The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill undergrad Sasha Surkin took home second place at this year’s ACC InVenture Prize competition for her startup company WeyeZE, outperforming 12 other ACC teams for the prize. The ACC InVenture Prize is an innovation competition which aims to increase student-faculty engagement and to celebrate the exceptional creativity and ingenuity of ACC students, all while inspiring a greater sense of camaraderie across the conference. Teams of undergraduates representing each ACC university pitch their inventions or businesses before a live audience and a panel of judges and compete for $30,000 in prizes.
“The ACC InVenture Competition was such an enriching and amazing experience, and to be able to meet startup founders from all different universities was incredible,” says Surkin, who is currently a Wayland H. Cato Scholar studying business administration at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School as well as media and journalism at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism.
WeyeZE aims to eliminate financial and geographic barriers that prevent more than one billion people from getting a pair of corrective glasses by offering a self-correcting glasses kit. The kit enables the user to get a pair of glasses without a visit to the optometrist or to pay for a pair of glasses without insurance.
In addition to receiving support from Innovate Carolina, Surkin received coaching and pitch support from Tim Flood, PhD, Executive Director at Launch Chapel Hill and Associate Professor Management Communication, Kenan-Flagler Business School.
“Preparing my pitch during the weeks prior to the competition was chaotic, but Tim Flood was so wonderful with his advice and help in making my pitch tv-ready and better than before, as well as the support from Innovate Carolina was so impactful. I am so grateful to have competed and taken home an ACC title.”
| UNC-CH