Modesto boy’s backpack idea rates high in Entrepreneur Challenge

Several startup business ideas – including a Modesto boy’s vision of a backpack that can be doodled upon and erased – advanced in a contest Wednesday night.

The first round of the San Joaquin Entrepreneur Challenge, which involves pitches to an expert panel and audience voters, resulted in Hien Ho and seven other entrants moving on to the second round. It will be April 13, when the finals also will take place.

Hien, a 10-year-old fourth-grader at Mary Ann Sanders Elementary School, co-created the backpacks with his dad, Anhviet Nguyen. The backpacks, available in black and pink, have a zippered back panel and pocket made of clear PVC plastic. They come with a set of eight liquid-chalk markers in a rainbow of colors, plus a pack of wet wipes.

The idea, Hien says on the website of their business, ChalkWild, is that “other kids like me will have a portable canvas to doodle our imagination. We can erase and doodle new ideas whenever we desire.”

Once dry, doodles are pretty smudge-resistant and can last three days to a week if not rubbed off. “He likes to draw dragons and Pokémons,” Nguyen said of his son, “and after a week, they’re still recognizable as Pokémons.”

Father and son experimented with different types of plastic coloring surfaces and decided on PVC because it erased more cleanly than others.

They’ve given a few backpacks as birthday presents, and Hien said friends love the idea. “They’ve been saving to buy them,” he said, “and they want to be my co-workers.”

Nguyen said parents have told him they’ve enjoyed sneaking little messages such as “I love you” onto the backpacks.

The backpacks sell for $36 on https://chalkwild.com, and $10 from each sale will be donated to a nonprofit organization of the customer’s choice and on that customer’s behalf, Nguyen said. “We wanted to combine this with philanthropy,” he said. “We have an understanding with St. Jude’s, Operation Smile and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, so we can use their names on our site, but a customer can type in any charity’s name” and have a donation sent that way.

The backpacks – 12 inches wide, 14.5 inches high – are made for kids Hien’s age and younger who don’t have a big load to carry, Nguyen said. But the backpacks are durable and come with a lifetime warranty, he said.

Next up as ChalkWild products, the dad and son say, are hats (Hien already wears a prototype) and very likely diaper bags.

Among the other first-round victors were a Merced man’s “Crazy Talking Piñata,” which also competed last year, and a Stockton man’s mobile app for rating tattoo artists.

The seventh annual contest is for people in an eight-county area that includes the Northern San Joaquin Valley and central Sierra Nevada. The winner and runner-up will get $20,000 in cash and professional services that can help expand their businesses.

Here are the winners of the first round, held at the Stockton Golf & Country Club:

▪  Hien Ho, for his “re-doodle-able” backpack.

▪  Erin Long of Oakdale for her pouch that fits snugly to the body and can hold car keys, credit cards, cash and other small items.

▪  Erin Bell of Modesto for her ceramic pendants that diffuse aromatherapy oils. She was a finalist with the product last year and placed second in the 2015 version of the Stanislaus Innovation Challenge, a single-county event.

▪  William Ames of Modesto for a one-person tent, sleeping bag and air mattress that can be assembled into one lightweight unit for backpacking.

▪  Agustin Roldan of Merced for a device that can help predict electrical motor failure in food processing and other industries.

▪  Michael Urner of Merced for a device that can reduce lung infections in newborns and infants in hospitals.

▪  Octavio Valencia for the above-mentioned piñata, which can be opened remotely to spill the contents.

▪  Jack Relva for his tattoo-rating app, which he likened to “Yelp for the tattoo industry.”

The San Joaquin Angels investment group sponsors the challenge with several partners in business, economic development and academia.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Modesto boy’s backpack idea rates high in Entrepreneur Challenge."