Every dollar donated during December will go directly toward paying students to produce stories like this one. Give now and ensure a brighter future for The Daily Orange.

Ben Ford, a junior at Syracuse University, and his start-up company Fundwurx took home the second-place prize at the Western New York Global Student Entrepreneur Awards regional competition on Nov. 11 in Buffalo, New York.

Fundwurx is a machine learning platform that optimizes the crowdfunding experience for donors and causes, and its software uses algorithms to discover the interests of donors to match the fundraising goals of specific causes. The goal is to maximize the impact of crowdfunding for both parties. Ford said donors will even have the option to donate their time or expertise to an organization as well.

Fundwurx is Ford’s second start-up venture following Jersey Boy, a tailgate apparel company he began in high school. Like Jersey Boy, Fundwurx found its origins in Ford’s high school experience. While working on a senior project to redesign the science department at his high school in an environmentally friendly manner, Ford turned to GoFundMe to source funding for his plan.

“I realized through that experience, fundraising is really, really hard. And there wasn’t a way to really have our campaign succeed,” Ford said. “So, I saw that as a window of opportunity, but the timing wasn’t right, so I put the idea in my back pocket.”

After Jersey Boy’s victory in the 2020 SU Blackstone Launchpad CuseTank competition, Ford was invited to compete for the Impact Prize a week later and won. Over the following ten days, Ford pulled his old high school idea out of his back pocket and compiled a pitch for the company that would eventually become Fundwurx.

“When I told my roommate, I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make the deck. I’m gonna do some calls, do some research and if I win, I guess it’s meant to be. And if not, I guess Jersey Boy is meant to be,’” Ford said. “So, I just put my head down, worked on it for 10 days, and then competed and won. I was like, ‘Alright, maybe this means something.’”

Linda Hartsock, the executive director of the Blackstone LaunchPad at SU, said although Ford was successful with Jersey Boy, his passion lay in philanthropy. Ford said after the Impact Prize competition, he began meeting with Hartsock to work on his new company.

Ben Ford’s first start-up was a refurbished tailgate clothing brand that he began in high school. Allie Rosen | Staff Photographer

One year later, Fundwurx raised $15,000 from various grants and competition prizes, Ford said. The company, which has onboarded a head of business development and board of advisors, is currently developing its minimum viable product — the step before releasing a beta version. Ford hopes to conduct the start-up’s pre-seed investment round in January 2022.

Fundwurx’s first test of its software was actually used to fundraise the prize money for LaunchPad’s Founder’s Cup competition, Hartsock said, which sources the award money from alumni.

Although Fundwurx did not place at the 2021 CuseTank competition, the company’s success led Ford to enter the company in the regional 2021 GSEA competition to improve his pitch skills and continue fundraising for his business.

“Every time you compete and present and pitch, you always get feedback for your idea,” Ford said. “And a big thing with Fundwurx is storytelling … So for me, it’s like, how do you tell the story?”

Ford said the 12-minute pitch for the GSEA competition was a far bigger venture than the five-minute pitches he gave for other competitions. He said he adapted how he conveyed all the different aspects of Fundwurx: the futuristic technology it relies on and the emotional aspect of supporting causes and connecting individuals through their desire to give back.

Hartsock shared a similar sentiment and said that the GSEA competition emphasized the role of the entrepreneur in a pitch whereas many of the competitions at SU focus on a student’s business plan.

“You take all those opinions (from competitions) inside and you synthesize them, and then you make edits,” Ford said. “So then the next competition you compete with a different deck that’s marginally different.”

Despite finishing second in the GSEA competition, Ford received rave reviews from judges and walked away with a $1,000 prize to invest in Fundwurx. Hartsock said that Ford’s pitch script for the GSEA competition was the best pitch she heard in the five years since the LaunchPad opened.

“He’s somebody who really embodies the art and science of entrepreneurship,” Hartsock said.

Published on December 1, 2021 at 12:38 am

Contact Danny: ddamron@syr.edu | @dannyamron_