A Grove City College student from Fishers and his business partner pitched their startup this spring to investors for an entrepreneurial-themed TV show and received a $10,000 grant for their company
On Aug. 31, 2022, Entrepreneur Media reached out to Fishers resident Luke Gilligan as a potential guest for its show, “Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch,” a show where guests are given 60 seconds to pitch their business ideas to investors. On May 9 of this year, Gilligan made it onto the show, where he and his business partner, Logan Mays, introduced their startup, Resense, and one of its products, the Resend Registry.
Gilligan said that during his freshman year in college, he took a class called Lean Launchpad. The class requires students to come up with a business idea, pitch it, and later launch it if the students want to.
Resense was inspired by Gilligan’s experience working in nursing homes. He said he saw residents given children’s coloring books, and often not treated as adults.
“It really broke my heart seeing these individuals treated like children,” Gilligan said.
For the show, he gave investors a sample of the Resense Registry, a dementia-friendly newspaper typed in 16-point-font. Each edition has approximately eight articles and word games.
Gilligan said the newspaper is made for individuals with dementia of all stages.
“They can range from early stage to late stage,” Gilligan said. “In the late stage, these individuals only have long-term memory. That’s where current news goes in one ear and out the other. We wanted to create something they can still enjoy.”
According to the company’s website, the Resense Register is produced bimonthly. It contains timeless articles with no reference to dates and articles that are designed to help people reminisce.
For the show, Gilligan and Mays asked for a $150,000 investment in exchange for 10 percent ownership. Investors who included Netflix founder, Marc Randolf, Kim Perell and Jonathan Hung turned down that pitch but were still impressed and wanted to help Resense with its mission.
The startup was given a $10,000 grant on behalf of Amazon Business. Gilligan said they were one of the only recipients of the grant. The episode aired June 21. For more, visit resensebox.com.
Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch can be viewed at youtube.com/@entrepreneur.
