By Kara Sherrer
After warming up with a project from the tech care company Asurion, students from the 2025 Accelerator® Summer Business Immersion program pivoted to a completely different industry with a challenge from Mars, a global leader in petcare. Students were tasked with proposing solutions that address the complexities of pet food choices to help Gen Z pet parents determine the optimal diet for their beloved furry and not-so-furry friends.
A real-life challenge with an international pet food manufacturer
Mars asked the students to propose answers to a question that often confounds the newest generation of pet owners: How can Gen Z consumers know they’re feeding their pet an optimal diet?
Given that the students are themselves Gen Z, they have hands-on experience with constant information overload from brands, influencers, self-proclaimed experts and AI-generated content. While Gen Z has access to more information than generations prior, the sometimes-conflicting advice makes it difficult for pet owners to decide the best diet for their beloved pets at different life stages.
The solutions: Subscriptions, customizations and partnerships
Congrats to Group C (Lauren Driver, Marco Fievre-Ricot, Ty Fitch, Phoebe Lee, Lucas Li and Emma Meyer) on winning the second week’s challenge!
For this Accelerator challenge, Mars asked participants to consider all possible channels, technologies and solutions that could be leveraged
to address this problem. Students were tasked with proposing solutions that balanced optimal pet diet and reduced decision fatigue with affordability.
Across the eight student teams, several themes emerged:
- Recurring subscriptions: A couple groups, including the winning team, proposed recurring subscriptions for pet food, treats and other related products, all of which could be adjusted as needs change over time.
- Personalization and customization: Several teams also suggested interactive tools that would make personalized suggestions customized to each pet’s needs, in order to simplify decision-making for pet owners.
- Partnerships with pet day cares and shelters: Other teams recommended collaborating with pet day cares and/or shelters to meet owners and their pets in real life.
Top performer: Personalized pet subscriptions
After a close competition, Team C (Lauren Driver, Marco Fievre-Ricot, Ty Fitch, Phoebe Lee, Lucas Li and Emma Meyer) won the Mars challenge thanks to their comprehensive solution geared toward Gen Z consumers. The winners proposed a subscription-based model that provided personalized meal plans for pets in a variety of sizes and life stages, and included other Mars pet care products in order to cross-promote brands. Judges commended the team not only for their fully fledged proposal, but also for their interactive, highly engaging presentation.
Getting hands-on experience: The Accelerator Summer Business Immersion experience
Accelerator Summer Business Immersion offers an unusual opportunity for students to work with major brands on real-world problems and solutions.
“I gained greater confidence in public speaking when I presented to the Mars executives, and I gained a stronger sense of my leadership style and my strengths and weaknesses [throughout the project],” said Ty Fitch after working on the Mars project specifically.
“Having the opportunity to work in three real-world, hands-on consulting projects gave me valuable experience working in a team-oriented environment,” he added. “I realized how valuable the relationships were that I made with the faculty and other students when the program concluded.”