The University of Vermont’s (UVM) office of Innovations hosted the final presentations of the second annual Joy and Jerry Meyers Cup this Saturday at the Alumni House’s Silver Maple Pavilion. Out of the three UVM undergraduate teams that presented their business ideas to a panel of judges, Campus Storage Solutions won the grand prize of $225,000 in cash, the largest undergraduate prize for a business pitch competition in the country.
Chip Meyers, who along with his wife Louise Meyers, made this generous donation to UVM representing the Meyers Family Trust in honor of his parents, Joy and Jerry Meyers, who met as undergraduate students at UVM. The donor’s goal is to showcase the UVM’s student entrepreneurs, with the top prize launching the winner from concept to reality, and also to create Vermont-based organizations that will benefit the university and the State of Vermont. Initial funding for this event is guaranteed through 2033.
“Winning feels amazing. We prepared so long for this and to have everything come to fruition is just incredible,” Ethan Israel (’26), Campus Storage Solutions’ founder, said. “My team and and the advisors we’ve had made this possible and made it a wonderful experience.”
Israel, who served as the company’s CEO, was inspired to start Campus Storage Solutions with Logan Vaughan (’27) after facing their own personal challenges with storing and moving belongings over the summer while away from college. They realized it was easier to start a company rather than navigate the high prices and limited availability of storage units and moving vehicles. The Campus Storage Solutions team includes Israel, Vaughan, the CFO, and Ally Updegrove (’25), who serves as the company’s CMO.
In addition to the cash prize, Campus Storage Solutions will receive in-kind services from local organizations including dedicated desk space at a local entrepreneurial co-working space as well as pro bono accounting, legal, and business development services. Prior to the final pitch, the three finalist teams received $2,000 to further their business concepts. The Meyers Cup is powered by LaunchVT, which accelerates outstanding early-stage, Vermont-based startups with world class business curricula, networking opportunities, and industry-specific mentorship to help their ventures scale.
“We’re going to invest the cash prize back into the business,” Israel said. “We have already spoken to vendors in Burlington and we’re planning on building a database and a software platform which will allow us to expand to other schools.”
Israel, Vaughn, and Updegrove plan to expand the company beyond UVM and establish operations at Champlain College, St. Michael’s College, and Middelbury College. They also seek to use a portion of the Meyers Cup winnings to train and hire student operators at all four schools, covering wages and benefits while providing student scholarships to incentivize involvement and leadership.
A New Generation of Vermont Businesses
Besides Campus Storage Solutions, two other student-led businesses pitched their ideas, Burlington Bio and NexDose.
Mason Tuff (’25) and Julia Fitzgerald (‘25) represented Burlington Bio, a manufacturer of high-efficiency, cost-effective ingredients for the functional food industry. Recently, Burlington Bio developed WheyBits, a high-protein and high-fiber protein ingredient substitute for protein snacks like bars, granola, and chips, eliminating the need for additives (which increase costs and complexity during food production). Burlington Bio was founded by Rachael Floreani, an associate professor in UVM’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Arai Lubas (’26) founded NexDose to be a cost-effective, user-friendly, sustainable, and scalable solution to revolutionize community opioid overdose interventions by developing a hand-held, reusable intranasal naloxone delivery device. The NexDose device aligns community overdose reversal practices with clinical standards, improving patient outcomes and reducing overdose recurrence. The team included Lubas, Gwenyth Roundy (’25), and Eli Borrin (’25).
Windup to the Pitch
The road to this year’s Meyers Cup began in October 2024, where undergraduate teams submitted an application that included the business idea, the stage of the business, their elevator pitch, a full business plan, a full pitch deck, and more.
“It was really great to see students from such diverse backgrounds come together and truly engage in some deep, meaningful learning outside of the classroom,” UVM’s Student Entrepreneurship Coordinator Mollie Davis said. “Providing them that experience, working with the Chamber, engaging with our community has been really exciting.”
After the initial businesses were selected, the teams participated in weekly training sessions from the end of October through March 2025, culminating in Saturday’s final pitch presentation.
“It has definitely been a new take on education. We don’t experience this level of presentation or this level of understanding business,” Roundy said. “Having this education has been skill-building that we otherwise wouldn’t have received.”
Making the Case
The panel of judges included several members of the Meyers family and Kirk Dombrowski, UVM’s Vice President for Research and Economic Development. Initial pitches by the entrepreneurs were limited to seven minutes. Following this, the panel of judges had 10 minutes to ask questions.
"As a university committed to innovation and economic growth, it was an honor to help judge this year’s Meyers Cup competition,” Dombrowski said. “Events like this not only showcase the talent and entrepreneurial spirit of the next generation but also play a vital role in broadening the economic landscape of our state. By fostering bold ideas and connecting student entrepreneurs with industry leaders, competitions like this strengthen our university’s research enterprise—turning groundbreaking discoveries into real-world solutions that drive economic impact."
Growing the Future of Vermont’s Entrepreneurs
Injecting funding of this kind removes the barriers some startups face when trying to get their business off the ground. It also contributes to the economic, social, and environmental fabric of Vermont as well as helps attract and keep younger people in the state.
Last year’s winner, Zach Dunn, is still running his business, Painting With Purpose, a residential and commercial painting company that donates a portion of its profits to Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity’s Tim's House shelter in St. Albans, VT.
“Winning the Meyers Cup is an incredible opportunity,” Chip Meyers said. “These are young people who have now received the largest undergraduate business cash prize in the country. It’s going to catapult them. It’s going to be engine fuel for their rocket ship. It will increase economic impact and help students along the way and that’s why we chose who we did.”