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Students win entrepreneurship award

March 12, 2013

A victory was earned for MSU on Saturday when TempoRun creators brought home the title of Student Startup Madness, or SSM, 2012-13 National Champion and bragging rights for holding the SSM Rocket Trophy.

March 8 commenced the SSM competition in Austin, Texas at the South by Southwest Conference, or SXSW. With this being MSU’s first year competing in the collegiate tournament-style competition, five rookie teams made the final 32, with a Spartan team ultimately taking the top spot for an app called TempoRun. The app is meant for runners and categorizes music by tempo to match pace.

Student Startup Madness concept developer Sean Branagan created the event with SXSW, a combination of film, interactive and music festivals.

“People were impressed with the poise of these young entrepreneurs, under the pressure of presenting on stage in the main venue … and under scrutiny from a top-shelf group of judges,” Branagan said in a press release.

During the competition, the TempoRun team members Josh Leider, a marketing senior, Ben Ebert-Zavos, a hospitality business senior, and computer science seniors Phil Getzen, Adam Proschek and Ryan Tempas, pitched their business plan to judges, who in return fired away questions about their app.

Leider, the founder of TempoRun, said the award-winning app idea emerged from his love of fitness and music. Leider even turned down a position at Amazon so he could focus his efforts on TempoRun.the group made an app Leider said captures the essence of fitness and music.

“We really want to stick to the true TempoRun, which is a simple fitness tool that will enhance the running experience,” he said.

The team received financial support from Spartan Innovations, a financial and education supporter of MSU research technologies, Executive Assistant Lori Fischer said.

Forest Akers, an MSU endowment, provided the team with $5,000 to cover their traveling expenses.

Spartan Innovations’ Director of Student and Community Engagement Paul Jaques said he and Jeff Smith, co-director of the New Economy Division for the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, coached the winning team.

“It’s amazing — coming down here I was telling the guys to be one of the top eight is huge for MSU, but to win, it was beyond amazing,” Jaques said.

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