Teen Entrepreneur Creates Mobile App to Help Users Improve their Time Management Skills

Matthew Fan, 16, of Frisco, TX, is one of this year's competitors in the i.Invest National Youth Business Competition. Matthew is the founder of ProductiveTime, a smart time management app and a goal achievement tool that automatically plans various daily tasks and to-dos.

We spoke with Matthew to learn more about the business venture:

Tell us about your startup:

ProductiveTime is an application serving both as a time management and a goal achievement tool. The app allows the user to add and create various tasks he or she regularly performs along with the amount of time they usually take. With this information, ProductiveTime outputs a personalized schedule specifically tailored to each user's needs. With this, ProductiveTime delivers the best and most efficiently organized schedule based on your previous schedules. ProductiveTime also doubles as a helpful way to accomplish your goals. If the user has a desired goal or habit they want to develop, ProductiveTime can also seamlessly include this into their daily schedule. ProductiveTime relies on machine learning to help tailor the app to the individual user.

Who or what inspired you to start ProductiveTime?

My mother was the main inspiration behind the development of ProductiveTime. Always working and providing for our family, she struggled to balance her responsibilities both at home and at work. My father, too, often worked at home. The environment of our house was distracting, and seeing how hard they worked, I really wanted to help them alleviate their stress. However, I was always occupied with schoolwork. What if, I thought, there was a way to generate a personalized schedule automatically, and then ProductiveTime was born.

How will ProductiveTime impact the world?

ProductiveTime can help solve common organizational problems. It can also serve as a way for company employees to manage their projects and priorities better. ProductiveTime can seamlessly incorporate habits you would like to create into your schedule, ultimately serving as a way for users to manage their everyday tasks and duties, while also developing habits that will have a positive impact on the rest of their lives. ProductiveTime will enrich the community around me by improving the habits and lifestyles of individuals through better time management skills. I personally know the stress and energy needed to cope with the endless tasks we all face.

What are the next steps?

We are seeking funding to build the ProductiveTime app and website. Although the algorithm behind the app is mostly complete, we still need a simple and attractive design for the look of our application. With the app completed, we will be able to release a beta version for testing and customer feedback. This way, we can quickly improve to develop the best possible app for our customers. Our website will serve to inform potential customers about how ProductiveTime works and how it can positively impact their lives. If they [customers] are interested, they can also enter their email to learn more about ProductiveTime from the monthly emails we will send. In addition, this website will also serve as a platform for customers to provide feedback and suggestions about what they want to see in the product. After the release of ProductiveTime next year, the interest we have generated on our website will translate into our first customers, and allow us to hit the ground running as soon as we launch ProductiveTime.

To mentor or offer support, email info@i-investcompetition.com.

Youth Startup Seeks to Use Virtual Reality to Help Autistic Children Mitigate Meltdowns

Espen Garner, 17, of Laguna Hills, CA, along with team members, Ian Kim,18, of Fairfax, VA, and Giana Valencia, 18, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic are one of this year's competitors in the i.Invest National Youth Business Competition. The team members are the cofounders of Cognality, a virtual reality startup that provides cutting edge rehabilitative technology for autistic children to help mitigate the effect of meltdowns.

We spoke to Espen, Ian, and Giana to learn more about their startup:

Tell us about Cognality:

One out of 59 children struggle every day with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). People with autism are usually highly sensitive to their environments. Autistic children are especially sensitive to stimuli and become easily overwhelmed. This sensitivity may lead to a meltdown, shouting, screaming, crying, kicking, biting, etc. Cognality is a new VR product that provides effective, accessible, and customizable therapy to its users with calming VR scenes. As opposed to applied behavioral analysis therapies that require hours of training, Cognality can be initiated in a minute to help mitigate ASD related meltdowns.

Who or what inspired you to start Cognality?

A few years ago, Espen's neighbor, three-year-old Jack, was diagnosed with autism. Espen watched as he started daily behavioral therapy to help address his newfound challenges. One of these challenges was meltdowns, where Jack lashed out after being overwhelmed. These meltdowns impacted Jack and his family because he became limited in his activities and social interactions. In a matter of minutes, a fun outing to the mall could become overwhelming for Jack. Thinking about Jack and the many other autistic kids out there, our team came up with an affordable intervention to stop meltdowns using cutting edge VR technology.

How will Cognality impact the world?

The CDC estimates that $61-66 billion is spent annually on care for people with autism. Much of this is spent on expensive ABA (advanced behavioral analysis) therapy. Unfortunately, many children do not have access to this form of therapy because they either have a lack of healthcare coverage or because they don't have access to an ABA therapist. These children are left with few resources. However, Cognality would provide a cost-effective option for them. We have a big vision for Cognality: that it both helps its customers during the actual meltdown, and that it provides a lasting feeling of empowerment to autistic children and their caregivers. We hope these children feel able to try new social situations and ultimately enjoy life to the fullest.

