This thesis project has been conducted in accordance with The Founder’s Lab initiative which is sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business. This program groups three students together and tasks them with creating a business idea, conducting the necessary research to bring the concept to life, and exploring different aspects of business, with the end goal of gaining traction. The product we were given to work through this process with was Hot Head, an engineering capstone project concept. The Hot Head product is a sustainable and innovative solution to the water waste issue we find is very prominent in the United States. In order to bring the Hot Head idea to life, we were tasked with doing research on topics ranging from the Hot Head life cycle to finding plausible personas who may have an interest in the Hot Head product. This paper outlines the journey to gaining traction via a marketing campaign and exposure of our brand on several platforms, with a specific interest in website traffic. Our research scope comes from mainly primary sources like gathering opinions of potential buyers by sending out surveys and hosting focus groups. The paper concludes with some possible future steps that could be taken if this project were to be continued.

This research covers the landscape of influencer marketing and combines it with the knowledge of 11 content creators and one social media specialist, ultimately producing an actionable handbook. Participants were asked questions that were intended to discover key strategies, level of difficulty, and overall insight into the content creator world. Best practices and key findings are identified in the research paper, and outlined into four parts in the handbook. The handbook serves as a compilation framework derived from my primary and secondary sources designed to provide anyone interested in becoming a content creator or social media influencer on steps they may take given what their predecessors have done to successfully launch their careers in the space.

This thesis aimed to create a curriculum for college students to increase their health insurance literacy and to evaluate the impact of the curriculum on participants' confidence. The curriculum for college students consisted of pre-recorded presentation slides covering six health insurance topics, pre- and post-tests, and evaluation questions. Canvas was used to house the curriculum. At the time of evaluation, a total of 12 participants had completed all aspects of the curriculum. The curriculum was evaluated through questions provided at the end of each module. It was found that participants felt the curriculum to be clear and helpful. Moreover, participants reported an increase in confidence, decreased confusion, and were interested in learning more about health insurance such as enrollment. Both the creation of a curriculum and the impact on participants' confidence was successful. At a later point in time, an analysis of the pre- and post-tests will be assessed to determine if the curriculum was effective at increasing health insurance literacy.

University Devils is a Founders Lab Thesis group looking to find a way for post-secondary institutions to increase the number of and diversity of incoming applications through the utilization of gaming and gaming approaches in the recruitment process while staying low-cost. This propelling question guided the group through their work. The team’s work primarily focused on recruitment efforts at Arizona State University, but the concept can be modified and applied at other post-secondary institutions. The initial research showed that Arizona State University’s recruitment focused on visiting the high schools of prospective students and providing campus tours to interested students. A proposed alternative solution to aid in recruitment efforts through the utilization of gaming was to create an online multiplayer game that prospective students could play from their own homes. The basic premise of the game is that one player is selected to be “the Professor” while the other players are part of “the Students.” To complete the game, the Students must complete a set of tasks while the Professor applies various obstacles to prevent the Students from winning. When a Student completes their objectives, they win and the game ends. The game was created using Unity. The group has completed a proof-of-concept of the proposed game and worked to advertise and market the game to students via social media. The team’s efforts have gained traction, and the group continues to work to gain traction and bring the idea to more prospective students.

Living a healthy and balanced life can be difficult for college students at Arizona State University due to the barrier of high cost of healthy food. To understand more about this problem we conducted research on the Tempe campus through surveys and virtual focus groups. We discovered that the cost of healthy food is one of the main barriers preventing students from eating healthy. We also learned that the students would be more willing to eat healthier if they could access healthy foods at a more reasonable price. Our solution to this problem was Eunoia, a service that allows students to receive discounts on healthy food and incentivize them to eat healthier in the future. Our company creates an innovative relationship between our customers, their private health insurance companies and local grocery stores throughout the Phoenix Metro area. Students at Arizona State University will be able to purchase healthy food items discounted by up to 30%. These discounts will be funded by their health insurance companies as well as the local grocery stores they purchase from. Our business model allows our customers to live healthier lives while also providing value to partnered health insurance companies and grocery stores. Once we established our business model, we spoke with students at Arizona State University and representatives from health insurance companies. Through these demographics, we received positive feedback and early traction with our idea. Our goal is to be able to implement our product in the Arizona State University community and then expand this product into a more general market to help all people live a pure and balanced life.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, increased burdens have been placed on the Arizona healthcare system, and its healthcare providers. Using a survey with a sample of N=308 prescribing providers and nurses in the Arizona healthcare system, the impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing of healthcare providers was assessed. The survey used measures to evaluate for physical and emotional wellbeing, burnout, stressors associated with COVID-19, and work-life experiences, and found an overall negative impact on the wellbeing of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic with increased levels of reported stress and tiredness, concern for the health of family and loved ones, concern for the hardships of patients, lack of alignment between organizational priorities and personal values, and low levels of support and appreciation from socially and from leadership at work.

Flora Vita is a digital platform that connects families to outdoor excursions, programmed activities and local events, encouraging the familial ecosystem to flourish within Arizona's vast environment. We curate unique opportunities that allow families to cultivate internal relationships with one another and form relationships with local like-minded families in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.