Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow / Livestream
Cody Cash can empathize with students and faculty who can't find or lose their fobs while trying to enter buildings.
As soon as Cash enrolled at Grand Canyon University last fall, he found himself constantly locked out of buildings because he couldn’t find or had lost his fob. But that issue sparked a plan. Cash, a junior, devised FobMate, a device that allows fobs to be placed on cell phones.
Fobmate stood out among a panel of three judges and an enthusiastic audience that awarded Cash as the winner of the spring 2025 Canyon Challenge and the People’s Choice Award on Friday night at Sunset Auditorium. Those two awards netted FobMate $3,500 in prize money.
“I thought all the contestants did a great job,” said Cash, a junior entrepreneurship major with a theology minor. “I had no idea who was going to win. The IDEA Club is super awesome on campus and very helpful for students. We're eager to serve.”
Desert Bloom Babysitting Co., an educational-based service founded by Kamille Benson, earned the runner-up prize of $1,500. Tender Paws, an online telehealth pet service founded by Natalie Conceicao Larson, was awarded third-place prize money of $1,000.
The IDEA Club, advised by GCU Chair of Entrepreneurship Tim Kelley and Canyon Ventures founding director Robert Vera, encourages student entrepreneurship. The IDEA Club presents the "Shark Tank"-like event each semester and awards cash prizes totaling $6,000.
“We really looked at companies that were ready to launch that we really feel are in a position to start driving revenue,” said Nick Kasten, vice president of strategy at National Bank of Arizona who served as one of three judges. “So that made the decision easy.”
Kyle Brown, CEO of Trinity Capital, added that some of the finalists appeared to opt for a “go-to-market” strategy that would consume more time and money to launch.
“A lot of the decision-making was around maybe how this capital can go towards actually getting something going sooner rather than later, maybe with some extra points for some bigger grand ideas and bigger market opportunities,” Brown said.
Cash, a native of Leander, Texas, came to GCU after two gap years following his enrollment at Schreiner University, west of Austin, on the advice of his cousin, Ryder Evans, who attends GCU and handles FobMate’s social media accounts.
“He told me about all the ministry opportunities and how amazing the entrepreneurship system was,” Cash said. “He also told me about the "Shark Tank" event (Canyon Challenge).
“And so that was something I actually thought about before coming. I’m so very blessed to be here.”
Even if he struggled to find his keys.
“I’d leave my keys all over the place,” Cash said. “I would forget them, and so it was a problem I was facing every day because I was new on campus.”
But once Cash got settled in, he found a way to turn his problem into a solution.
“I was surprised it wasn't a product that already solved it,” Cash said. “And so when I saw the need, I saw an opportunity.”
It’s also helped that the resident advisor at Cash’s building, Corbin Stuber, is a mechanical engineering student.
“We had the same problem, the same mindset and started working together,” Cash said.
FobMate’s market targets are college campuses, businesses and apartment complexes, with underclassmen as a prime target because of their newness and acclimation to different surroundings. His pitch claimed that attaching the fob to keys or a watch would become too bulky.
“I plan on going full steam,” Cash said.
Each contestant went through at least two pitch events in front of IDEA Club members before being selected as a finalist. Cash steadily improved with each pitch.
“It definitely was a process,” Cash said. “I had one big stutter, but I was able to keep going. I've practiced a lot, and I've had times where I stood in front of people and just fell apart. So over time, I’ve gotten a lot better.”
Judges Dr. Ryan House, co-founder and chief operating officer of Mental Health Centers of America, Kasten and Brown asked questions after each presenter made their five-minute pitch, each presenter toting along charts and data to support their presentations.
The other finalists were Ethan Hawes of Trekguard, a trail-hiking protection spray, and Levi Korum of the Kwame Bofrot Foundation, which helps students from West Africa land college soccer scholarships in the United States.
During his pitch, Hawes provided some amusement by showing the effects of his spray on attacking wildlife during hikes. As an example, Hawes used a charging GCU mascot Thunder attacking him, only to be thwarted when sprayed by Trekguard.
While the judges assessed the pitches of the finalists, IDEA Club president Caleb McCandliss, vice president Sarah LeDrew and head of Marketplaces Andrew Bussmann honored individuals for their work.
In the Marketplace division, awards went to Winner Moe (Master of Precision), Chloe Mohatt (Crowd’s Caffeine Champion) and Garet Rus (Rug Renaissance).
The following students were named to the IDEA 25K Club for generating more than $25,000 in revenue at Marketplaces during the 2024-25 year: Bethany Zenil (Canyon Crafted), Elijah Nevins and Zach Morelock (Lynx Athletics Club), Chase Nordlund and Michael Keating (Big Bang Vintage), Grant Havertine (Bad Frog Boutique), Marcus Lund (507 Distributions), McCandless (CarChap), Will Miller (Willy’s Pizza) and Sawyer Brown (TradePro Media).
GCU K12 Educational Development and the Association of Christian Schools International partnered to hold Venture, an entrepreneurial innovation challenge for students in grades 7-12.
Skyler Vigay and Dominik Proc of Adaptipal, which produces cheerleading and fitness equipment for those with limb disabilities, won the top award. Vigay and Proc attend Creekside Christian Academy in McDonough, Georgia.
The People’s Choice Award went to Finnleigh Wocken, Maia Karadsheh, Emma Pinzon and Liam McCaster of Scam Stoppers. The foursome, who pitched their business that promotes digital safety to students and protection from online danger, attend St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in Tucson.
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at Mark.Gonzales@gcu.edu
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