Looking for Your Next Favorite Product? 

These HPHS Scots Tank competitors may have just created it

Don’t search in stores for a whisk that will clean your shaker bottle while you mix your drink.

You also won’t find an eco-friendly additive for paint that will rid your yard of mosquitos and wasps.

These products aren’t on shelves yet, though they could be soon. 

They’re two of the winning ideas in this year’s Scots Tank, the annual opportunity for entrepreneurs in Highland Park High School’s Moody Advanced Professional Studies program to showcase their business innovations.

A panel of experienced and successful entrepreneurs gave the students feedback on May 1 and chose first, second, and third place winners based on their product’s viability and their marketing strategy. The Park Cities Dads Club will provide funds for those students to continue developing their products.

But there were lots of wins along the way for all students in the MAPS Business Design and Leadership Course. Almost 40 community members visited the program to share advice with the teams of students and give professional input on aspects of their business plans.

“It’s a tremendous launchpad for some of our kids,” said Polly McKeithen, MAPS professional engagement administrator. “That’s not to say they’re all going to go to business school … But the fact that they come out of here more able to articulate what it is that they believe in, and more certain of their capabilities, those are skills they will build upon in their college careers.”

Scots Tank’s third place winner was GloGuard, a 3-in-1 sunscreen makeup developed by CEO Dylan Roy, C.C. Tinch, and Brooke Van Arsdale. The brand, Van Arsdale explained, is specifically marketed toward the students’ generation, Gen Z, and is fun and elevated, while still being affordable. 

Pest Protect, an eco-friendly insect repelling paint additive, earned the competition’s second prize. CEO Izzy Ogle, who developed the product with Walker Thrash, Ava Saphier, and Reece Tiffany, said guidance from business leaders persuaded the group to switch their design from a paint to an additive.

“If you already have paint at your house, if you’re a DIYer, it would be easier to just buy the additive and pour it in, instead of having to buy all new paint from our company,” Ogle explained.

First place in the competition went to ShakeUV, a UV cleaner for shaker bottles. CEO Henry Hobbs explained that he got the idea for ShakeUV after realizing that the shaker bottle he used multiple times a day wasn’t getting clean in the dishwasher. 

“It kept smelling worse and worse, and I was thinking to myself there has to be a way to clean this without constantly scrubbing it,” he said. 

Hobbs and teammates Ellery Hall, Reagan Johansen, and Arden Rodgers researched self-cleaning water bottles and UV technology that kills bacteria before developing their product, a small, whisk-like ball equipped with a UV light that can be placed in any bottle, including baby bottles.

Hobbs said feedback from business leaders who visited the MAPS program gave his team different perspectives that strengthened their product. By the competition’s final round, he was certain of ShakeUV’s potential.

“I know this idea can work,” he said. “Really being able to believe in your idea and have that confidence was the biggest reward.”