InventOR Surfaces Student Entrepreneurs
July 2026
Melissa Freeman
InventOR Surfaces Entrepreneurs
Brian Cortez-Cabezas, co-founder and marketing leader of Swiftlock, stumbled into this role when his professor at Oregon State University encouraged him to attend a day-long event called the Willamette Valley Innovation Jam for the InventOR program last fall. InventOR is a statewide collegiate competition for student innovators. He didn’t know he was supposed to have a team, but luckily, his friend Saeed Valvidia Munoz was on a team and invited him to join. Brian said, “Honestly, I attended because I wanted extra credit for my coding classes.”
During the session, they only had a few hours to brainstorm and develop a prototype that the team could build. It was challenging because some teams were ahead and already had an idea they were refining. Saeed shared how his sister works as a caregiver in a nursing home and regularly comes home with bruises because her patients fall on her and have trouble living independently. Even fastening their own belts is a challenge. This gave them the idea of developing a magnetic belt buckle to make lives easier and promote independent living.
With cardboard and tape, Brian, Saeed, and Ronyn Gaudet, a third co-founder, quickly built a prototype to show how it could work. Then they studied the market opportunity for their product and cost to produce it. The various OSU teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges, and the Swiftlock team came in second. Four teams qualified for the InventOR Finals. Knowing the competition would be steep at the statewide level against 14 other schools, Brian asked if their team could represent Linn Benton Community College as he’s a dual enrolled student. That was approved and they went on to compete against 19 teams in June, held at OSU Cascades.
For 10 years, Portland State University has been leading the coordination for the program on behalf of any college or university in Oregon that wants their student teams to participate. Stacey Hoshimiya, Director, PSU Center for Entrepreneurship, works with liaisons from 15+ colleges, universities and community colleges to organize teams, host local competitions and then send finalists to the statewide competition to compete for over $30K in prize money.
Community leaders and investors from our entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as Vanessa Wilkins and Peter Horan, participated as judges. Multiple sponsors, including Oregon Venture Fund, contribute to make it possible.
While Brian’s team had steep competition at the Finals, they managed to win $2,000 for the Outstanding Community College innovation. Brian’s eyes lit up when asked about his experience. He was proud they had a website, a nice looking and functional belt to sell, beautiful banners and posters, business cards and more. I commented on the nice marketing materials and asked who led that effort. He beamed as he humbly said, “That was my job.” I don’t know if Brian’s parents were able to attend the competition, but I am sure they are proud of their son for showing up, committing to this extracurricular effort and seeing it to completion. When I asked him what’s next, he said, “We plan on investing half of our prize money directly back into our start up but we are going to have difficulty managing our time. All three of us are full-time engineering students and we all have jobs outside of school. We plan on finalizing our design and getting a patent on it, as well as partnering with care facilities to get some field testing on our product.”
I’ve been attending InventOR competitions since Rachel Jagoda Brunette, Juan Barraza and Angela Jackson launched the program in 2016 because I love the inspiration I get from watching students from across the state design, build and pitch their ideas. Some ideas turn into businesses, and some students just use the experience to build exceptional skills, resumes and get a job! Either way, this is a model program Oregon should continue funding for years to come. You can learn more about the great teams and winners here: 2026 Winners - Live Posts on Linkedin
Pictured: Brian Cortez-Cabezas, Co-Founder, Swiftlock, engineering student at Linn Benton Community College and Oregon State University