AI Tool That Aims for Viral Clips Takes Top Honors at Pitch Dingman

By John Tucker / Maryland Today

The Pitch Dingman Competition, hosted by the Smith School’s Dingman-Lamone Center for Entrepreneurship, is the University of Maryland’s signature annual venture competition, showcasing the university’s most talented student and alumni entrepreneurs competing for seed funding and exclusive access to venture development resources.

Aayush Gupta ’25 was getting annoyed when his roommate, a variety streamer, spent hours editing highlights from the various games she played online into social media content.

“I wanted to solve the problem because she was spending her weekend making clips instead of hanging out with us,” said Gupta, a computer science major with a background in machine learning research.

Gupta turned that idea into a business called Saved, and on Thursday inside a packed Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center, he accepted the top award of $25,000 at the University of Maryland’s 2025 Pitch Dingman Competition. There, entrepreneurial students and alumni presented their ventures to judges “Shark Tank”-style in hopes of taking home a share of more than $170,000 in prizes, a record.

Gupta’s product uses artificial intelligence to cut livestreams into made-for-social-media clips, capturing key content in real time and packaging it for virality. He tested it on UMD’s esports team quickly causing its online video views to skyrocket, he said.

The venture helps creators earn sponsorships, said Gupta, who took the award in the competition’s David and Robyn Quattrone Tech Track, open to students who founded scalable, tech or tech-enabled ventures that already have traction through metrics like revenue, users, investments and grants.

The Dingman competition, in its 10th year, is hosted by the Dingman-Lamone Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. This year’s winners, selected from a pool of 97 applications and competing in five tracks, will receive venture-development resources and professional coaching in addition to prize money.

“This event is the culmination of everything we do,” said Mike Hoffmeyer, managing director of the center. “We call this the fearless future of entrepreneurship. The participants are the best of the best, and it’s an amazing show.”

Thursday’s event also celebrated the late Rudolph P. “Rudy” Lamone, former Smith School dean, pioneer of entrepreneurship and founder of the Dingman-Lamone Center, whose name was added to the title in January following a $3.8 million gift from his widow, Linda Lamone.

“He was a man whose vision and dedication helped make Maryland a more innovative and entrepreneurial state,” Maryland Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Ricardo Benn ’83 remarked to the crowd.

In addition to the Quattrone Tech Track, this year’s tracks and top winners were: 

Dare to Dream, founded by Takiyah Roberts ’25, won the $15,000 prize in the Main Street Track, for small businesses with revenue and initial customers that aren’t necessarily focused on scale. The nonprofit is dedicated to empowering young people in marginalized communities through entrepreneurship, with initiatives like after-school programs, mentorship and an international project in Ecuador. 

Plan Forward, founded by Anne Spear ’19, won the $20,000 prize in the Alumni Tech Track, for tech and software ventures with traction in the form of early customers and/or a testing prototype, with less than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue. The platform for K-12 administrators transforms raw data into insights by leveraging educational frameworks and AI models, helping schools and districts make informed decisions and tell stories behind the data. 

3708 Spirits, whose founders include Tony Ajayi ’10, won the $15,000 prize in the Alumni Main Street Track, for non-tech small businesses that have revenue and initial customers and have generated at least $1,000 in lifetime revenue and less than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue. The company centers on an upscale, locally Black-owned agave spirit brand. 
Spotter, founded by Kevin Kyle ’27, won the $4,500 prize for the Joan and Chester Luby Idea Track, for early ventures and/or ideas to change the world. The company’s AI-powered mobile app analyzes and provides real-time feedback for gym workouts. 
The contest featured dozens of judges comprising company founders, investors and entrepreneurs, most of whom are UMD alums. 

Following is the complete list of winners. 

Track 1: David and Robyn Quattrone Tech Track

1. Grand Prize ($25,000): Saved
2. 2nd Place ($10,000): Tailored
3. 3rd Place ($5,000): BetterU
4. Audience Choice ($1,000): Saved
5. Tom's Industrious Entrepreneur Award ($1,000): Saved

Track 2: Main Street Track

1. Grand Prize ($15,000): Dare to Dream
2. 2nd Place ($8,000): Energy by Evelyn
3. 3rd Place ($5,000): Papa Suya
4. Audience Choice ($1,000): Dare to Dream

Track 3: Joan and Chester Luby Idea Track

1. Best in Show ($4,500): Spotter
2. Best in Customer Discovery ($3,000): Alcclear
3. Best in Product-Solution Fit ($3,000):
4. Best in Go-To-Market Strategy ($3,000): Educate
5. Best in Innovative Solution ($3,000): Dancify
6. Best in Sustainability ($3,000): Bluuzone Bottles
7. Best in Social Impact ($3,000): Breaking The Ice
8. Elevate! ($3,000): AkereRose Glove
9. Elevate! ($3,000): Sit’n Sweet
10. Terp Town Audience Choice ($1,000): Alcclear

Track 4: Alumni Tech Track

1. Grand Prize ($20,000): Plan Forward
2. 2nd Place ($15,000): Cursive

Track 5: Alumni Main Street Track

1. Grand Prize ($15,000): 3708 Spirits
2. 2nd Place ($10,000): Green Mechanics Benefit

Alumni Audience Choice ($1,000): 3708 Spirits 

Terp Town Audience Choice ($1,000): M’Elyon Organics 

Each semifinalist won a $500 prize. See the list here.

Republished with permission from Maryland Today.