Chris Hy, a senior in Business Administration-Management, won the Up and Coming Award for Products and Services at a recent student business plan competition at Hilbert College.
The WNY Student 2 Biz Challenge pitted over 20 student teams from seven Western New York academic institutions pitching business start-ups to panels of investors and business leaders. Mr. Hy represented Fredonia with his pitch for investment in WiseFork, an on-line food ordering business, with a twist. WiseFork signs up local restaurants to put their menus online. What makes WiseFork different is that it breaks the menus down along dietary lines so that when a consumer wants to order food, they can pick the menu item based on nutrition or dietary preferences. Hy included in his pitch WiseFork’s partnership with Jawbone, an activity tracker similar to Fitbit, where the data from Jawbone can be synced with a customer’s account on WiseFork. WiseFork now has signed up over 10 restaurants in Western New York. The success at the competition has helped WiseFork become part of Launch NY and potentially a member of Z80, an incubator in Buffalo.
Hy won the opportunity to compete against doctoral, masters and undergrad students from the University at Buffalo, Canisius and Daemen colleges, and Niagara University, by winning the Fredonia Entrepreneurship Fair in December. The Fredonia Entrepreneurship competition highlighted elevator pitches and table top displays from seven teams who created businesses in Fredonia’s Entrepreneurship course taught by Dr. Sue McNamara of the School of Business. Local community and business leaders, including alumni from previous competitions, judged the pitches and awarded Hy top honors. Building upon his business concept, Hy did a student research project to determine market feasibility of an online food ordering business on an academic campus. Data supported his vision and WiseFork was expanded into Western New York. The student research project was recently included in the Fredonia Student Research and Creativity Exposition held on campus at the end of April. WiseFork continues to grow and Hy has also begun a career in real estate, he plans to graduate from Fredonia in December 2015. For more information about student entrepreneurship contact Dr. McNamara at susan.mcnamara@fredonia.edu, and for more information about WiseFork, contact Hy at chy@fredonia.edu.
