Nine inventors presented their final products as HackerHouse students at 101 Downtown on Sunday.
For the past three months, the students, called cadets, have been guided by mentors working toward a common goal: innovation. They pitched the final products to investors at the weekend event.
The students and their house manager, Trevor Abbott, spent the summer living and inventing in a large, Victorian-era house near downtown Gainesville.
Some students formed teams while others worked individually to create five companies: Spin Chill, Chime, MyReps, iFishEarth and GOOD Inc. The products they created ranged from smartphone apps to hardware items.
“Creating a company in three months and getting it off the ground and running is extremely stressful,” said Abbott, a 21-year-old UF mechanical engineering senior.
Abbott teamed up with Ty Parker, a 24-year-old UF mechanical engineering alumnus, to create The Chill Bit, a device that quickly spins a canned beverage to cool it in 30 to 60 seconds.
Parker said HackerHouse was supposed to be a reality show, but the videographer moved to New York shortly after the summer started.
Brad Pettigrew, a 28-year-old Ringling College of Art and Design graphic design alumnus, compared living in the house to a summer camp.
“It was a bunk bed, barracks-style sort of situation,” he said. “I think that might be why they called us ‘cadets.’”
He said even the close quarters led to innovation.
“That led to some really good synergistic brainstorming sessions where it was really easy to bounce ideas off of each other and refine our products,” he said. “We could always get feedback immediately.”
Pettigrew partnered with cadet Sam Gregory to develop iFishEarth, a mobile app for accessing fishing reports and tide information.
Augi Lye, the 34-year-old founder of HackerHouse, said the first semester of the program “exceeded expectations.”
The winning prototype will receive a direct investment from Lye, and he will help develop the company and recruit investors for it.
Lye said he has already chosen a winner. However, he said he’s not sure if he’ll publicly announce it.
“One thing I want to make everyone feel is that everyone’s a winner, whether I invest in you directly myself or not,” he said. “Everyone is walking away with something awesome.”
He said about 80 people have already applied for the Fall HackerHouse semester.
