The Founders lab is a year-long program that gives its students an opportunity to participate in a unique team-based, experiential Barrett honors thesis project to design and apply marketing and sales strategies, as well as business and financial models to start up and launch a new business. This honors thesis project focuses on increasing the rate of vaccination outcomes in a country where people are increasingly busy (less time) and unwilling to get a needle through a new business venture that provides a service that brings vaccinations straight to businesses, making them available for their employees. Through our work with the Founders Lab, our team was able to create this pitch deck.

For our Founders Lab Thesis Project, we are investigating the viability of a cryptocurrency that will be marketed towards students, prospective students, alumni, and faculty members of Arizona State University (ASU). Our cryptocurrency is known as “Hippocampus”. Essentially, individuals within the target audience will have the opportunity to exchange their fiat money for our university-affiliated cryptocurrency. These individuals will be incentivized to utilize the university-affiliated cryptocurrency as opposed to fiat money, because this cryptocurrency will offer them discounts on college-related expenses, such as tuition, student loans, textbooks, supplies, on-campus housing, on-campus dining, and much more. As the demand for Hippocampus increases, so will its value, which will benefit ASU as a whole. We created a Spring 2022 Semester Survey and surveyed a sample of 250 ASU students regarding the viability of our Founders Lab Thesis Project. 73.2% of participants revealed that they would support a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and 62% of participants revealed that they would personally utilize a university-affiliated cryptocurrency. Additional activities that we completed to enhance our Founders Lab Thesis Project include interviewing an avid cryptocurrency user, learning about the Blockchain Research Lab, meeting with a financial advisor to understand the financial implications of a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, collaborating with a group of university students at Portland State University who implemented their own university-affiliated crypcorreucy, and touring a cryptocurrency-mining company to grasp an understanding of how cryptocurrency is mined.

For our Founders Lab Thesis Project, we are investigating the viability of a cryptocurrency that will be marketed towards students, prospective students, alumni, and faculty members of Arizona State University (ASU). Our cryptocurrency is known as “Hippocampus”. Essentially, individuals within the target audience will have the opportunity to exchange their fiat money for our university-affiliated cryptocurrency. These individuals will be incentivized to utilize the university-affiliated cryptocurrency as opposed to fiat money, because this cryptocurrency will offer them discounts on college-related expenses, such as tuition, student loans, textbooks, supplies, on-campus housing, on-campus dining, and much more. As the demand for Hippocampus increases, so will its value, which will benefit ASU as a whole. We created a Spring 2022 Semester Survey and surveyed a sample of 250 ASU students regarding the viability of our Founders Lab Thesis Project. 73.2% of participants revealed that they would support a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and 62% of participants revealed that they would personally utilize a university-affiliated cryptocurrency. Additional activities that we completed to enhance our Founders Lab Thesis Project include interviewing an avid cryptocurrency user, learning about the Blockchain Research Lab, meeting with a financial advisor to understand the financial implications of a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, collaborating with a group of university students at Portland State University who implemented their own university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and touring a cryptocurrency-mining company to grasp an understanding of how cryptocurrency is mined.

The mission of EZ-Sit is to alleviate pain and increase comfort by creating a product that allows users to put their feet up when sitting for long periods of time. This product will connect to any single stem office chair with ease and will provide users with the ability to put their feet up whenever and wherever they work. Our goal is to empower individuals to pursue their goals without the hindrance of discomfort that comes with sitting for extended periods of time. At EZ-Sit we believe that no one’s productivity should be impeded due to the pain caused by a sedentary work life. We hope that this product will bring about physical well being in the workplace so individuals can focus on the day ahead of them. At EZ-Sit, our values include personal health, affordability, and productivity. Personal health is one of our core principles because we believe that people should not have to endure pain while sitting in order to get their work done. We value the integrity of the hard work that many people show while trying to pursue their dreams. We believe this strong drive for personal or professional growth should not have the consequences of pain. We also believe that our solution should be accessible to all regardless of financial situations. Our Vision at EZ-Sit is to create awareness around healthy sitting practices in addition to how these practices can boost productivity and can prevent burnout. We want to encourage people to take a stand about their sitting habits. Our analysis of the foot rest industry shows that this is not the first product of its kind, but the EZ-Sit is certainly the most accessible. Footrests exist all over the internet and in stores, but all of them are independent of the actual chair. These foot rests are one size-fits all and provide no physiological benefits to users who are either too short or too tall. In addition there are chairs on the market that have a built-in footrest. These chairs, however, are very expensive. This effectively excludes a whole portion of the market who do not have the means to invest in the product. We plan on marketing to young professionals who fall into the age range of eighteen to twenty-eight years old. We want to emphasize that taking care of your body while pursuing your goals is not something to be taken lightly. When we have a working model we plan on using social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to show how the product works as well as educate individuals around the health benefits of this product. Because this product is new to the market it is important for users to understand why it is different from other footrests in the market. Social media will also help to differentiate our product from the others by showing comparisons. We also plan on utilizing slogans that resonate without demographics such as “EZ-Sit, That’s It!” in order to grab the attention of our target audience.