Many students are annoyed by the daily hassle of lugging notebooks, textbooks and miscellaneous school supplies across campus from class to class. Daniels College of Business students have created the mobile application, myBackpack, that will replace the need for book bags all together.

At the start of fall quarter, the introductory “Gateway to Business” course, taught by professor Stephen Haag, stepped away from the traditional lecture style teaching to educate its students about the business world. Instead, the Madden Challenge was created and asks students to produce a detailed business plan for a mobile app to compete for a scholarship, funded by John W. Madden, Jr., a commercial real estate developer in the Denver area.

Madden’s niece received her MBA from the Daniels College of Business about 10 years ago and wanted to fund the app competition created by professor Haag so that the winning team could use the money to develop their business ideas.

“The point of this class was to learn different aspects of business, like marketing and finance, through creating a mobile app,” said freshman Grant Wilkinson, myBackpack developer and team leader from El Paso, Texas, who’s planning to major in real estate.

Wilkinson approached his classmates Taylor Shiffrin, a freshman from Vail with plans to major in accounting, sophomore Jensen Teague from Littleton with plans to major in finance, junior marketing communications major Kayla Rae Veatch from Minnesota and freshman Justin Koppstein from Ogunquit, Maine with plans to major in business with his idea to create myBackpack, which would serve as a virtual backpack equipped with notebooks, planners, PDF books and other additional tools.

“I got the idea to create this app out of frustration,” said Wilkinson referring to carrying all his school supplies to and from class.

The team created a detailed business plan that outlined the functions of the app, marketing strategy and revenue in order to present their plan to the panel of angel investors – people who invest in smaller companies and new businesses to provide the group with financial help while developing their product.

At this time, the group also decided to form the company Inovize as they plan to release myBackpack and continue developing mobile apps in the future.

After weeks of writing, rewriting and editing their business plan, they were ready for the first round of the competition: a presentation in front of their section of the class. They were chosen to advance to the final round and present their idea to the Madden family and the angel investors along with the finalist from each of the 12 sections.

The final round included a 10-minute presentation which highlighted the key points found in their business plan followed by a Q&A. Other finalists included the clothespin app, a shopping app equipped with a virtual closet where customers can build their own outfits and share them on social media websites and Mystance, an app that allows users to create polls and vote on certain issues. In the end, the myBackpack team was presented with a trophy as the winners of the Madden Challenge.

“After the final round, we were approached by an investor interested in our app,” said Shiffrin. “We were trying to take the app further than just the project and that is what set us apart from the rest in the competition.”

Wilkinson’s experience in website and social media marketing from working with companies throughout Texas proved to be beneficial. In the coming months, the team plans to meet with investors and estimates that the app will be released for purchase at the end of winter quarter.

The myBackpack app will be a visual representation of an open backpack and users will have the ability to access certain materials by tapping on them.

“The app itself will be free,” said Wilkinson. “The in-app options will be an additional cost.”

The in-apps will consist of four different options. Costing $0.99, PassingNotes will provide users with the ability to transfer notes, documents and agendas to other myBackpack users. The Mathematic package will cost $1.99 and will include an all-inclusive scientific and graphing calculator as well as a ruler and protractor. The English Package will have an American English dictionary, thesaurus, grammar and writing sheets and will cost $1.99. Students will also have the option of purchasing the all-inclusive package, which would include everything listed above for the discounted price of $3.99.

Aimed at tablet users, myBackpack exhibits many features, particularly those of note taking and scientific calculations, that would be difficult to make on a smartphone. However, it will also be available for smart phone users. Wilkinson hopes to build a partnership with textbook publishers and companies like Sparknotes and incorporate them in myBackpack.

To get updates on the progress of myBackpack and Inovize please visit www.inovize.com or www.facebook.com/inovize.