ResQTalk takes top prize in the spring 2025 Vol Court pitch competition
Vol Court is a four-week entrepreneurial speaker series that culminates in a business idea pitch competition. Participants put what they’ve learned into practice by pitching their business ideas to a panel of successful entrepreneurs for a chance to win $1,500
Vol Court convened at the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI) on Tuesday night. 21 students from various majors across campus gathered inside a Hodges Library classroom to compete for the opportunity to win cash to kickstart their business ideas. Dozens more crowded into the room to support their peers. It was a packed house, and the energy was high.
Breanna Hale, the Executive Director of the Anderson Center said it was the most-attended Vol Court in the history of the pitch competition. Over the past year, Hale has been intentional about raising awareness about ACEI outside of the Haslam College of Business, and the increased student engagement with the organization is a direct result of that. Students in attendance came from various majors; some business, yes, but others included music, neuroscience, and computer science.
The range of student business ideas spanned from a custom 3D printed planters, which can resemble celebrity faces, or allow people to scan a 3D copy of their own faces, a commercial carpet-cleaning business, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for physician-patient communications, and luxury real-estate rental management.
The winners of the Spring 2025 Vol Court Pitch Competition were:
ResQTalk, founded by Max Gallinek, took home the top prize of $1,500. He pitched a real-time technology that would integrate seamlessly with phone calls to 911-call centers. Regardless of the language, the AI could translate in real-time, offering a speech-to-speech translation service. He is solving the problem that many 911 call centers experience with language gaps and delayed voice to text translations. He has already begun the process of customer discovery by connecting with various local police departments.
Gallinek plans to use his funds to begin building out the AI.
Tavern, founded by Semilore (Semmy) Abiodun-Adeniyi took home the second-place prize of $1,000 to kickstart his social platform for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) players. It’s long been an inconvenience to the D&D community to find other players in the local area. Up until now, various Sub-Reddits, Facebook groups, or Discord groups have been the primary avenue to identify other local players. Tavern would change that. It would open a virtual hub for D&D players to connect, start, and facilitate campaigns either virtually or in-person.
Abiodun-Adeniyi said the market potential for the TTRPG (table-top role-playing games) community will be over a billion dollars by 2033.
In third place, Charlotte Colling with her Ellie & Shell business, which creates 100 percent unique, hand crafted quilted products. She took home $500 to put toward supplies and e-commerce costs for her new products, which are officially launching on March 2 at noon. ET. Colling explained that each of the “bookies” and the “boxies” have been hand-designed, crafted, and stitched by her mother.
“For every Bookie we sell this year, we’re donating $5 of the profit to a non-profit organization that focuses on literacy initiatives,” she added during her pitch.
The next Anderson Center competition is the Graves Business Plan pitch. The applications for the competition will close on Sunday March 2.
Learn more about the Anderson Center.
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