Reported by Jacqueline Sinex
On Tuesday, President Sara Pantin called the meeting to order. Pledges were led by Diana Diaz, an
invocation about peace was shared by Michele Heyman, and Ken King led the group in reciting the Four- Way-Test. Larry Rieber, Mary Reynolds and Carl Noble greeted guests and visitors.
The crowd applauded as Tom Anderson earned his blue badge, celebrating his bridge into active
participation in the club.
Mary Reynolds announced an upcoming volunteer opportunity to help care for new trees being planted
under the Rotary International tree planting initiative. She will update members once the trees are officially planted.
Past President Harold Ingersoll shared an opportunity for the club to volunteer for Rise Against Hunger,
the 3rd time our club has participated in the project. We exceeded the goal at last year’s event by packing
22,000 meals for families in need. Our club has a similar goal at the 2018 event. Sign up sheets to participate are available.
Ann Graham gave a recap of the recent Camp Enterprise program and thanked all the many volunteers who helped make it such a success. Our presentation featured the winning team from the Camp
Enterprise program, which occurred the weekend of January 26, 2018. This team was comprised of high
school juniors Valeria Argote, Eric Bowers, Julianne Flores, Sam Haager, Haley Justiz, Jenny
Lu, Anh-Ton Pham and Chad Thomas. These students came from various high schools across the Austin
area, and most of them did not know each other prior to the camp program.
The team’s winning project is titled The Aria, a Home Allergen Sensor. The students shared that they came up with the name “Aria” because it means “air” in Italian. Their product concept is focused on helping people manage airborne allergens.
In their research, the students noted that approximately 20 million Americans are affected by airborne
allergens. They sought out a way to tackle this problem. The end result is a concept for a device that can be plugged into a home to monitor allergens in the environment. Beyond the physical device, the product features bluetooth capabilities and a mobile app that delivers reports and recommendations to the user. The app would also report data about the outside allergy statistics and advice personalized to the customer’s allergy issues. For example, if a certain allergy statistic was high in their area, the app may send a notification to avoid going outside for a run.
The target market is primarily focused on homeowners, which the team determined would likely be people age 28 or older. Some statistics from the allergen monitoring system could be useful to parents, such as knowing the allergen content in a baby’s room.
In the market analysis and financial planning process, the students decided the closest competitors are
companies in the smart home device market and air filters products. They averaged data between these
industries to determine their price and projections. The smart home market is estimated to be $14.7 billion.
The cost for manufacturing the product included: laser – $32.00, Bluetooth chip – $2.00, plastic – $0.18. The total estimated cost for the product materials is $34.21. The team set the market price at $129.00. Based on a small percentage of the target market, they projected 74,000 customers in their first year of sales, over $9 million in sales. The net revenue was estimated at about $7 million.
For marketing strategy, the group planned to focus on Facebook and Instagram advertising, where the target audience is likely to be reached. They would invest in pop-up ads on home improvement websites and other websites where homeowners are likely to visit. Additionally, they proposed developing a TV commercial on HGTV or a similar network, and forming partnerships and sponsor relationships with other companies.
During final questions, we learned that one student is a legacy camp participant, having 2 older siblings
who already attended the program. Another student plans to encourage her little brother to pursue interest in Camp Enterprise. The students left the Rotary meeting on their way to present to a group at the Capital Factory, a special opportunity to engage with investors and a live pitch experience.