What are the next steps?

We are initially targeting Cognality for use in children ages 4 - 12 who have level 1 or 2 autism and thus are high functioning and verbal. This means our market targets 500,000 children in the US, but as acceptance and traction grow, we believe we can expand Cognality to help all 5 million US children with autism. With this vision in mind, we will use our funding to help the large and currently underserved population of the autistic community access the therapeutic services they need.

To learn more about Cognality, visit their website, https://www.cognalityvr.com/, or Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Cognality/. To mentor or offer support, email info@i-investcompetition.com.

New York Teens Create Clothing Company to Introduce Eco-friendly Millennial Maternity Wear

Two environmentally-conscious teens based in New York City, Christine Yan, 17, and Chelsea (Zi) Yan, 16, are one of this year’s competitors in the i.Invest National Youth Business Competition. The dynamic duo are the cofounders of ZigZag Mommy’s, a maternity clothing company focused on using eco-friendly materials in their products to bring reusability and sustainability to maternity wear, allowing mothers to save money and time while helping to improve the environment.

We spoke with Chelsea and Christine to learn more about the business venture:

Tell us about your business/product:

We want to reinvent the maternity wear industry with ZigZag Mommy. Our maternity apparel company is focused on using eco-friendly materials and adding reusability and sustainability to the maternity wear market. Our innovative product is an environmentally friendly maternity style that uses a zipper design on the side seam for contracting and expanding to accommodate the growing fetus. The product can be worn during pregnancy and through motherhood while solving the problems of poor circulation and limited usage period. The mothers can continue to wear the zip-up even after pregnancy, allowing them to save money for other necessities for the baby. They will no longer have to throw out their old maternity wear, which is both beneficial for the environment and community.

One added bonus of ZigZag Mommy is our devotion to sustainability. Our maternity wear is comprised of RPET, an organic material that is made with recycled water bottles. Since eco-friendly products are now gaining popularity, our sustainable material will appeal to these expecting mothers. With a handcrafted prototype, we conducted several modeling tests on various pregnant women to find the best sizing possible and have tweaked our design accordingly. With our focus on sustainability, we researched potential, eco-friendly materials, and determined RPET is the best fit for our standard and vision.

What inspired you to start ZigZag Mommy’s?

The inspiration came a few years ago when Chelsea's mother was pregnant. Although her mother needed maternity jackets to keep warm in the freezing winter, she refused to buy one and struggled to keep warm with her existing jacket. Chelsea came to understand that her reluctance to buy maternity wear because of the discomfort caused by elastic bands commonly used in maternity wear today. Not only that, but she felt it would not be used again after she was no longer pregnant. A consultation with her obstetrician proved that the elastic bands can result in poor circulation for the mother and baby. This experience led us to our signature zipper design. Our initial prototype was created by using one of Chelsea's old sweaters and installing zippers and fabric on the sides. The problems proposed by Chelsea's mother sparked Christine's interest as well. Although many types of maternity clothing are available on the market, they are often expensive and are differentiated by stages of pregnancy. Christine wanted to offer maternity clothing that changes as a woman's body does throughout her pregnancy. Together, we have perfected the zipper design and pitched it at multiple business competitions.

How will ZigZag Mommy’s impact the world?

Our target market is urban millennial moms who are willing to invest a little above market price for a healthier, more eco-friendly maternity wear alternative. Millennials have no problem trying new, innovative brands such as ZigZag Mommy. Millennials place value on the experience of their purchase and we believe motherhood should be an extra special one. We want to start with hosting special interaction events at parent classes and support groups offered through places such as NYU Langone’s Center for Perinatal Education and Lactation. As our startup grows, we want to sell our maternity wear at these parent support classes, who would serve as a distributing platform from us to the customer.

The movement to wear sustainable clothing has been going on for a long time, but we hope our design will inspire more mothers to join the movement. Sustainable consumption and production promote resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, access to green jobs, and a better quality of life. ZigZag Mommy’s brings mothers together in their community to promote the ideal of sustainability around them and to the future generation. In addition to our sweater prototype, we will also expand our product line by investing in other designs to make our online shop the single destination for all prenatal needs, reducing the stress of shopping during pregnancy. We will follow the same concept of expandability and sustainability on outerwear, bottoms, dresses, shirts and possibly even more!

What are the next steps?

If ZigZag Mommy’s is funded, we plan on using the money to apply for a utility patent as our design satisfies the requirement for one. This patent will protect our idea in the fast fashion industry in order to have intellectual property protection. We will also use the funds to hire additional models to increase the preciseness of our measurements. Ultimately, most of the funding will be attributed to production costs.

To learn more about ZigZag Mommy’s, visit their website: https://zigzagmommy.weebly.com/. To mentor or offer support, email info@i-investcompetition.com.