After winning the People’s Choice award from Farmer’s Market with 78 votes out of 209 on Monday, Dec. 17, INCubatoredu group ‘X-Charge’ moves forward to compete Sunday, May 5 at Pitch Night hosted at the MCL Grand. Seniors Nala Hemingway, Dalton Baham and Hector Ramirez, and juniors Brock Seran, Isaiah Williams and Mica Adams move to the final round to compete for a chance to gain funding for their project.

“Basically we reverse engineered a portable phone charger,” Williams said. “We made it our own. We came up with a completely new design that’s water resistant and completely cordless.”

Farmer’s Market was hosted in the cafeteria in order for INCubator groups to show students their products to receive their votes. After winning with a clean sweep, the group is excited to move forward and hopefully bring their product to the real-world market soon.

“The whole process of learning what we needed to do to come up with the concept of the idea [was a long journey],” Williams said. “[We had to learn] the business side and all the numbers, and have our mentors and coaches come in and help.”

While normal chargers have a life span of six to 12 months and experience rips and tears, the ‘X- Charge’ is a completely cordless portable charger that can plug straight into the wall. The group wanted to make a convenient charger that has an attachable battery and adapter.  

“Regular charging cables get really tangled up [because] they [are] broken really easily,” Williams said. “[So] we’re helping save our potential customers’ money on buying charging cables and providing value by making it customizable with different colors.”

As the teams were divided based on self-evaluations of strengths, weaknesses and skills, ‘X-Charge’ faced struggles with dividing up the work and figuring how to put their idea together.

“They have had to overcome a lot of adversity,” business teacher Valerie Cooper said. “Through market research and interviews they have had to pivot on their ideas so many times, but they never lost that determination to solve their problem.”

Students in ‘X-charge,’ such as Adams, were able to grow more self-confidence while they pitched their business idea to other students during block lunch.

“I feel like [this experience] has taught me to put myself out there,” Adams said. “Like don’t be afraid to just do things. There is no shame in starting a project.”