We’re celebrating Indiana University’s student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall on the Bloomington campus, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build and sustain their businesses.

Meet ViLearn

ViLearn was founded by Fatima Rafiqui and Parumita Sachdeva. Both are candidates for a master’s degree in human-computer interaction and design at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Both are from New Delhi, India.

ViLearn is a desktop application that reimagines virtual learning for K-12 students, creating a fun, futuristic hybrid learning model that is more engaging than traditional models and supports holistic growth.

Rafiqui said K-12 students were affected particularly hard when schools transitioned online during the COVID-19 pandemic. She determined that students found it difficult to focus on their studies, even as e-learning became the default “new normal.”

“ViLearn not only offers basic features of a learning management system and video conferencing, but we also provide features to gamify the learning experience,” Rafiqui said.

“Students can earn points by interacting with their class, completing assignments and participating in activities. Then they can use those points to build their own customized castle.”

ViLearn also provides students the tools to personalize their profile, including changing themes and adding achievement badges.

ViLearn’s present and future

Sachdeva said a significant part of ViLearn has been designed, and user testing is being conducted to determine that students enjoy the product and that it is adding value to learning platforms.

“Now that our idea is completely shaped, we are trying to get our MVP — or minimally viable product — developed and launched in order to get market feedback to understand how schools would perceive it,” Sachdeva said. “So far, we have heard only good things from students and teachers.”

Praise for the Shoebox

“We are very new to the Shoebox community, but we already have access to so many resources,” Rafiqui said. “All clients are from different backgrounds which helps us get a lot more perspective with respect to how we can think about the business strategy and engineering efforts. We believe Shoebox will provide us an opportunity to find the right connections and thrive in the market.”

Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatchery pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business, as well as Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.

We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall on the Bloomington campus, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.

Meet Hire Degree

Hire Degree was founded by Jacob Lampf of Columbia, Maryland, a senior in the Kelley School of Business; Jon Pogorzelski of Ambler, Pennsylvania, a senior in the Kelley School of Business; and Brett Eisner of Fullerton, California, a senior in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering.

The company’s marketplace platform connects startup and growth companies with university students via remote, part-time job opportunities.

Lampf said many companies have a difficult time connecting to eager, ambitious college talent at universities.

“Most of them don’t have the contacts, the resources or the time — or all three of those — to command an on-campus presence to capture the future of the workforce from the best programs in higher education,” Lampf said.

“Furthermore, methods of qualification have been eroded, replaced with faceless competency tests and résumé readers that hardly convey the true measure of potential in a candidate.”

Lampf said students no longer want to wait until summer to enter the working world through a summer internship.

“Our clients can expect a working engagement unlike no other — a modern approach to the recruitment problem and the holy grail of qualification: actual work opportunities,” he said.

Hire Degree’s present and future

Lampf said the company has launched its website and tightened up its finances.

“We are not generating revenue yet but intend to complete our proof-of-concept phase before moving on to payment processing,” Lampf said.

“We need individuals competent in platform development, both app and website, for marketplace platforms to help bolster our design and smooth out our procurement processes. Our next big task will be to create a system capable of handling and distributing wages.”

Praise for the Shoebox

“The Shoebox has been a one-stop-shop for ideation, capital and human resources, and learning opportunities. We support one another, provide critical feedback and lend a hand when we can,” Lampf said.

“I’ve been on countless calls with other student founders during which I am helping consult on their business plan or, conversely, am being directed to some person or resource who knows exactly the answer to the question I’m asking. It’s an assuring feeling knowing there’s somewhat of a home base — or a safety net, if you will — to return to when the pursuit of your vision becomes cloudy, under scrutiny or just in need of some critical feedback.”

Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatchery pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business, as well as Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.

We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall on the Bloomington campus, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.

Meet Elevate

Elevate was founded by Madeline Athanasiou of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, a sophomore in the Kelley School of Business; Casey Curtis of Los Angeles, a sophomore in the Kelley School of Business; Casey Daleiden of Arlington Heights, Illinois, a junior in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering; and Sophia Schmidt of Dallas, a junior in the Kelley School of Business.

The company developed a hardware-software duo to help keep elevators more efficient and hygienic. Its clients include property managers whose buildings have at least one active elevator. Curtis said all elevators run the risk of being inefficient and unsanitary.

“The surface of elevator buttons serves as a Petri dish for bacteria. Amidst a pandemic, the concept of thousands of people touching the same surface is unappealing,” Curtis said.

“Additionally, elevator wait times can cause great inconveniences by creating disruptions of three to even 10 minutes. Think of a university student rushing to get to class from the top floor of their dormitory, or an ER nurse bringing a patient to an operating room for emergency surgery.”

Athanasiou said the Elevate software-hardware duo eliminates elevator wait time and makes using the elevator a hands-free process.

