Up to four new student startups will move into the Reitz Union next Fall.
The Gator Hatchery, which is run out of the UF Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, provides workspaces, support and networking opportunities for students who want to start their own businesses. It started January 2015 in Bryan Hall with eight companies, but now it has 13 resident startups and six virtual startups.
The Hatchery’s new startups will be retail-based and selected during the third annual Big Idea Gator Business Plan Competition, said Nola Miyasaki, the executive director of outreach and incubation at the Gator Hatchery.
The competition will allow students to compete for one of the spots in the Reitz by presenting their business plans, she said.
More than $40,000 will be awarded at the end of the competition, Miyasaki said. They have already received 295 entries from UF students.
Over the course of the next few months, judges will narrow down the pool of applicants to the top 16 teams that will compete in the semifinals April 21. The first-place team will receive $25,000.
The Gator Hatchery will select the best business proposals to work in its new startup space at the Reitz Union, Miyasaki said.
The Hatchery opened startup space at Infinity Hall in October.
Armand Sepulveda, 22, moved his startup, Dycap Media Capture Solutions, to Infinity Hall from Bryan Hall in October, he said.
Dycap creates software that automates filming for live events, the UF telecommunication senior said.
He said he founded Dycap after a men’s basketball game against Kentucky in March 2014. Sepulveda was filming the game as a freelancer for ESPN when Gator player Patric Young fell on him.
Sepulveda said he realized there could be a safer way to cover events.
They ran Dycap out of a kitchen until they applied for space at Gator Hatchery, he said.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the guidance and facilities and resources that the Gator Hatchery has given us,” Sepulveda said.
Startups that apply to the Gator Hatchery need at least one UF student on the team and must present a business plan, Miyasaki said. If selected, resident startups are granted access to free communal workspaces.
Sepulveda said working in Gator Hatchery has exposed him and his group to Gainesville’s entrepreneurial community.
After he leaves Gator Hatchery, he said he wants to find investors for Dycap and continue coming up with new ideas for startups.
“Everybody has great ideas,” he said. “It’s really the execution of it.”
