Patrick Mahaffy shows the audience a pocket dictionary he has to consult in order to find out whether the food he’s about to eat is safe. The international business student at the college is pitching his app to a panel of judges and an audience during AC Wolves’ Den on March 23 in the AC Hub.
“I am celiac and this is a pocket dictionary that I have to carry around with me every day to look up items to know whether or not they are safe to consume,” says Mahaffy. “My other option is to memorize it.”
The Go-Free app allows people with life threatening allergies to manage their diet so they can live their day – to – day life as if they did not have that allergy.
Mahaffy was one of the five presenters during the event. The other presenters included Ola George, who is currently focused on Live TV Network, a distribution media network; Kirk Davis, founder of CoachHub, an online service that connects athletes with private coaches; Derek Kernan, founder of Capital Concrete Finishing, a company that offers modern custom concrete finishes and Seaf Al-Munayer and Godfrey Joekumar, co-founders of ONcampus, an education-technology startup striving to bring innovative software solutions to the college experience.
Mahaffy, Davis and Kernan each won $1,500. Every entrepreneur received a mentor, a one year subscription to The Better Software and a series of online tutorials on how to become an entrepreneur and an opportunity to go through the incorporation process.
The AC Wolves’ Den gave an opportunity to students to get their ideas out there and take the free advice they get form the judges and apply them accordingly, said Kernan.
There were five judges, also known as “wolves”: Steve Cody, the founder of The Better Software Company; Wendy Mayhew, president of Business Launch Solutions; Naomi Morisawa De Koven, the founder and managing lawyer of MDK Business Law and Bill Stewart, the president of terra20 and Randy Whitcroft, author and sales trainer.