“The app allows users to call elevators from their phone to any floor in a building at any time, minimizing wait time and maximizing efficiency. This ensures seamless elevator usage and predictable wait times,” Athanasiou said.

“Our software and hardware allow Elevate clients to activate elevator buttons simply by pressing floor buttons on their phones. Buildings employing our technology could see decreased risk of spreading disease because of this hands-free technology.”

Elevate’s present and future

In the Fall 2020 semester, Elevate won the Cheng Wu Shoebox Scholarship, which supports the development of a technological innovation through university resources. The company earned $1,000 as a result. It also built its MVP, or minimally viable product, in the fall 2020 semester.

“Winning the Cheng Wu Shoebox Scholarship was a great source of validation at the end of the semester, and we are excited to allocate the funds according to our needs,” Daleiden said.

“Our MVP was built in collaboration with the Indiana IoT Lab in Fishers. It has been a wonderful experience working with professional engineers. It has allowed us to work with more complex systems such as motors, 3D printers and laser cutters. We feel prepared to take the next steps with our MVP as we enter the spring 2021 semester.”

Elevate’s next steps include testing the app and creating iterations. Simultaneously, the company will incorporate, bring in investors, and scale its client base through marketing and sales activity.

“By the end of 2021, we hope to have Elevate in a variety of residential and commercial buildings throughout the nation,” Schmidt said. “We are in the early stages of discussing implementation with commercial real estate companies.”

Praise for the Shoebox

“The Shoebox has given us every and any tool we could possibly need to build our product. As our team did not have a skilled electrical engineer, the Shoebox provided us with a mentor who connected us with the Indiana IoT Lab, whom we have now collaborated with to get the product built. We have had mentoring sessions with lawyers, entrepreneurs, investors and engineers whom we would not have been able to speak with had it not been for the Shoebox setting up those relationships,” Curtis said.

“Along with that, the community in the Shoebox is very special, as we are all in a unique circumstance. It is not normal to try and start a technology company as a student in college, so to have other like-minded students and advisors who understand us is a really important part of our support and growth.”

Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatchery pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business, as well as Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.

We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall on the Bloomington campus, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.

Meet Trap Mike’s: Late Night Market

Two students from Carmel, Indiana — Misha Rekhter, a behavioral economics major in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Max Himelstein, an economic consulting and public policy analysis major in the Kelley School of Business — have founded Trap Mike’s: Late Night Market.

The company was founded to provide food options with quick delivery at an affordable price for all college students.

“Currently across college campuses, there is a lack of late-night food options. It’s fair to assume the average college student will experience many late nights throughout the year for a variety of reasons — including partying, studying and just enjoying a casual night with friends,” Himelstein said.

Rekhter said food options on the Bloomington campus after 10 p.m. are limited compared to traditional business hours.

“Additionally, companies that do not provide their own delivery service but utilize delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats charge more because of the additional service fees,” he said.

If college students prefer to order online from restaurants late at night, their options are equally limited.

Trap Mike’s grand opening will be Feb. 4 at IU Bloomington, operating only at night and renting space from an off-campus commercial kitchen.

“This will allow us to offer customers the best-tasting variety of late-night comfort food at the lowest cost,” Himelstein said. “We will offer a variety of comfort foods to satisfy people’s cravings and a fleet of drivers with optimized driving routes. If needed, we will utilize third-party delivery services if our drivers become backed up.”

The present and future for Trap Mike’s: Late Night Market

Rekhter said Trap Mike’s is determined to become part of campus life in Bloomington. The company plans to connect with Greek life, student organizations, club sports and Division I athletics to increase brand recognition.

“Furthermore, we plan to sponsor different campus events,” he said. “When someone orders from Trap Mike’s, they aren’t just getting satisfying, late-night grub; they’re participating in a quintessential college experience.”

Himelstein said Trap Mike’s will provide a working environment where employees will develop professional and interpersonal skills.

“We will abide by all Title XII and equal-pay requirements, but we also want to provide our employees with enough autonomy so that each truly feels they are contributing to the success of our business,” he said.

“Also, rather than throwing away food we didn’t use at the end of the weekend, we will donate all items that are still fresh to people in need.”

Rekhter said the spring 2021 semester at IU will impact how Trap Mike’s operates in the future.

“We need to have sufficient success to dictate whether we should expand to more college campuses next fall,” he said.

Praise for the Shoebox

“The Shoebox is a valuable resource in that it provides a space to get feedback and learn from other student entrepreneurs. While different companies obviously have different problems, there are certain similarities across industries that make hearing other people’s perspectives invaluable,” Rekhter said. “And it’s helpful to be able to talk through new ideas in a welcoming, understanding environment.”

Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatchery pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business, as well as Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.

We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall on the Bloomington campus, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.

