By Amber Burg– A Morningside student received the high honor of Student Entrepreneur of the Year at the Silicon Prairie Awards on August 21st in Kansas City, Mo. Ryan Martinez, a senior graphic design major, is the proud awardee. He has had quite a year.
His journey started in Lake Tahoe, Calif. where he and three other Morningsiders participated in an event called Startup Weekend. While there, Ryan put his idea on the table and took a leadership role in his Startup Weekend group. In just under 52 hours, a company based around the mobile app Clockwork was born.
ClockWork is a mobile app for smartphones that allow companies to have a more efficient and better way to keep track of their employees’ hours. The app clocks workers in when they pass over a geo fence. It also keeps track of what they work on, how long it takes, and where they are during their shifts. When employees leave the site it automatically clocks them out.
“ClockWork is a timecard management system that is basically going to revolutionize how construction industries are going to clock in and clock out,” said Martinez.
Ryan and his co-founder, Tito Hamze, continue to work together on ClockWork along with their other partners, Todd Wees and Jeff Davis. They have been working around the clock to get their app demo ready for companies to start trying out.
Not stopping there, Ryan took the chance to give the pitch of a lifetime to a panel of potential investors. This summer he journeyed to Des Moines, Iowa to pitch the ClockWork app at the Shark Tank Casting Calls. Shark Tank, a reality television show on ABC, matches aspiring entrepreneurs with investors.
“It was nerve racking,” said Martinez. “There was a sense of competition there but you’re not really competing with anyone else. You’re competing with yourself to see how really good your product is.”
Martinez gave his pitch in a long room with five sharks at a table. Each shark had one entrepreneur giving their pitch in hopes of selling their idea. Behind each of those five people giving a pitch there were lines of three people waiting and watching the sharks reactions.
“You could tell by their body language if they like it. If they didn’t they brushed you off when you were done.”
Martinez felt like the audition was a success.
“I thought I nailed it,” said Martinez. “She loved it. It felt like she was actually interested in mine, she was asking questions.”
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