BIG IdeaBounce 2024 | 14 Finalists Dazzle In SharkTank Contest

Ideas for new businesses are a dime a dozen, as the saying goes. What really counts is having passionate people behind those ideas to give them flight.

And that is exactly the case with this year’s crop of student founders in the 2024 edition of That is exactly the case in WashU Olin Business School’s BIG IdeaBounce® pitch competition.

Some 120 startup ideas from graduate and undergraduate students all over the world competed against each other for a finalist spot. The entries represented more than 65 universities and 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Iran, Malaysia, Spain, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Only 14 startup teams made the cut, inching closer for a chance to fly to Washington University’s Olin campus in St. Louis for the ultimate shootout before the judges. 

‘WE’RE SEEING STRONGER IDEAS AND STRONGER STORYTELLING’

The top winner will walk away with a $50,000 cash prize, with smaller funding awards to the second and third-place teams. P&Q is also inviting our audience to vote for their favorite team and idea. 

This year’s competitors raised the ante in terms of the quality of their pitches. “As entrepreneurship programs continue to mature, we see stronger ideas and we see stronger storytelling of those ideas,” says Doug Villhard, academic director for entrepreneurship at Washington University. “Being a teacher but also a professional investor it’s fun to see these things come across my desk even though these are young companies and young founders.”

The top ideas run the gamut from healthcare solutions and a network of electric vehicle chargers for urban dwellers to an online educational platform. “There’s a lot of software and a focus on making the world a better place,” observes Villhard.

MORE STUDENT STARTUPS EMPLOYING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & MACHINE LEARNING 

Doug Villhard, Olin’s academic director of entrepreneurship

Many student teams employ the latest artificial intelligence technology to implement their solutions to market challenges. Among them are a team of MBAs from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business who are using advanced AI to to help lawyers with pre-trial litigation preparation. A Michigan Ross School of Business team is pitching a tool that democratizes clinical trials by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity by using machine learning technologies.

“When I’m looking at these pitches and see the word AI, I do a double check to see if they just put it in or it is central to their major innovation,” says Villhard. “As we understand AI better we are getting smarter about the difference if it is tangential to what you are doing vs. being essential to what you are doing. We are seeing more of the latter vs. being peripheral.”

The wealth of ideas making the finals is unusually impressive. A group of MBA students from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business tossed in a business idea for a digital health platform that focuses on wellness visits and social determinants of health for hospitals. A Babson College team has developed a line of zero-waste and non-toxic home care products.

A NEW EV CHARGING NETWORK FOR URBAN DWELLERS

Some of the ideas are incredibly ambitious. Georgetown University students, for example, have come up with a network of proprietary chargers for urban drivers of electric vehicles. Yet another team from the University of Pennsylvania are pitching a digital incentive spirometer and companion mobile app designed to significantly improve post-operative recovery outcomes.

“I really like the problems our finalists are trying to solve,” adds Villhard. Sustain-A-Plate, an Olin Business School startup, has come up with a way for grocery stores to alleviate food waste and to increase profitabilty. “Food waste is a big issue in a world where you can’t afford to waste food. That is a great problem to go after.”

MeetYourClass, the brainchild of a Michigan Ross student team, helps colleges form and nurture community by revolutionizing the way incoming students meet and find resources. “If you work hard to get a student, you want to keep them there,” adds Villhard. “A big part of that is the friendships and community they make. If you are a fan of higher education, this is a strategy to have happier, more connected students having a richer experience.”

WATCH THE TWO-MINUTE ELEVATOR PITCHES AND VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE

ASL Aspire, an idea that popped out of students from the University of Gies College of Business and WashU’s Olin School, offers up an online educational platform that teaches STEM literacy to K-12 deaf and hard of hearing students and their teachers.

“It’s really clever what they are doing to help these students learn words used in science and technology,” explains Villhard. “In a couple of years, one of them may cure an important disease just because they had the confidence to enter the field.”

WashU Olin’s BIG IdeaBounce® powered by Poets&Quants was open to all current undergraduate and graduate school students or any prospect interested in a graduate business school degree. You can watch their two-minute elevator pitches and read about their business plans in the following profiles.

