Dive Buddy wins second place at UH Business Plan Competition
Dive Buddy team and consultants (left to right): Melody Kaohu, Isaac Lee, Nicholas Ulm, Bradley Beeksma, and Zack Naqvi.
After three intense rounds of competition, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Shidler College of Business Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) announced the winners of the 2019 UH Business Plan Competition (BPC), sponsored by American Savings Bank. Nic Ulm and Bradley Beeksma, graduate students in the SOEST Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering, took home the second place prize for Dive Buddy, their diving equipment and technology company specializing in providing tour companies with diver safety and diver identification products. The prize package includes includes a $5,000 UH BPC Award in Honor of Pioneer Billy Richardson by HiBEAM and more than $13,500 in legal, marketing, and startup support services
While diving for UH’s scientific diver course, Ulm was frustrated by having to carry technical equipment and an awkward tow-line for a dive flag, all while keeping track of his dive partner. So, Ulm and Beeksma developed a drone that eliminates the need for tow-lines on dive flags, giving divers the freedom to focus on safety and research unhindered.
Last year, the Dive Buddy team won second place in the 2018 UH Breakthrough Innovation Challenge conducted by PACE. This year, they added three consultants for the competition—UH Mānoa students focusing on business and law, Melody Leilani Kaohu, Isaac Lee and Zack Naqvi.
“We plan on using our awards for developing a prototype over the summer,” wrote Beeksma. “We’ll also be working to build the company in preparation for meeting the local demands of our technology within a year.”
-Article by Marcie Grabowski, May 16, 2019.
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