The Founder’s lab is a year-long program that gives students an opportunity to participate in a unique, team-based, experiential Barrett honors thesis project to design and apply marketing and sales strategies, as well as business and financial models to start up and launch a new business. This Barrett honors thesis project focuses on increasing the accessibility of health and wellness programs for small businesses and their employees through a customizable and easily implemented third party program that encourages employee retention.

Through the use of Arizona State University’s Founders Lab, our group of four Barrett, the Honors College Students completed a research thesis regarding the interest of college students in a sleep light technology product. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pioneered a sleep light technology with the ability to regulate melatonin production and circadian rhythm, resulting in an improvement of sleep quality. The technology was originally invented for astronauts to improve their sleep while in space on a spacecraft. Utilizing this technology, our group performed extensive market research with the intention of determining if college students would be interested in purchasing a consumer product incorporating the sleep light technology. We created a brand called Rhythm Illumination and began by building a website and brand guide. Next, we utilized Google Forms to generate responses to a variety of questions regarding current sleep habits, current sleep problems, and whether or not there was interest in a product like this. After determining that college students have room for sleep quality improvement and there is interest in this kind of product, we worked towards our goal of gaining traction for the product. We decided to utilize both Google Analytics results and a Zoom event’s attendance as proof of interest in our product. Google Analytics revealed over one hundred unique users on our Rhythm Illumination website. We also had eleven event attendees. Between these two tools, our team was able to conclude that there is interest among college students for a consumer product utilizing NASA’s sleep light technology.

The Founders Lab is a team-focused, exploratory Barrett Thesis project that allows students the opportunity to discover and utilize their “inner entrepreneur”. This project empowers teams of students to come up with a business idea; create a strategic business model; conduct research on a target market; generate a brand style, logo, and other marketing-related materials; meet with business professionals as a way to receive feedback; and finalize a business plan with tangible deliverables. This project in particular focuses on the creation of an app that allows users to connect with others in competitive esports tournaments and participate in tutoring sessions for financial incentives. Throughout our experience participating in the Founders Lab, we were able to construct this business pitch.

This project analyzes aspects of ESports and gaming in relation to college/university students and college/university campuses. The specific focus of the project was establishing that there was an interest in additional Esports and gaming engagement on campus and then determining what manner of engagement was most desired by students. In order to discover the most popular form of Esports and gaming engagement for students, we held two events: a recreational ESports Competition and tutorials to teach students how to mod video games. After carrying out these events we established that an Esports Competition was a more popular form of engagement. However, we also established that both forms of engagement would be successful with proper marketing and execution.

This project analyzes aspects of ESports and gaming in relation to college/university students and college/university campuses. The specific focus of the project was establishing that there was an interest in additional Esports and gaming engagement on campus and then determining what manner of engagement was most desired by students. In order to discover the most popular form of Esports and gaming engagement for students, we held two events: a recreational ESports Competition and tutorials to teach students how to mod video games. After carrying out these events we established that an Esports Competition was a more popular form of engagement. However, we also established that both forms of engagement would be successful with proper marketing and execution.