Vote for the Poets&Quants People’s Choice Award

Tell us your favorite idea by voting via the buttons below.  The team with the most votes will win the Poets&Quants People’s Choice Award and receive $1,000. Voting ends Wednesday, April 10th, 2024.

Team Airalux | The First Smart Incentive Spirometer

School Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania

Description: Airalux is a digital incentive spirometer and companion mobile app designed to significantly improve postoperative recovery outcomes by enhancing patient compliance to therapeutic breathing exercises, addressing challenges faced by clinicians, and providing valuable data insights for informed treatment decisions.

Problem:

The prevalence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) represents a significant healthcare challenge, impacting 3-8% of all inpatient surgeries and incurring an annual cost exceeding $9 billion in the United States alone. Notably, the incidence of PPCs escalates substantially after cardiothoracic surgeries and pulmonary resections, leading to prolonged hospitalization, elevated mortality rates, and a substantial financial burden on healthcare systems. With each readmission stemming from PPCs costing hospitals an average of $25,000 per patient, the cumulative cost surpasses $9 billion annually. This underscores the urgent need for effective intervention to mitigate PPCs to improve outcomes for patients and alleviate the associated economic strain on the healthcare system.

The current standard of care (SOC) for preventing PPCs relies on deep breathing exercises executed with plastic incentive spirometers postoperatively. Despite their demonstrated efficacy in reducing PPC risk, healthcare providers face a significant challenge due to poor patient compliance. In our interviews with dozens of healthcare providers (surgeons, pulmonologists, nurses, respiratory therapists, etc.), they have almost all identified poor compliance as an issue. This compliance gap translates into missed opportunities to fully realize the benefits of incentive spirometry, thereby necessitating an innovative solution to enhance compliance and improve postoperative recovery outcomes.

Solution:

Airalux’s smart incentive spirometer aims to revolutionize postoperative recovery outcomes by introducing a digital incentive spirometer along with a companion mobile app. This multifaceted approach is designed to enhance patient compliance and provide clinicians with data for informed decision-making. The Airalux device employs a digital pressure sensor to collect inhalation volume and flow measurements during incentive spirometry exercises, addressing the limited data collection in traditional incentive spirometers. This real-time data is transmitted via WiFi to a mobile app and electronic medical records, enabling clinicians to remotely monitor patient compliance and performance trends.

To tackle the root causes of low compliance, Airalux incorporates features within the app to remind, instruct, and incentivize patients to complete exercises correctly. The patient-centric interface includes elements such as exercise gamification and progress tracking, fostering engagement and motivation. Simultaneously, the clinician view of the app empowers healthcare providers with the ability to monitor individual patient data efficiently rather than individual bedside monitoring. The device’s physical design, including a lightweight form factor, detachable disposable components for hygiene, and a full day’s battery life, ensures practicality and ease of use for patients across age groups. It also includes a screen and speaker to guide the patients through their exercises. Furthermore, Airalux is designed to seamlessly integrate with existing hospital networks through dedicated internet of medical things (IoMT) infrastructure, facilitating broad implementation in diverse healthcare settings.

Market:

Airalux will initially target postoperative indications at hospitals ranging from small community practices to large academic research hospitals. The initial focus on both large and small hospitals is intentional; larger hospitals offer a conducive environment for research and trials, influencing broader medical communities and streamlining the path to market, and smaller hospitals are more likely to suffer staffing difficulties that make incentive spirometry even more difficult to monitor.

The market potential for Airalux is substantial and poised for growth, with 19 million post-surgery patients receiving SOC incentive spirometers annually in the United States. The device’s strategic entry into specific post-operative indications, such as thoracic, abdominal, and trauma surgeries, targets segments with a cumulative patient population exceeding 4.5 million individuals annually. Clinicians perceive these surgeries as high-risk scenarios, where midline incisions compromise breathing and elevate the risk of pulmonary complications. Successful implementation and validation in these segments are expected to drive broader post-operative adoption and open avenues for expansion into additional pulmonary indications, including cystic fibrosis, COPD, asthma, and long COVID, presenting a potential patient population exceeding 50 million individuals.

