NEW ORLEANS – Two University of New Orleans students will participate in the Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest and richest student start-up competition. Forty-two teams from five countries will compete next month for more than $1 million in cash, investments and prizes.
Mechanical engineering junior Andrew Bradford and recent computer science master’s graduate Jared Wise make up two-thirds of a combined University of New Orleans and University of Mississippi “Ole Miss” team called “Automatic AI.” Ole Miss student Julien Bourgeois is the third member of the team. Simply being accepted as a finalist in the competition is a huge honor. Only 42 teams were accepted out of 540 applicants competing for more than $1 million in cash, investments and prizes.
The Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) gives collegiate entrepreneurs real-world experience to pitch their startups, enhance their business strategy and learn what it takes to launch a successful company. This year marks the 25th time the RBPC has been held. The Rice Business Plan Competition will take place April 10-11 in Houston.
According to the University of New Orleans, over the course of the competition, student-led startups, including Automatic AI, will pitch their ventures to investors, mentors and industry leaders. The competition format includes multiple rounds of pitching in different company groups, with Automatic AI will competing in the “digital enterprise” group.
The team’s UNO advisers are Dong-Jun (DJ) Min, associate professor and chair of marketing, and Shafin Khan, vice president of external affairs and innovation at The Beach at UNO. The Beach is a designated “Research Park District” on a thirty-acre site located on the shores of the Lake Pontchartrain Beach. It is owned by the UNO Research & Technology Foundation to harnesses the power of a public-private partnership with UNO and bring out the best of academia, government, and entrepreneurial endeavors to maximize innovation and shared prosperity in the region.
UNO reports that Automatic AI is a sports tech company that uses Apple Watch technology to track sport specific motions. The company’s flagship product is Automatic: Basketball Trainer, a basketball workout tracker offering statistics on accuracy, shot trajectory, stamina and consistency.
In about a year, the product has more than 35,000 installs and users have taken over one million total shots. The team plans to expand the basketball product to high school and college basketball teams and develop more sports training apps for sports including baseball and golf.
Automatic AI was also accepted as a finalist in the Arkansas Governor’s Cup, which will take place on April 17 in Little Rock. Automatic AI will be one of six teams participating in the high growth track competition. The company’s Privateer roots run deep. It was also the winner of UNO’s inaugural StartupUNO competition in 2022.
Rice Business is the presenting sponsor at the Rice Business Plan Competition. Rice Business, in its 50th year, is the home to the Graduate Entrepreneurship Program at Rice University (RU) and shares RU’s mission to empower the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. Hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the RBPC has grown to become the world’s largest and richest student start-up competition, with 42 teams competing for more than $1 million in cash, investments and prizes.
In 2024, ice cream company Protein Pints took home the grand prize in front of nearly 350 angel, venture capital and corporate investors and members of the business community. The winners of the 2024 RBPC were announced at the conclusion of the three-day pitching, mentoring and networking event, which included an elevator pitch competition, practice round, semifinals, wildcard and final round. At the award celebration, more than 80 prizes were announced totaling $1.5M in investment and non-dilutive cash prizes and every team took home cash. The 42 competing startups represented 35 universities from four countries.