Meet Onboard Manuals

Cherif Redissi, a master’s student in data science from Tunis, Tunisia, co-founded Onboard Manuals along with along with Safwen Bouali and Amine Troudi. The company helps hardware manufacturers transform text manuals into immersive 3D manuals.

“Our clients are companies that are having a hard time onboarding their customers and training their workforce due to the inefficiency of textual product manuals,” Redissi said.

“That difficulty results in major customer churn, with clients leaving after the first bad support experience. As for assembly-line operators’ training, injuries are due to a drastic lack of documentation.”

Onboard Manuals’ software-as-a-service, or SaaS, platform allows hardware makers to create 3D assembly instructions in a few minutes, share them instantly with their clients, receive insights on the manuals’ visualization and customers’ data, and manage tickets or incidents through multiple funnels thanks to the multiple integrations they provide.

“We reduce the onboarding time of our clients’ customers by 85 percent, reduce the amount of support calls by 60 percent and offer a better customer-support experience to our clients’ customers,” Redissi said.

Onboard Manuals’ client testimonial

Khaoula Baya Rachid, marketing manager at Meubles Intérieurs, is one of Onboard Manuals’ clients.

“Thanks to Onboard’s 3D product manuals, setting up the household furnishings we provide to our customers has never been that easy and satisfying for them,” she said.

Onboard Manuals’ present and future

Redissi said Onboard Manuals has achieved several international milestones:

• Receiving $65,000 from Flat6Labs Tunis, the Tunisian branch of the largest business accelerator in the Middle East North Africa region.
• Participating in Arts et Métiers, the French hardware acceleration program in Station F, which matched the company with five major European hardware manufacturing companies.
• Participating in the Microsoft for Startups program, which offers co-selling opportunities to a global network of customers and cloud credits.
• Partnering with Zendesk, the largest customer-support SaaS company, which provides co-selling and co-marketing opportunities.
• Joining the African European Digital Venture Program, providing valuable mentorship and introducing the company to several B2B/B2C corporations in Europe.

“We also recently raised $175,000 in a second round of funding — mainly from Kepple Africa Ventures and several angel investors including Ahmed Hentati and Karim Jouini,” Redissi said.

Onboard Manuals seeks to grow its network of partners and customers.

“We are building a community of 3D-content creators on our platform while also partnering with universities to have them and their students deploy and showcase their creations,” Redissi said.

“Our goal is to become the go-to platform for checking online assembly instructions in 3D.”

Praise for the Shoebox

“I joined the Shoebox only halfway through the semester, and I wish I had done it early on,” Redissi said. “The Shoebox is an awesome community of like-minded entrepreneurs. Challenging each other’s ideas — suggesting and building on top of each other — while getting introduced to the local ecosystem in Bloomington has been great.”

Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatcher pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business, as well as Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.

We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall on the Bloomington campus, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.

Meet Deep Word

Ankush Bikkasani, a senior from Tampa, Florida, majoring in finance at the Kelley School of Business, founded Deep Word. The company produces synthetic videos of people talking without having to film them saying the words.

“Video production is an incredibly time- and cost-intensive process. For midrange production quality, most companies spend four hours and $500 to $1,000 per minute of edited video,” Bikkasani said.

“Deep Word can create, update and personalize synthetic videos for companies at one-tenth the time and cost it takes to produce them traditionally. All we need is a 10-second video of the person we want to see talking and the audio or text we want them to say. With those, we can create endless content, personalized at scale.”

Bikkasani said Deep Word has developed security measures to stop the production of malicious content.

“We are able to view all inputs uploaded to our platform, and we can stop production before a video is returned to its creator,” he said. “We also have an auto flagging system that detects potentially malicious content and holds it for our manual review.”

Deep Word’s present and future

Deep Word recently won Elevate Ventures’ pre-seed pitch award of $20,000, Bikkasani said. The company is also approaching $1,500 in monthly recurring revenue and is finalizing talks to pilot with a few companies in the medical, educational and software-development spaces.

“We are currently working on higher-resolution output for our product,” Bikkasani said. “We are on track to reach nearly photorealistic video quality before summer.”

Deep Word is currently targeting three markets. In corporate communications, it is lowering employee turnover rates by personalizing the employee onboarding experience. With e-learning, it is increasing student retention by adding teacher camera feeds to video lectures. The company has also begun integrations into CRM software, allowing sales teams to personalize their email outreach videos and onboarding teams to personalize new-customer product walkthroughs.

Praise for the Shoebox

“The Shoebox provides an excellent network of like-minded student entrepreneurs,” Bikkasani said. “We have received lots of helpful feedback from the group and have been made aware of relevant opportunities for our startup. It is by far the greatest resource for student startups on the IU Bloomington campus.”

Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatcher pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business as well as Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, email luddysic@indiana.edu.