Conversations with representatives from the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) affirm the anticipated sales pathway, where a physician serves as a clinical champion, leading to value analysis and potential pilot programs before final purchasing decisions. This detailed market understanding positions Airalux as a solution tailored to address specific clinical needs, ensuring a focused and effective market entry strategy.

Competition:

Airalux stands out in the market due to its comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges inherent in traditional incentive spirometers and their digital attachments. Existing incentive spirometers typically employ one-time-use, piston-based designs with limited capabilities for data collection and patient engagement. Despite their efficacy, these devices suffer from low compliance, inefficient clinician workflows, and a lack of real-time data.These are the key issues that Airalux actively seeks to address.

Digital attachments to incentive spirometers, such as the InSee attachment, attempt to collect volume and flow data using distance sensors. However, these solutions are prone to measurement errors and fail to solve compliance issues effectively. In contrast, Airalux’s digital pressure sensor ensures accurate measurements and is complemented by features within the companion app that actively encourage patient compliance through reminders, instructions, and gamification. The device’s design considers hygiene and practicality, with detachable and disposable components adhering to hospital cleaning standards. Airalux’s compact, lightweight form factor makes it a practical and user-friendly alternative to both traditional spirometers and complex, expensive athletic breathing trainers.

Airalux also provides features that are absent in other digital spirometers. Digital spirometers (ie. micro-spirometers) are mainly used to measure patients exhales (eg. FEV1) in pulmonary function testing. Airalux’s guided breathing exercises provide therapeutic benefits rather than only diagnostic benefits to patients. These breathing exercises are absent in other digital spirometry devices.

Value Creation:

Airalux’s value creation extends across economic, healthcare, and technological dimensions, promising long-term sustainability and impact. Besides immediate clinical impact, the device’s potential to prevent hundreds of thousands of PPCs translates into substantial cost savings for the healthcare system up to $9B annually. The economic benefit is derived not only from mitigating readmissions, which cost hospitals an average of $25,000 per readmission, but also from the potential for a 50% reduction in healthcare provider time spent managing incentive spirometry, saving 25 million nurse hours annually.

Beyond immediate economic gains, Airalux’s innovative features open avenues for future services and applications. The device’s unique data collection capabilities on novel lung recovery data could serve as a foundation for developing algorithms that predict early onset of pulmonary complications or optimize patient recovery. This data holds promise for applications in biopharmaceutical and insurance spaces, offering an alternative method for measuring drug efficacy or assessing health risk. Furthermore, the collected data supports the potential for remote monitoring of patients through telehealth applications, positioning Airalux at the forefront of digital health approaches in postoperative care.

The multifaceted value creation aligns with both economic sustainability and measurable clinical impact, positioning Airalux as a transformative force in postoperative care and beyond.

The Team:

Jackson Dooley, Penn BSE’23 Joshua Freedman, Penn BSE’23, MSE’24 Yi-An Hsieh, Penn BSE’23, MSE’24 Isabella Mirro, Penn BAS’23 Parth Mody, Penn BSE/MSE’23

Team Chick

School Affiliation: WashU Olin

Description: Chick is developing simple skincare products using live probiotics from the ancient grain kefir that will strengthen the skin’s natural barrier and promote a balanced and diverse skin microbiome.

Problem:

Chick is addressing the problem of persistent acne. Existing skincare products use bacteria-killing ingredients that offer short-term relief from skin conditions like acne, eczema, and rosacea. While many of these products are successful at killing bad bacteria on the skin’s surface, they also kill good bacteria that promote a healthy microbiome, weakening the skin’s defense mechanisms and causing dehydration, inflammation, and heightened susceptibility to future breakouts.

Solution:

Chick is creating a series of probiotic skincare products using kefir, the most powerful probiotic in the world; a single tablespoon of kefir grains can contain anywhere from tens of billions to over a trillion live probiotic microorganisms. Probiotics restore and maintain a healthy microbiome, addressing the skin’s issues while preserving its natural defense mechanisms. They strengthen the skin’s natural barrier, guarding against pollutants, allergens, and irritants. Finally, they enhance skin hydration, reduce inflammation, and hinder acne-causing bacteria growth.

