Student Experience

These UVA students are reinventing how lost items find their way home

Sometimes, the best business ideas are sitting at your feet, left on a bench or flapping in the wind.

Once University of Virginia fourth-year student Brian Cunningham arrived for his entrepreneurship capstone course in August, he had seen enough of Grounds to know what it was lacking: a universal lost-and-found service.

“Just from visiting gyms each day or just walking around, you could see lost items,” Cunningham said. “‘Oh, there’s a hat there, there’s a backpack there, there’s a water bottle there.’”

That observation led to a concept, which then led to a profitable startup.

Close up photos showing the tags on a childs jacket and water bottle

Children’s jackets and water bottles are among the items with Papertags stickers for Sunrise Elementary School students. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

Cunningham, who will graduate next month with a degree from the McIntire School of Commerce, is a co-founder of Papertags. This smart sticker leverages near-field communication technology to help return objects to their owners.

Once the sticker is applied, a tap from a smartphone opens the Papertag claim page, where the owner enters contact information. If the item is lost, the stickers feature a “Tap Phone Here to Contact Owner” message for the finder.

The original idea, shared by Cunningham and classmates Andrew Prince and Clay Lalik, was formed in professor Eric Martin’s Entrepreneurship Track Capstone course in the fall. Now, more than 400 UVA students are registered Papertag users, and the product is beginning to spread to local elementary schools and equipment rental organizations.

Brian Cunningham in front of the McIntire school holding a lost and found box of items

Cunningham is graduating next month with a degree from the McIntire School of Commerce. (Photo by Brian Cunningham, University Communications)

Cunningham says more than 900 stickers, priced at $2.50 each, have been sold. They are 2-by-2 inches and can be customized with the consumer’s chosen logo.

An Apple AirTag, which offers a similar service, costs $29.

“You’re not spending the kind of money that’s traditionally been built into these systems,” Martin said. “Is it as capable? No. Does it have to be as capable? I don’t think so. That’s the beauty of this idea.

“You can have a simpler idea that doesn’t have all the high-end bells and whistles, but accomplishes the main goal, which is getting something back or identifying where something is.”

Martin keeps a Papertag sticker on his bicycle helmet. Madeleine Hawks, a mother of three and co-chair of the Charlottesville-based Sunrise Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Organization, has them on her children’s water bottles, backpacks and coats.

“I have one on my bookbag,” Cunningham said, “and one time, I left (the bookbag) in one of my classes, in the bottom of (Rouss Robertson Hall) with my laptop in it.

Discovery and Innovation: Daily research. Life-changing results.

“It was 7 p.m., and I got a ping because my professor tapped it, and I was notified to go pick it up.”

Perhaps the ideal setting for such a product is an elementary school. Hawks, a UVA alumnus and the wife of McIntire School professor Chip Ransler, had heard about some pain points with the traditional lost-and-found setup at Sunrise and was seeking solutions.

After a cold email from the Papertags crew surfaced, she tested the product within her family before inviting the UVA students to promote the stickers at a Sunrise “Bingo Night” function. Their presence was well-received.

“When we were setting up their little table area,” Hawks said, “the teachers were like, ‘Oh my gosh, what a great idea!’ They see it most of all – how much lost and found goes through the school.”

A collage of paper tag designs for local clubs and organizations

Papertags can be customized with a consumer’s chosen logo. A variety of sticker orders have already been filled for local clubs and organizations. (Contributed images)

Hawks said the Sunrise PTO is considering purchasing Papertags for every student for the new school year.

“I can see this being more useful as parents are buying them for their new lunch boxes or that kind of thing,” she said.

As the founders near the end of their UVA careers – Cunningham will soon begin as a health care investment bank analyst at Wells Fargo in Charlotte – they’re onboarding second- and third-year students to sustain the company’s growth.

More active Papertag users could mean a less cluttered Grounds – and beyond.

“We want this to be a real staple at UVA,” Cunningham said.