GRAND RAPIDS, Mi. — A young innovator is in the running for $5,000 in a pitch competition and needs your vote!
Vishnu Mano is a junior at City High in Grand Rapids. He developed an app that could someday change the way we find a parking spot. It's called Spotter and it uses a microcontroller and a sensor to determine when a parking spot is open.
That data is sent to the app, so a driver can save time and gas when searching for a place to park.
This all started as a school project that turned into an internship with Mobile GR, where he was able to refine his invention and test it in a parking deck.
Now he's hoping to win a spot in February's 5x5 competition put on by Start Garden - which could land him $5000 dollars to put toward his upstart.
Mano says winning this would be a game-changer for him. “This started as a high school project we don't have any startup capital; we don't have any funding so this would be our main source of funding. If I were to get an opportunity to first pitch, then go hopefully win the competition $5000 again it's a lot of money it could be used to truly take Spotter from the prototype or startup phase or initial startup phase to an actual company."
If he gets enough public votes, he will earn a spot as a finalist, when he will get 5 minutes to pitch to 5 judges for the $5000 dollar prize.
The deadline for online voting is the 14th – you can to https://5x5night.com/ to cast your vote and learn more about the 5x5 competition.