Market:

We conducted interviews with 50 Gen Z consumers in the age range of 18-25 from July to October 2023 to identify our target customer as GenZ consumers who are:

• Struggling from persistent acne and unable to address all their skincare concerns
  • 100% of respondents had skincare issues they have been unable to solve with existing brands.
  • 80% of respondents experience negative side effects from their existing products.

• Ingredient-conscious
  • 92% of respondents would pay more for a product with healthier ingredients as opposed to one with harsh chemicals.
  • 74% of respondents believe it is important that their skincare products are free of synthetic chemicals.

• Long-term health-conscious
  • 82% of respondents have long-term skincare goals and consider future consequences when selecting a product.

• Socially conscious
  • 83% of respondents actively look for skincare products that are ethical, sustainable, and cruelty free.
  • 91% of respondents would pay more for skincare products that are ethical, sustainable, and cruelty free.

Competition:

Chick distinguishes itself from competitors by harnessing the full power of kefir in its formulations. We stand apart by incorporating live probiotics into our acne treatment, in stark contrast to most “probiotic” offerings that feature inactive postbiotics. Competitors opt for postbiotic or synthetic chemical options because ensuring the stability and viability of live probiotic products can be challenging. However, Chick uses freeze-dried kefir grains in its acne treatment to create a stable powder, maintaining live probiotic benefits and creating a unique find in the industry.

Chick takes pride in offering pure, all-natural formulations that each incorporate kefir, unlike our competitors whose products are riddled with harsh synthetic chemicals that counteract probiotic benefits. Instead of the common emphasis on anti-aging that targets millennials and Gen X consumers, Chick will target Gen Z consumers. We highlight the anti-acne effects of probiotics and advocate a healthy socially conscious brand, aligning with the values of the emerging generation.

Value Creation:

Our product was inspired by our brother Marc, who was born with Down syndrome and autism and has additionally incurred a developmental delay so that he has the permanent cognitive ability of a one-year-old. When we were kids, our mom used to make us read the Velveteen Rabbit in order to understand real beauty–beauty beyond superficiality–which is the same type of beauty Marc has always shown us. We have been very fortunate in our lives to have had many incredible professors, mentors, and teachers, but none has been more impactful than Marc.

Marc has shown us to find the real beauty in people, to understand what really matters in life, and what it means to experience real unconditional love. He has shown us the truth about what is real, and that is what Chick is all about. The beauty industry has become so saturated with a message about fixing parts of yourselves that are supposedly imperfect, disliking parts of yourself that make you who you are, wanting to be someone else, and doing things that are harmful to yourself in order to achieve those ends. We hope to create a more positive message–a message about beauty in realness and beauty beyond the surface.

Our brand will emphasize health and taking care of your skin because you love it and want it to be healthy, not because you feel the need to sterilize it with chemicals and harm it in order to look a certain way. Through our real ingredients and emphasis on being your real self, we hope to emphasize the importance of seeking and achieving what really matters because what’s real is more valuable than anything superficial or shallow. We hope our story and message will resonate with our Gen Z audience in order to create a brand that extends beyond the product itself, creating a positive shift in the messaging and values of the beauty industry towards young people.

The Team:

Christina Trivisonno: Double major in Marketing and Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology (2025) Mary Trivisonno: Double major in Entrepreneurship and Ancient Studies (2025) Kevin Tibbs: B.S. Pre-medical Yuliya Kozina: Dual MBA and MD (2026)

Team Compos Mentis

School Affiliation: Carnegie Mellon Tepper

Description: Compos Mentis is revolutionizing pre-trial litigation preparation with advanced AI, transforming legal document analysis to construct comprehensive narratives for both affirmative and negative cases; thus bolstering attorney efficiency, reinforcing argument strength, and ensuring a holistic consideration of all pertinent facts without missing any critical information.

Problem:

Attorneys face the daunting task of reviewing massive volumes of documentation in litigation cases, both for the plaintiff and the defendant. This process is not only time-consuming but also fraught with the risk of overlooking critical information. Many attorneys harbor concerns about potentially missing key information that could significantly impact their cases, either positively or negatively. Further, current solutions often result in wasted, unpaid labor from attorneys, as well as missed filing deadlines.

