And Here's the Pitch ...

12/11/2015

A free-spending weekend sendoff for his roommate last summer, complete with a round of golf and a hearty dinner, left Jonathan Burgin facing a harsh reality the following Monday morning.

“When I checked my bank account it wasn’t quite as healthy as I hoped it would be,” says Burgin, a junior from Hampshire, England, double-majoring in economics and English literature. “So I looked at the way I budget my finances and how I could change that.”

The idea Burgin came up with — a personal budgeting app that sends push notifications to your phone whenever your bank account drops to certain pre-set amounts — proved so useful that it was awarded top prize at the DifferenceMaker’s third annual Innovation Contest, sponsored by Digital Federal Credit Union and the Manning School of Business, on Dec. 2 at the Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center.

“This is huge for me moving forward because I want to continue with this app,” says Burgin, who received $500 for the win, as did his project partner, senior computer science major David Rocca. “I want to make something out of it and help people, and help myself, try to maintain a healthy budget.”

DCU President and CEO Jim Regan ’88 donated the contest prize money once again this year and served on the judge’s panel along with Bill Jacobson, CEO of Workbar, and Leticia Porter, the new director of graduate programs for the Manning School.

“It’s a learning experience for us as an organization to see what other people’s thoughts are,” says Regan, who mentored the five finalist teams throughout the fall. “And it also gives me an opportunity to give back to the university. Graduating from this school was a huge part of where I am today and I’m very grateful for that.”

The second-place team of Kreg Kaminski, Kevin Kwiatek and Peter Larsen each received $250 for their project “Let’s Talk Money,” a financial advice podcast aimed at students, while the 11 students on the other three teams each received $100. 

Burgin, who entered a different project in last year’s Innovation Contest, knew he wanted to pursue his idea for the app but quickly realized he had no idea how to actually build one. So he turned to the DifferenceMaker program for help in September and was connected to Rocca.

The next hurdle was coming up with a logo and design for the app, which they called “Banking BR” (for Burgin and Rocca). So the DifferenceMaker program connected them to Prof. Tracey Greene’s graphic design class, which incorporated the project into its coursework and produced nine design options. Burgin and Rocca went with the work of students Sam Cote and Maria Zavaleta.

“They were really helpful with the whole process,” says Burgin, whose winning presentation included examples of the designs, an element that Regan says helped put the project over the top.

“It was well-rounded and thought out beyond the conceptual stages, from the programming nature to the graphics and presentation,” Regan says. “I also liked the simplification. It took budgeting, which tends to be a very difficult, tedious process for people, and it brought that to a high level. I think that has a far better chance of success than other things we’ve seen in the past in the budgeting area.”

In addition to the ideation, teamwork and presentation skills that the DifferenceMaker program provides students, Burgin says he values the feedback he receives from the judges.

“These are the people that really matter. If I want to sell my app, it’s going to be to someone like Jim, the CEO of the bank,” Burgin says. “It’s quite nice to know that he actually thinks it’s a decent idea that could potentially progress somewhere, because it keeps you wanting to fight more to make it work.”

“It’s about walking away from here with as many tools as you can,” Regan says of the Innovation Contest. “Whether you win or lose in the end, even if you’re just sitting there listening to some of the questions of the other projects, it helps spark the thought process so that hopefully down the road some of these things resonate with you, and it helps you be better.”