Update on Tuesday, Oct. 21: Saturn Sports won $200,000 in grant funding from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission’s Technology Validation and Start-up Fund. This competitively awarded grant supports the development and commercialization of breakthrough technologies with the potential to transform industries and improve lives across the state and country. Read more about the grant and the winners here.
What happens when you put football helmet safety and Flyer Nest, a new UD entrepreneurship capstone program, together? Saturn Sports, a business started by Hank Veeneman ’25 and Brayden Shepard ’25.
While Veeneman was watching college and professional games in the fall of his senior year, he counted nearly 300 instances of loose chin straps or helmets popping off.
At the same time, he and his peers in Flyer Nest were tasked with solving a problem by leveraging existing technology. They scoured a database of 7,000 technologies developed by research labs and universities for ideas. When Veeneman saw a safety alert system, something clicked.
“I remember walking out of class one day and that’s when the light bulb went off,” he said. “What if football helmets had the same kind of real-time feedback system?”
He sent a survey to 500 coaches across the country and found that 10,000 players, or 28%, weren’t tightening their chin straps, putting themselves at serious risk. “Coaches even began reaching out directly, thanking us for focusing on a problem they’ve dealt with for years,” Veeneman said. “That was our green light.”
Flyer Nest, which uses a venture studio model to invest in multiple student groups’ ideas, gave Veeneman and Shepard the tools, resources and knowledge they needed to turn their idea for a smart chin strap system into a business.
Students in the course build and present a business case using the state of Ohio’s Technology Validation and Start-up Fund grant application as an outline. If the idea comes together, the students can apply to the fund for a chance to win $200,000 to move their technology forward.
“What I reinforce to students all semester is what you have to do in business — you have to know how to build a business case using data and rationalize an investment opportunity. That’s extremely valuable whether or not you want to be an entrepreneur,” said Vince Lewis, capstone lecturer and associate vice president for UD’s entrepreneurial initiatives. “It can be a little intense for some students, but there’s also value in the research and having to figure out how to apply the technology.”
Veeneman and Shepard applied for the TVSF grant in February but did not get it. They then applied for funding from the Flyer Pitch competition and won the largest prize — $76,000 in cash and services. The duo is gearing up to apply for the Ohio grant again in August.
Guest speakers and mentors are another helpful resource in the capstone. Business owners who have received TVSF funding, seed investors, business law professionals, IP attorneys, UD entrepreneurs in residence, and Converge Technologies (an advisory firm supporting commercialization of innovative technologies) all shared their wisdom with UD students.
Bob Kohorst ’75, former U.S. ambassador to Croatia and experienced business owner, and fellow classmate, Ed Bentley ’75, also shared their time and talents with the students as panelists for their final presentations. Both alumni had worked with Lewis and School of Business Administration Dean Trevor Collier to take the capstone from a concept to a reality. And it was Kohorst’s gifts to the University that piloted the program, which launched Veeneman and Shephard into the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“Capstones are a tried and true formula for all classes in all schools, and this is different — the students aren’t doing what they typically would, they’re going to start a business,” Lewis said. “We wouldn’t have gotten there without gentle prodding or financial support from our alumni.”