District 155’s Prairie Ridge High School awarded its 1st Annual Innovation Incubator Award on May 23.

Using Barrington High School’s program and INCubatorEdu as benchmarks, Bryan Peckhart and INCubatoreduc.com, created the seven-month program, the first of its kind in McHenry County.

Five teams, or companies, presented their innovation to a group of judges in a Shark Tank atmosphere. The students developed a product, studied the market, and considered the market share their product would capture. From there they estimated the cost of production and marketing, and creating a pipeline.

Each team asked for an investment in exchange for a share in the company they created. After the presentation, local business people acted as judges, asking questions that challenged the students on their assumptions and projections.

Second place and $75 went to Fresh First.

The company created an iPhone app to find farm markets using geo-locating. Premium customers can not only find a farmer’s market, but order produce to be ready for pick-up at a convenient time. Cole Brown, Tyler Covers, Robert Masini and Trey Fuchs shared the responsibilities of finance, marketing, and technology.

First place and $150 went to Equipment Lodge, which created an online store for new and used sporting equipment. During the research phase, the company discovered that their key competitor, Play in Again Sports was unable to sell on-line because it eroded brand territories.

Their marketing team got an article published in the local newspaper days before they launched. In three days, the website had 615 visitors

and 46 sales. Joe Pinskey was the CFO, David Vogt the CMO, and Samuel Price the CTO.

“Listening to customers really paid off,” said Pinskey.

He told a story of a customer sending a thank-you email with a photo of their dog and the tennis balls the customer purchased. Price posted the picture, and the sale of used tennis balls increased.

“We did a lot of running out for inventory,” said Vogt. “We learned a lot from our mistakes,” said Pinskey.

Based on a school-wide vote, three other teams qualified for the “Pitch Night” competition. Train Together (Zachary Yelle and Jack Mayer) created an app that solves the lack of communication between coaches and athletes during the offseason.

The company was forced to overcome barriers of attrition, since 50 percent of their team left during development.

Fridge 4.0 (Nikolaus Koelblinger, Elise Reiche, Rajiv Sehgal, Cole Delange and Nicholas Ilkow) created a prototype of a mini-fridge for dorm rooms that delivers filtered water and ice, and had a pizza shelf.

“We used disruptive thinking,” said Reiche. “That helped us identified a unique niche in the market place.”

InSourced (Matthew Hoyland, Carl Frasor, Nolan Yager and Patrick Yeschek) created an app that used a geo-locator to connect business professionals in the area. The app helps users realize face-to-face business networking.

“The class is not easy,” said Peckhart. “The teacher becomes more of a facilitator than someone who delivers a lecture.” Students learn how to bounce back from failure, how to network with businesses in the community, and they develop presentation skills. “It’s a class that provides a real-world problem solving experience.”

Dr. Steven Koch, Prairie Ridge Principal said that many other students worked to make the Incubator Pitch Night happen. Students operated the lighting and sound system, created the programs, greeted guests, and prepared demonstration booths for all of the companies in the INCubatorEdu class. The Prairie Ridge woodshop class created the award plaques.

Local business coaches volunteered throughout the year to co-teach specific lessons, such as production innovation and marketing and to act as resources. The INCubatorEdu classroom is designed to replicate a professional business environment, and includes a conference room, several HD monitors, mobile furniture, and whiteboard walls. The Foglia Family Foundation and The Domek Foundation contributed funds to cover the cost of classroom construction.

Members of the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce presented Dr. Koch with the Pride in Crystal Lake Award (PICA.)