO and Co-Founder of invisaWear (2016 DifferenceMaker Team), alumni from Francis College of Engineering, ’16.
- Kevin Willett, Senior Adjunct Faculty and DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow from the Manning School of Business, CEO of Friends of Kevin.
Then, thank yous for the Boot Camp Guest Speakers were also made:
- Alexia Daniel, Student Engagement Financial Administration
- Ray Hamilton, CTO and Co-Founder of invisaWear, alumni from Francis College of Engineering, ’16.
- Chris Bourne, Partner at Foley & Lardner LLP.
- Chris McKenna, Partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, alumni from the Francis College of Engineering, ‘89
- Shirah Benarde,CEO and Co-Found of Nightcap
- Brian Rist, Chairman & Founder of the Rist Family Foundation and Rist DifferenceMaker Institute, alumni from the Manning School of Business, ’77.
- Dave Vatalaro, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow and Professor, Manning School of Business.
Demo Day helps teams advance their progress, gain critical feedback, and network with mentors. David Vatalaro, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow, discussed mentor matching steps. Surveys for both mentors and teams were sent out shortly after the event. From the survey results, teams will be paired to the appropriate mentor(s) based on their backgrounds, skills, and interests. David Vatalaro, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow, explained the steps needed to be made for the mentor matching process.
Next, the event opened to student team presentations! Each team had 5 minutes to present, and 5 minutes for audience Q&A. They pitched about their business plans, customer discovery findings, value propositions, and benefit that their products/services would have for society. Potential mentors asked valuable questions to the teams throughout the evening.
The teams that presented were:
At the end of the event, the student teams had a chance to speak with perspective mentors. Thank you to everyone that attended Demo Day and supported the students throughout the night!
Here is a video of the 2024 DifferenceMaker Demo Day event.