My Entrepreneurship Story

This past summer I took part in the University of Florida's Innovation Academy's event, Catalyst. This is a competition in which members of the Innovation Academy program form teams of at least three or four members, some were even bigger, and brainstorm and create a new and innovative product and then research a way to make this product work, as well as develop a business plan to pitch and promote your product to potential "investors" (the judges).
My team created a product that would look and work similarly to a Fitbit, but our target audience would be diabetes patients. The bracelet would monitor your blood-glucose levels, as opposed to the current solution in which patients must prick their finger upwards of 20 times per day. We, as a team, thought this was much too invasive of a process, as well as intrusive on the patients' day-to-day lives. We wanted to develop a less-invasive and less time-consuming way for diabetics to be able to monitor their levels to maintain a healthy life-style, while also still enjoying life to the fullest.
We researched and discovered that there were recent studies that found that you can find these same blood-glucose levels in sweat, rather than blood. We decided to utilize this technology into a bracelet that would have a strip on the inside of the bracelet (the side that touches your skin) to gather sweat and analyze the these samples, which from there the results would be sent to your smartphone's app that would not just display your glucose levels, but also keep track of a number of other things for you to have full control over your disease. The app would include sections such as prescription(s) history, a tab that would be connected to your pharmacy, a tab that would keep track of your eating and exercising, as well as have a support-room/chat section in which you could either connect to other diabetics with similar issues that you're dealing with, or ask a doctor that would be in the chat room any questions you may have.
We however found one problem when we were going over the idea and realized that what if people don't sweat a lot, or at least on their wrist. So we went back to researching to find a solution. We finally found a technology that the military uses that sends a tiny shock into the device that generates just enough sweat to analyze different chemical levels, such as glucose. This electric shock would be virtually painless and thus not undesirable for people to use.
We then practiced different pitches and ways to grab audiences' attention, and outlined the key points that we should highlight, and printed these onto a poster-board and flyers for our audience to read and follow along with as we performed our sales pitch.
This experience was so meaningful and something I'll never forget. Not only did I get to meet and become friends with all my team members, but it also made me realize all the potential I had to be creative, innovative, and an entrepreneur.

I enrolled in ENT3003 because it is actually a required class for the program I'm in, the Innovation Academy. I hope to get out of this class, as well as all the courses I am required to take for the innovation minor, a better sense of how to think as an innovator and better understanding of the abilities I already posses and how to utilize them.