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Here Are the Best Startups from the Penn Wharton Startup Challenge

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Photo by startupstockphotos.com / CC0

Classes may be finished for the academic year, but startup culture at Wharton has no intentions of slowing down. Today, the Wharton School held its annual Startup Challenge Showcase, where the semifinalists across all the Penn schools presented some of the greatest ideas in entrepreneurship right now. What followed was an afternoon of brilliant young minds coming together to pitch innovative startups, hear from impressive panelists, humblebrag about the experience of attaining so much success at such a young age, and of course, network with the best of them. Here are some of the most ingenious startup ideas that made it to the showcase:

Formality

Formality is a mobile app designed to pair students in need of a companion for date nights, formals, and any other one-night-only-please-never-contact-me-again events. Perfect for when your roommate's cousin's best friend's grandlittle inevitably bails on you last-minute.

Rent-a-Proxy

The founders of Rent-a-Proxy know full well that Penn students lead busy lives full of classes, homework, recreational drug use, volunteer work, and clubs. Rent-a-Proxy seeks to lighten the load by eliminating the need to attend meetings. Rent-a-Proxy is a web service that matches overscheduled students with underscheduled freshman who can attend those "meetings that should have been emails" as a proxy. What sets this startup apart from other proxy-sharing services is that, in addition to ensuring your attendance, Rent-a-Proxies will also literally transcribe the the meeting into an email sent directly to your school email's Spam folder—so you don't miss a beat.

InterningAt

InterningAt's mission statement says it best: "It's Facebook, but exclusively for posting statuses about your internship."

B.Y.O.F.

Love the BYOB experience but wish the food was better? The founders of B.Y.O.F. felt the same and, instead of sitting idly by continuing to stuff their faces with impossibly greasy fried rice like you, decided to do something about it. B.Y.O.F. is a "dining experience" where patrons are advised to "Bring Your Own Food" and drinks. It provides all the best parts of a BYOB—a crowded, filthy seating area, low lights, loud music, and understandably exasperated staff—while still letting you enjoy the food on your own terms (and dime).

StartupLink

StartupLink has been hailed by many as "the greatest networking site since Portfolium." This startup targets users on the job market who are looking specifically for positions at startups. It essentially works like any other crowdfunding platform, where users provide money and "intellectual capital," but it goes a step above by rewarding those users with the ability to skirt questions about summer plans and say "I'm trying my hand at entrepreneurship and working at a startup."

FüdMe

FüdMe will change the way you think about eating. This startup seeks to connect hungry college students with food by setting up a brick-and-mortar marketplace where customers can buy ingredients to make recipes of their choosing. A more flexible and creative alternative to waiting in line at Honeygrow.

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