Recent men’s basketball grad pitches “Trippie” on national TV
Just a few short months ago Ryan Diew ’17 was running up and down the basketball court in the Maroon and White. Now, he’ll be taking his entrepreneurship venture on national television when the former Raider pitches his business on the season premiere of the critically acclaimed and multi-Emmy Award-winning reality show Shark Tank.
Diew is the founder and CEO of Trippie, a mobile app that serves as an airport mapping service.
The app allows travelers to explore a detailed interactive map of the airport to immediately get the lay of the land. It displays menus, reviews, hours and calculates how long it takes to get to food sports and restaurants to help users stay on time and avoid missing their flights.
“Playing basketball at Colgate helped me so much during this process,” said Diew. “My teammates and coaches have been so supportive of me from day one. The coaches would constantly give me guidance and advice on how to create this business and make the product better. Their feedback was so invaluable because they are always in and out of airports recruiting so it was really cool to get their input.
“Anytime we were on the road in the airport, my teammates would use the app and help me test it out at new airports, which allowed me to determine which airports to add our app to first,” Diew continued. “If it wasn’t for the support of the entire basketball program, I don’t think Trippie would be nearly the product that it is right now.”
Trippie was born with the help of Colgate’s Thought Into Action Entrepreneurship Incubator. Through hours and hours of hard work, trials and tribulations, Diew’s product eventually got to a point where people started to take notice. Trippie earned funding from several different sources. Diew got the call from Shark Tank producers after his business appeared in an Inc.com Coolest College Startup competition.
Now, Diew will get the chance to pitch his product in front of millions of viewers Sunday night on the two-hour season premiere of the popular show. The episode is set to air at 8 p.m. Sunday night on ABC.
“We are all proud of Ryan,” said head coach Matt Langel. “Balancing the rigors of the life of a D1 college basketball player and the curriculum at Colgate University is in and of itself a full-time job. To be able to create and grow Trippie amidst it all is a testament to Ryan’s makeup.
“We all hope that Trippie concludes with a storybook ending, but regardless, I am confident that Ryan will continue to find success throughout his life,” Langel continued. “He is certainly a fine representative of our program and Colgate University wherever he goes.”
Whether or not the sharks choose to invest in Trippie remains to be seen during Sunday’s airing, but regardless Diew and his team are preparing for a large influx of downloads following the episode.
“Being a college athlete, you’re constantly pushed to your mental, physical and emotional limits,” Diew said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “The lessons that I’ve learned and experiences that I’ve gained through athletics have prepared me for every situation that the startup life has thrown my way.”