Notre Dame Shurz Innovation Challenge First Place Team, Convur
One of ESTEEM’s newest neighbors here at Innovation Park is Covur.
Lifelong friends and business partners Michael Wick and Tom Heil will officially launch their startup’s first product this June, after taking the top prize in the Notre Dame Shurz Innovation Challenge this past February.
Michael (ND’09 in Mechanical Engineering and current PhD student at Notre Dame in Aerospace Engineering) and Tom “started down the path of entrepreneurship” in 2013 by selling used electronics on eBay. They then “stumbled into” IT consulting, offering their services mainly to local restaurants. After pitching their expertise and know-how to a local restaurant chain – and not receiving the contract they confidently expected – Michael and Tom decided to listen more carefully to their customers. Believing that traditional email marketing tools need retooling and that “poor WIFI is worse than no WIFI” they developed a “platform that helps local businesses market directly to their audiences by automating email list growth using WIFI”. Their product uniquely, beautifully, and deftly blends the customer’s desire for free and easy, quality internet access -- while visiting their local restaurant, café, or bar -- with the business owner’s need for efficient and effective email marketing.
Welcome to the Park, Michael and Tom! We wish you every success.