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Last Friday, UTampa students pitched their businesses and business ideas to judges at the Spartan Cup competition in the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center. 

Paulina Labarta Meza, a first-year student and entrepreneurship major, won with her jewelry company, Azzaik, which specializes in affordable, high-quality, daily use jewelry.  

She started the business when she was 16, she said, because it was difficult to find quality, affordable jewelry that she could wear during activities like swimming. 

“I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on jewelry, and I don’t want to spend five dollars on jewelry and have to buy the same thing over and over again, so I figured out a way to make the plating 10 times thicker and last 10 times longer to be affordable,” said Labarta Meza. 

She said she has made over $180,000 in sales and sold around 16,000 pieces of jewelry. 

This is not the first business she has run, nor was this the first pitch competition she has participated in. And with the win, she and Azzaik advance to the statewide Governor’s Cup pitch competition, which will be held April 17-18 at Florida Gulf Coast University. 

Brandon Weber, the Lowth Center’s manager of operations, said this is the third year UTampa has held Spartan Cup. Each person or group was given three minutes to present, followed by two minutes of questions from six judges. The participants were judged on several measures, including opportunity, advantage, competitive landscape, revenue model, founder fit, current status, branding and presentation. 

Along with jewelry, students pitched products ranging from A.I. to lifestyle. 

Gustave Oliveira, a junior from Brazil studying economics, pitched an A.I. product called CardioFlow, to be used by physicians for transcription and more.  

“Unlike generic A.I. scribes that just turn conversations into text,” Oliveira said, “CardioFLow understands the medical context. It combines what’s said during the visit with the patient’s history and exam data to produce a complete clinical node.” 

He said the first doctor he introduced it to in Brazil told him that it saved her two hours. 

Another pitch, made by senior entrepreneurship major Maggie Keith with her CFO, senior Olivia Kelly, was a multipurpose, steam-based hair styler, which Keith came up with in Entrepreneurship 320 and is now in the early stages of development. Keith and Kelly have a third partner who serves as COO of the company, senior Kristina Guatto. 

Though there were many business majors competing on Friday, Josh Ray, lecturer and new venture adviser in the Lowth Center, said this competition, along with other on-campus pitch competitions, are open to all majors, and all students are encouraged to develop their entrepreneurial skills through the way the events teach vulnerability, communication, criticism and more.