'Truly Life Changing': Minnesota Startup Wins $50,000 at U of A Heartland Challenge

May 07, 2024
Telo's cofounders, Morgan Kerfeld, left, and Steven Bleau, speak after being named overall champion of the 2024 Heartland Challenge at the Ledger in Bentonville.
Iron Lotus Creative

Telo's cofounders, Morgan Kerfeld, left, and Steven Bleau, speak after being named overall champion of the 2024 Heartland Challenge at the Ledger in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – After reaching the final round as a wildcard team, a student startup from the University of Minnesota captured first place in the 2024 Heartland Challenge, earning $50,000 for their venture to revolutionize assistive walking devices. 

Telo, which is developing walking devices with integrated technology to better facilitate physical therapy, is tackling three core areas of innovation: safety, stigma and strengthening, according to co-founder Morgan Kerfeld. 

"At Telo, we give our users a device that allows them to get out and live their active, independent lifestyles like the bad asses we know they are," Kerfeld said. 

Telo uses a patent-pending reverse frame rollator walker that offers back support for more stability while opening the user up to the world. It also measures speed, distance and reliance, while providing quantified metrics through a mobile application that allows users to track their activities, set goals, monitor progress and enhance physical therapy.  

Kerfeld and co-founder Steven Bleau were inspired to form the company to help others in need of care. Bleau had been a caregiver to a parent suffering with multiple sclerosis, and his experiences allowed him to see how assistive products can greatly improve a person's quality of life.

"This sparked the idea to innovate on the rollator walker, a device that millions rely on for independence yet has gone relatively untouched for over 40 years," Bleau said.  

Telo described the prize money as "truly life-changing for the company" and said the bulk of it will go toward mass manufacturing of its Y-Canes. The rollator is still in development. 

Designed to simulate the process of raising venture capital for a high-growth enterprise, the Heartland Challenge is a global, graduate student startup competition hosted in Northwest Arkansas. The event has awarded nearly $500,000 in prize money since it was first held virtually in spring 2020. 

Kerfeld and Bleau praised the competition for its judges and feedback session and complemented Northwest Arkansas for its support for startups. 

"Our judging has been incredibly rewarding; we've learned so much," Bleau said. "The feedback sessions we've got, we've never gotten anything like that before, and then the people we've met, the people that organized this, have all been so incredible." 

"Northwest Arkansas is truly unlike any other place in the nation," Kerfeld said. "During the competition somebody commented how the area is a startup in itself, and there is no better way to describe it."  

The competition was hosted again this year by the Sam M. Walton College of Business and overseen by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with generous primary support from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. 

Additional sponsors for this year's competition include:  

A record 126 teams submitted applications for this year's event, which was held April 11-13 in downtown Bentonville at the Ledger and included a kickoff event at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. 

Hosting the competition for its fifth year was an "honor," and it was inspiring to see the ongoing impact that this competition and Northwest Arkansas have on startup founders nationwide, said Deb Williams, OEI's senior director of student programs and operations.  

"Receiving feedback from founders who consider this experience among the best, regardless of winning prize money, is incredibly rewarding," she said. 

"It underscores the significant role this competition plays in nurturing innovation and fostering growth." 

Other top winners included startups focused on medical devices, creative alternative fuels and improving shipping logistics to aid small businesses on Instagram.  

RHM Innovations, representing the University of Rochester, finished second and won $25,000 for its Aide-ing Arm, a hands-free assistive shower device that ensures a dignified bathing experience for patients while reducing the strain on staff. RHM Innovations also won $3,000 in the Investor Roundtable track sponsored by SymBiosis. 

Thryft Ship, from the University of Georgia, finished third, taking home $10,000. Thryft Ship is a dedicated shipping platform tailored to Instagram to streamline that portion of the app's transactions, helping more than 1,750 business ship over 118,000 packages since 2021.  

ProPika, the only U of A team to win any prize money, finished fourth, earning $5,000. ProPika also finished first in the elevator pitch competition, winning $3,000, and won the audience vote at the Startup Expo, worth $5,000. ProPika is using patented technology to process cellulose so fuel producers can transform billions of tons of agricultural waste into sustainable alternative fuels and chemicals.  

CurveAssure, which is pioneering remote monitoring for spinal care patients, finished fifth and won $1,000. The team earned an additional $3,000 in winning the Delta Solar Innovation Award and another $2,000 by finishing second in the elevator pitch competition.  

Other teams taking home a prize: 

  • Hipond, from Tufts University, is an innovative online platform designed to help international students adapt in the U.S. by offering a unique combination of social networking, a marketplace for second-hand goods and tailored services. The team won $3,000 in the Investor Roundtable track sponsored by the Walton College Master of Science in Finance program. 

  • YieldEASE, one of two teams representing Johns Hopkins University, aims to improve the diagnosis of breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa through its gun structure technology for fine needle aspiration, which intends to de-skill FNA and make the adequacy of samples independent of operator skill. The team won $3,000 in the Investor Roundtable track sponsored by Cadron Capital Partners. 

About the U of A Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation: The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation creates and curates innovation and entrepreneurship experiences for students across all disciplines. Through the Brewer Family Entrepreneurship Hub, McMillon Innovation Studio, Startup Village, and Greenhouse at the Bentonville Collaborative, OEI provides free workshops and programs — including social and corporate innovation design teams, venture internships, competitions, and startup coaching. A unit of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and Division of Economic Development, OEI also offers on-demand support for students who will be innovators within existing organizations and entrepreneurs who start something new. 

Contacts

Brandon Howard, communications manager
Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
479-418-4803, bjhoward@uark.edu

News Daily