For many children, going to the doctor or being hospitalized can be an anxiety-filled experience. Startup MedBerry aims to alleviate this experience by creating a new style of stuffed animals with outfits, accessories, and accompanying stories. Each animal has a specific story, medical profession, and different specialties.
The idea to create MedBerry was born during the 2024-25 Startup Games held at the University of Iowa. The Startup Game is a two-day event where UI students submit ideas that will impact the community, and the best proposals are awarded cash prizes that are donated to the group’s ideas.
After pitching their ideas, students form teams and work with each other to make their ideas a reality. The team then assigns roles, conducts research, discovers customers, and meets with a business coach.
UI students Ella Brennan, Nora McCloy, Fisher Muck, Katrina Ng, and Branson Pearson were among the team that collaborated to create MedBerry and won first place and a $1,000 prize at the Startup Games. did.
Brennan, a first-year open major, decided to participate in the startup game with his roommate and teammate McCloy. Brennan said the idea to create Medbury was inspired by her own experience with chronic illness.
“I was very sick as a child, especially at an early age, and I still struggle with chronic illness,” Brennan said. “So I was thinking, ‘How could I reduce my fear of doctors as a child? And what can I do to reduce my child’s fear?’ I got an idea.”
Brennan pitched the idea at the Startup Game, and other students started joining the team. Pearson, a fourth-year corporate leadership major, knew the idea would be popular and attract consumers.
“I remember really liking Medbury’s pitch. I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to strike a chord with people, so everyone’s going to like it,'” Pearson said. “I felt like MedBerry was going to go pretty far, and it didn’t hurt to be a part of it.”
As a transfer student from Kirkwood, Pearson didn’t feel like there were many opportunities to interact with other students around campus. But Pearson said the Startup Game not only provides a space for students to be innovative, but it can also create connections.
The Startup Game provided a place for Pearson and other students with similar interests and ideas to come together. He quickly connected with the others and considered himself a mentor as he was the oldest on the team.
“I felt like a bit of a coach to them, especially since all of my classes were centered around entrepreneurship,” Pearson said. “I really liked giving them pointers and stepping back and watching them do things.”
Additionally, Pearson believes MedBerry will do more to educate individuals about healthcare professionals and the medical field as a whole.
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Mack, a first-year entrepreneurship major, said the connections she made at the event will help her develop her education and career goals while at UI.
Mook said this experience will also help him with future opportunities to start other purpose-driven businesses in the future.
The group says the creation of Startup Games and MedBerry has definitely influenced who they are now and in the future.
“(Medbury) gave me a different perspective on things I had never really thought about,” said Ng, a third-year student who recently changed her major from nursing to pre-business. I did.
Ng previously worked and volunteered at UI Healthcare, where she said she was able to see children and how they interacted with professionals. Some of the previous classes she took gave her medical knowledge.
Overall, Ng was able to provide insight from those experiences into the creation of MedBerry as well.
The entire team credits UI, the John Papajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, professors, and others for their support during their time at Startup Games and UI.
“There were a lot of great professors and faculty members at the event that I was able to talk to about ideas that helped me, and I really enjoyed talking to them,” Mack said.
Now, MedBerry wants to turn this idea into a real company and is continuing to discuss the creation of a future business at upcoming meetings. Prize money from the Startup Game will be donated to MedBerry to help the team begin their journey.
For other students looking to start their own companies or projects, Brennan said it’s worth being afraid to put your ideas out there.
“You’re going to be scared when you’re doing it, and you’re going to be scared the whole time,” Brennan says. “But be afraid, because fear isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It means you’re doing something you’ve never done before.”
