Idea Village Awards $1,500 Prize to platform for watching women’s sports

Despite the growing popularity of women’s sports, it can be difficult to know how to watch games live. Lucy Schodell is building a platform to help fix that — and it scored her $1,500 and access to more support. 

Schodell’s company, Watch Women’s Sports IRL, was the winner in the latest pitch competition hosted by New Orleans-based startup accelerator Idea Village last week at the House of Blues. Her triumph came after being selected as a finalist from the cohort of founders who participate in the accelerator’s IDEAinstitute program.

“I’m equally excited about writing code and building databases as I am cheering on the Tulane women’s basketball team,” Schodell said.

The idea for Watch Women’s Sports IRL, which centralizes women’s sports game listings, came to Schodell when she learned that her friend who operates a women’s sports bar was spending hours a week just trying to find where a game is airing or streaming.

Called the platform a good “market-forward” idea, one of the pitch competition judges asked about revenue: “What do you think is the opportunity to market to women on this platform?”

Women are spending money on sports and sports-adjacent things, Schodell said — apparel, shoes, tickets, and experiences — and advertisers would see real value in promoting goods and services “as the platform gains traction.”

She was joined at the event by founders pitching everything from aquaculture to mobile gaming to jobsite safety and flood intelligence. Schodell and Watch Women’s Sports IRL were selected by a panel of judges, which included 2024 pitch night winner and founder of Breeze Shuttles, Tristan Sariego; Innovate Mississippi fund manager and CEO of CoBridge Ventures, Lindsey Benefield; Regions Bank senior vice president Mike Scott; LWCC Foundation chief investment officer Amanda Didier; and James Phillips, relationship banker and small business specialist at JPMorgan Chase.

The spectrum showcased in the competition offers a “snapshot” of the early-stage ventures in the Gulf South region, Idea Village program manager Karissa Chao said.

“They put in a lot of work to get to this stage,” Idea Village senior program manager Sean Mulligan said.

How the competition works

Founded in 2000 to foster early-stage ventures in the Gulf South, the Idea Village and its IDEAinstitute program host pitch nights twice a year, once for both the spring and fall cohorts.

The event marks the graduation for each cohort. The winner leaves with money. But all IDEAinstitute graduates — referred to as alumni — gain access to other Idea Village accelerator programs and competitions, like the catalyst program IDEAfuel and the Big Idea Showcase, as well as entry to the alumni network and continued mentorship. 

Five founders have five minutes to pitch, followed by five minutes of judge Q&A. After the last pitch, judges deliberate and make a pick.

Judges use these criteria:

• Did the founder clearly communicate their business concept?
• Is their business model defined, realistic, and scalable?
• Do they have evidence that says their product is supported, needed, and viable?
• Do they have a strong grasp of the market they are operating in?

Founders take the stage and judges weigh in

Stephen McCarty, CEO of AI Control Technologies, was up first. He pitched AUTODIVE, which he called “the future of marine operations.”

McCarty’s autonomous aquaculture system provides automated depth control and remote data reporting used in farming oysters and mussels, he said. His business idea aims to expand domestic seafood production. The company has built five prototypes, McCarty said.

“How much does it cost to make one of these things?” Sariego asked from the judges’ panel.

“Cost of goods is currently $70,000 per unit,” McCarty said. “We expect to get that down to roughly $40,000 per unit.”

Founder Jeric Jones had the prototype for his idea on hand. He pitched a removable controller for smartphone gaming called Band Controller. It attaches directly to the screen, meaning no bulky hardware add-on for smartphone gamers, as Jones demonstrated by casually sliding his phone out of his pocket on stage.

“Great presentation,” Scott said. Then came the question: “Who is your target market, and have you tested it with them?”

Jones said while meeting with a bank, he found people who worked there were game adjusters. He let them take it for a spin, and “they were ecstatic,” Jones said. He didn’t leave with the $1,500 check, but he received the loudest hoots and hollers at the end of his presentation.

Michael Bishop of IBEX pitched a safety device for professionals who work on steep roofs. Following Hurricane Ida, Bishop was an insurance claims adjuster and had to climb roofs “of all makes and models” to inspect them for damage. He said he watched a colleague fall from a two-story roof after a slip.

Bishop’s device is wearable, over footwear, to stabilize those who work on steep footing at elevated heights.

“How do you know your product works?” Scott asked.

Bishop acknowledged that no one else has used it yet, but that he had tested it himself. “If it’ll hold me,” Scott said, gesturing to his robust frame, “it’ll hold most other roof-climbers.”

Pitching cleanup was Pranavesh Panakkal, a research scientist at The Water Institute, who shared his idea for an AI-powered flood intelligence platform for monitoring roadway conditions during flood events, called SAFE Roads.

It’s tech that could theoretically be used by emergency responders, city officials, and utility companies, Panakkal said.

Asked, “Where are you in the development of the software?”

Panakkal said the plan is to have the product online by March 2027.

Big Ideas Showcase

Idea Village also held a side-competition: the Big Ideas Showcase.

The competition involved alumni founders from previous IDEAinstitute pitch nights, setting up tables and selling their ideas to those in attendance. Each attendee was given a chip that they used to cast their vote for the winner.

Showcase participants included speech-to-text invoicing company Build-A-Way, hangover-preventive wearable patch Antidote Patch, mobile billboard and transport company Breeze Shuttles, the children’s toy and story series Zebonky, and Gigs.

Gigs was the winner. It is a musician-booking app for venues and event planners that also provides a map of scheduled events for concertgoers. The app is also for musicians, who can set rates for performances.