Waverly student wins $2,500 in UI ‘pitch’ competition

IOWA CITY — Lily Hintz and her company, Health Harmony, won the top prize of $2,500 in the May 3 competition at the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center Undergraduate Startup Incubator Spring Final Pitch Competition.

Hintz, of Waverly, “pitched” software that alerts nursing staffs to changes in biomarkers in late-stage Alzheimer’s patients to prevent aggressive behaviors before they happen.

The pitch event was held in the Iowa Theater of the Iowa Memorial Union.

Second place and $1,000 went to the team of James Altschul, Will Schwartz, Sam Perona, and Kat Trout-Baron of Heartland Pictures, a business that creates feature films by and for Midwestern moviegoers.

Winning third place and $750 was Jacob Vander Sanden and his company, Cedar Sales, which helps bridge the gap between retail and online sales through Amazon.

The three $250 honorable mention winners were Craig Bantz and his company, ModelMint; Keegan Fogarty and his company, Solace Biotech; and Colin Speikers, Josh Cohen and Brady Stein for their OneBuzz Network.

Iowa JPEC is the hub for entrepreneurship education and outreach at the University of Iowa.