ASU grad wins $100K pitch competition with functional beverage startup

Logan Milano had a week most entrepreneurs only dream about. Just days after graduating from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business with a degree in finance, he claimed the top prize at the Inferno Invitational Startup Cup – walking away with $100,000 to fuel his growing beverage company, Amryth.

The Inferno Invitational Startup Cup brought together entrepreneurial teams from five Arizona universities, including ASU, Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona, Grand Canyon University, and Phoenix College. Each team delivered a five-minute pitch followed by a five-minute Q&A before a panel of judges at Skysong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. The event was sponsored by the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU, with funding provided through the ASU eSeed Challenge and the Prescott Student Venture Fund.

The Product: A Drink Born From Curiosity and a Flight to Nepal

Amryth is a canned beverage positioned at the intersection of relaxation and focus. Its key ingredient is mad honey – a rare, psychoactive honey produced by large Himalayan bees in Nepal and traditionally harvested off cliff sides by Indigenous tribes. The drink contains no alcohol, no THC, and no added sugar, combining the honey with green tea extract and lavender to create what Milano describes as a clean, euphoric experience with no hangover or side effects.

The idea took root during a finance internship, where Milano observed a notable decline in alcohol sales alongside a rising consumer appetite for functional, holistic beverages. Sensing an opportunity, he began experimenting at home – mixing batches, inviting friends over to taste-test, and quickly realizing he had something people genuinely wanted.

What followed was anything but easy. Milano boarded a flight to Nepal alone, hired a local translator, and traveled deep into rural villages to meet directly with the Indigenous communities who harvest the honey. He endured food poisoning and was stung by some of the largest bees in the world – but he also shared meals with the villagers, built trust, and established lasting relationships. He then drove nine hours to Kathmandu to begin setting up a formal supply chain, navigating failed batches and cold-chain logistics challenges before finally developing a replicable process to import the honey reliably into the United States.

Traction Before the Trophy

By the time Milano stepped onto the pitch stage, Amryth was already moving. Earlier in May, he had manufactured 26,000 cans – and had sold 20% of that inventory before the competition even concluded. Speaking to the judges, he noted that the momentum was pushing him to place his next production order immediately to avoid selling out.

Amryth is currently available on the company’s website at $40 for a four-pack, with bundle discounts available. Milano has set his sights on retail distribution within the next year.

The $100,000 prize is also making a tangible difference beyond Arizona’s borders. Milano has committed to paying the Nepali villagers more than market rate to secure the most potent supply, recognizing that building a sustainable business means investing in the communities at the foundation of it.

A Broader Field of Builders

Milano was not the only standout at the competition. Fellow ASU competitor Johnathan Lok, a PhD student in robotics and autonomous systems, pitched ClearCast – a first-responder network that coordinates autonomous drones to locate and assist missing persons. NAU students Jaya Wartson and Rowan Brandenberg took home the $2,500 Audience Spark Award for Fude Dude, a restaurant recommendation app tailored to user preferences.

Other notable ventures included Barricade Blinds, a bullet-resistant window covering designed for schools; Ampira, a cochlear hearing device connected to a telehealth platform; My Borgo, a crowdfunding platform for purchasing real estate in Italy; Peak, a task-management app built for neurodiverse students; and Vinylessence, a music-synced lighting system for record turntables.

What It Means

Last year’s Inferno Cup winner, Sandul Gangodagamage, founder of Legion Platforms, offered a glimpse of what the prize can unlock – in the year since his win, he doubled his user base, launched 40 new games, and expanded into 20 countries worldwide.

For Milano, the prize arrives at exactly the right moment. Amryth is no longer a kitchen experiment or a promising concept – it is a product with a supply chain, real customers, and now, the capital to scale.

The lesson for every founder in the room: build the thing, take the hard trip, and show up to the pitch with receipts.

Read News Article Here: https://news.asu.edu/20260519-business-and-entrepreneurship-euphoric-entrepreneur-new-asu-grad-wins-100k-pitch