Six hundred million in Faux Founder Fund$ — and One Very Real $1,000 Winner

Innovation Alley & People's Choice Award

Before the formal Innovate! Celebrate! 2026 program began, attendees spent the reception period in Innovation Alley — a showcase of 15 student ventures, each competing for Founder Fund$, the event's faux investment currency. Every attendee was given 5 million in Founder Fund$ to allocate however they chose. The team that accumulated the most by 6:30 PM would trade it in for a real $1,000 People's Choice prize.

The ventures ranged from MDH: Modern Day Hippyys and Quill to TremorTrack, CribCub, Aureus Compression Shorts, and Pick Me Up Purses — a cross-section of industries and ideas that gave attendees a ground-level view of where Lehigh student entrepreneurship actually lives.

The winner was Max Russo '28, representing the Sustainable Engineering Club: a 60+ member organization he founded that weaves entrepreneurial mindset into sustainable innovation. Earlier in the evening, Russo had also received the Donald E. Flinchbaugh Memorial Endowed Scholarship, with a nominator describing him as "the embodiment of an entrepreneur."

The team with the most Fund$ by 6:30 PM wons the People’s Choice Award & [real!] $1,000 cash prize. 

❏ MDH: Modern Day Hippyys: Tommy Anderson ’25 M’26

❏ ConCom: Jack Wilt M’26

❏ Team Spencer: Spencer Motelson ’28

❏ GO-BETWIXT!: Tyson Utesch ’26

❏ Projkt: Tyler Schwalm ’27

❏ AISHA: Henry Knight ’28

❏ Quill: Veronica Lada ’28

❏ TremorTrack: Priya Mancheril ’29

❏ Gauge: Forum Patel ’27

❏ Practly: Sofia Smith ’26

❏ Swift Trip: Kamran Chacko ’26

❏ CribCub: Neil Malhotra ’29

❏ Aureus Compression Shorts: Benjamin Manley ’27

❏ Pick Me Up Purses: Ava Paidarakis ’29

❏ Sustainable Engineering Club: Max Russo ’28