May 12, 2010 - Claremont, CA -

A trio of Harvey Mudd College students and a fourth from Claremont McKenna College collaborated to capture top honors and a $4,500 capital investment award in the 20th annual Henry R. Kravis Concept Plan Competition.

HMC Seniors Jonny Simkin, Matt Kurtis and Alex Kurtis and CMC’s Kyle Casella, whose business concept was dubbed SwoopThat, LLC, were honored for development of what they believe is the first search engine dedicated to connecting local consumers with local retailers. They beat out six finalist teams comprised of students and alumni from The Claremont Colleges to capture the prize.

"It’s phenomenal, we’re really happy," Simkin, an engineering major, said of the award.

The search engine, developed by the group, was designed to offer information on millions of products from thousands of stores and represent a one-stop shopping search engine for consumers around the country. The students believe SwoopThat will help consumers make better purchasing decisions while enabling local retailers to gain a foothold in an increasingly competitive, web-based consumer market.

Simkin said the ability to buy local products right now was something he wanted as a consumer.

"As I started talking with stores in the [Claremont] Village, I realized they have a problem in that they can’t get their inventories exposed to a vast consumer base," he said. "Most consumers research products online before buying them, so I began figuring out ways that I could integrate those local products and revive local businesses."

With the recession continuing to affect local merchants, SwoopThat already has had a positive impact by creating an online presence for two stores in the Claremont Village: Rain Boutique, Inc., which provides women’s fashion items, and Boon Companion, a toy, book and game store. The group hopes to involve 10 to 20 businesses in the short term and thousands of businesses nationwide within several years. The capability to fold in all businesses in the Village might be available within six months, Simkin said.

"Obviously, receiving $4,500 is pretty important for us," Simkin said. "But more than the money, there were investors who offered great feedback and indicated they would help put us in front of a large investment group to pitch for seed funding. We may just take them up on that."

Other Kravis competition finalists included SPRINGO, $2,500; CollegeMatchers, Inc, $1,500; EcOptimus, $500; Twelfth Knight: The Democratization of Apparel, $500; and A Different Cup, $500.

The competition was hosted by Dr. Jim Mills, adjunct professor of finance and co-director of financial engineering at the Claremont Graduate University’s Peter F. Drucker & Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management. Judges included Harvey Mudd College Alumnus Surya Jayaweera ’96, founder and president of WolfeTech Corp.; Jay Prag, clinical associate professor and academic director of the Drucker Executive Management Program; and John Tillquist, president of the Inland Empire Network of Tech Coast Angels, Inc.