Five groups of Seven Hills students who Head of the Upper School Matthew Bolton called, " creative, innovative and flexible thinkers," pitched their inventions January 11, 2018 to a panel of Cincinnati entrepreneurs and CEOs.
In the end it was a virtual dressing room app, ActuallyMe, which won over the judges. But panelist Ron DeLyons, CEO of Creekwood Energy Partners, said he was unbelievably impressed. "I wasn't sure what to expect of high school students, very well polished, very professional and very well thought out."
Ricardo Godoy and Shaan Bedi thought up ActuallyMe as a way to revolutionize online shopping.
App users would take a picture at a set distance, and the software recognizes body type and can also make recommendations. Bedi says, "We're making it possible to where people don't even have to go into the stores to see what clothing looks like on."
Walmart is trying to ramp up similar technology in two stores it bought last year, Modcoth and Bonobos, as reported by WVXU.
Other Seven Hills shark tank proposals included inserting microchips into clothing to locate it, small power banks attached to your phone, an app to help balance your budget, and a translation device. Fluensee, as it’s called, is an app, an earpiece, and is also compatible with Google glasses, as the panel learned.
“How does this work? You have an earpiece. The person is talking and then it’s telling you what they’re saying. Do I have glasses on and my phone too?” the panel questioned. (Judges- Janet Allgaier, former VP Procter and Gamble; Colleen Jay, The Cooper Companies; Ron DeLyons, CEO Creekwood Energy Partners; James Papakirk, attorney Flagel and Papakirk LLC.
The students, Andrew Santamarina, Dominic Keller, and Michael Karamanoukian responded. “So, the earpiece is with our technology. The Google glasses is with Google. So the earpiece function is when someone else is speaking in a foreign language you could be able to hear your language in the earpiece. With the app you would be able to have a response with the Google glasses to see what you want to say.” The glasses can also translate a road sign.
The competition was part of Seven Hills' entrepreneurship seminar class.
