Three teams of entrepreneurs pitched at the second annual Cybersecurity Entrepreneur Challenge at Boise Entrepreneur Week, a statewide competition which is a partnership between the College of Innovation + Design’s Venture College and the Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity.
The Cybersecurity Entrepreneur Challenge is a reverse pitch competition where participants don’t have to bring their own idea and instead choose a problem provided by industry partners and propose a solution in the form of a new venture.
Students representing Boise State University and University of Idaho competed to earn $20,000 in prize money, as they worked on solving cybersecurity challenges critical to industry growth. At the same time, they worked on building a viable venture for themselves and making helpful connections to mentors and industry leaders. The Cybersecurity Entrepreneur Challenge is sponsored by Micron, PlexTrac and Idaho Central Credit Union.
The student teams competed at Jack’s Urban Meeting Place, or JUMP in downtown Boise and the judges included business leaders, entrepreneurs, and industry sponsors.
Winners:
- First Place: Achiraya (Intty) Anantachote, Deanna Kienbaum and McKenna Jacobs; GSAT (Gamified Scam Awareness Training); University of Idaho
- Tie for Second Place: David Trail, Ian King, Nathan Higley and Sophia Sivula; NADIS; University of Idaho
- Tie for Second Place: Dallin Baird; Cyber Shield Elite; Boise State University
Achiraya (Intty) Anantachote, Deanna Kienbaum and McKenna Jacobs from the University of Idaho founded GSAT (Gamified Scam Awareness Training), and won first place in the final pitch competition. GSAT is a mobile game that is also available as a web-based application, which educates people about social engineering scams in an engaging and entertaining way. This will mainly be targeted towards people outside of the workforce, including college students and senior citizens in community centers.
David Trail, Ian King, Nathan Higley and Sophia Sivula from the University of Idaho founded NADIS, and tied for second place. NADIS offers a freemium single-app experience to unify zero-trust practices within an organization. NADIS targets small businesses who are overwhelmed by the many complex options for implementing zero trust.
Dallin Baird from Boise State University founded Cyber Shield Elite, and tied for second place. Cyber Shield Elite provides a centralized repository of threat intelligence among a collective of organizations, conjoined with machine learning capabilities to bolster automated response and filter the excess noise in cybersecurity monitoring.