When he was young, Ryan Zimbauer remembers his mom telling him that his future career would involve something that hadn’t been invented yet. Now, as the winner of the 2025 Big Idea Competition hosted by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Zimbauer says the recognition for his project, MagPocket, is a result of continually seeking and taking opportunities to learn.
Zimbauer, a civil engineering student from San José, California, says some of his early learning moments came from watching his father run a construction company. He saw his dad being detail oriented, demonstrating honesty in business, and meeting customer needs. “I feel very fortunate that I got to observe and learn from my father’s example at a young age,” he says.
Zimbauer’s observations of his father’s business mindset led to his own business ideas and products, including an in-pocket phone charger for convenient, on-the-go power. However, wireless charging technology requires phones to be properly aligned on a charging pad, and Zimbauer says early attempts from others were prone to over-heating or weren’t machine washable.
Then, in 2020, Apple came out with its MagSafe technology for iPhones. The magnetic properties in MagSafe gave Zimbauer a way to hold the phone in place for efficient charging. Harnessing this new tool, he sought out opportunities to further develop this concept—starting with a sewing class at BYU. “It was fun taking that class because I was able to develop my business idea into a prototype,” Zimbauer says.
The following semester, he took three entrepreneurship classes and received feedback from people on his developing product. The following fall, he added ENT 490R: Starting an Online Business.
While many people were intrigued by an in-pocket charger, Zimbauer says more people were interested in the product’s use of magnets to prevent phones from falling out of loose-fitting clothes. “It was just baffling to me because this concept of securing the phone in a pocket is a simple idea, and I was surprised that no one has done this yet,” he says.
But even simple ideas require hard work, Zimbauer explains. Before pitching his idea to the Big Idea Competition, Zimbauer worked through several iterations, presented at the Student Innovator of the Year (SIOY) competition twice, and filed a utility patent for his product. He also integrated heat-sealable materials that reduced production time by one-third compared to machine sewing.
Now, with $1,000 from the competition in hand, Zimbauer says that MagPocket’s success couldn’t have happened without the learning opportunities leading up to the competition. “I tried to view everything as an opportunity to gain more skills along the way,” Zimbauer says. “I really had to embrace the journey.”