Solution:

Our product, an AI-driven tool, efficiently sifts through these high volumes of legal documents. It is designed to identify the most pertinent information quickly and accurately for both the affirmative and negative aspects of a case. This tool synthesizes this information into a coherent analysis of the attorney’s thesis, complete with references, thereby enabling attorneys to effectively analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their cases.

We create value by enabling attorneys to navigate the preparation process more efficiently, accurately, and confidently than ever before. By automating and streamlining the document review process, our solution significantly reduces the time attorneys spend on case preparation. The tool alleviates the nagging doubts attorneys have about missing crucial information, thereby increasing their confidence in the case’s integrity. The ability to rapidly synthesize and present case-relevant information in a user-friendly format allows for more thorough and effective case analysis. Ultimately, our tool creates “peace of mind” and reduces case losses. In limited initial trials/pilots, all concluded cases leveraging our product have resulted in positive outcomes.

Market:

We are primarily targeting the U.S. market where over 400,000 law firms operate. Recognizing that most of these are smaller firms, our initial focus is on this underserved segment. These small firms represent a beachhead market due to their low adoption barriers, weaker incumbent competition, and currently available solutions that are ill-suited to their needs.

While our long-term strategy encompasses all firm sizes, the immediate goal is to penetrate the small firm segment, where we project to capture 40% market share within 36 months. This targeted approach is poised to establish a strong foothold, from which we will expand to larger firms, addressing the entire market comprehensively in our growth trajectory.

End users will be lawyers and paralegals, mostly in law firms, although there are obvious compliance, internal audit, and corporate counsel applications for medium and large businesses. We will initially pursue referrals, recommendations, and SEO. We have also received offers of free marketing from one of trial clients, who has offered to recommend to our company to his bar association and practice specific professional group.

We have spoken with approximately forty lawyers about their pain points in litigation. The biggest concerns are missing some important piece of information, missing filing deadlines due to use of third party vendors for document sifting, and cost of running the review process.

Competition:

Target customers currently navigate the complex legal discovery and pre-trial litigation preparation either manually, through third-party contract lawyers, or by leveraging technology solutions. Established players like Consilio, Everlaw, and Relativity, as well as emerging ones like Abel, offer platforms that streamline this process. Customers opt for these services primarily due to the convenience they offer, fulfilling the discovery/review use cases to a certain extent, despite limitations in accuracy. These services reduce the administrative headache and time consumed in the discovery process, which is traditionally known for its tediousness and manual labor intensity.

• Consilio, Everlaw, Relativity:
  • Strengths: Established market presence, brand recognition, existing customer base, and a relatively mature technology offering.
  • Weaknesses: Limited by traditional AI models, resulting in lower accuracy and a lack of deeper, contextual understanding of case materials.

• Abel (YC W24 Startup):
  • Strengths: Innovative approach, agility of a startup, potential for rapid iteration and implementation of new technologies.
  • Weaknesses: Lesser known brand, limited market penetration, and potentially untested solutions at scale.

Compos Mentis sets itself apart by offering a holistic case-level narrative creation and analysis, based on case information of unlimited context length. This capability is a significant advancement over the competitors, who have not successfully integrated such a feature. The solution focuses not just on identifying relevant documents but understanding the narrative and context of the case at a deeper level, ensuring that no critical information is overlooked.

Value Creation:

Compos Mentis has demonstrated clear potential for sustainability by adopting a scalable revenue model, maintaining healthy gross margins, and setting ambitious yet realistic financial targets. The per-case pricing strategy, scaled by case data volume, ensures that revenue grows with the company’s usage, catering to both small and large clients. This flexible model has already shown viability, with the company earning $1.7k in revenue in December 2023.

The company’s competitive pricing undercuts market leaders while maintaining an 80% gross margin. This strategy is designed not only to rapidly capture market share but also to allow for reinvestment in product improvement and business expansion. Our goal is to break even and reach profitability within three years, coupled with a target of $2 million in annualized revenue within two years.

The Team:

Derek Sun (MBA, 2025), Nate Patterson (MBA, 2025)

Team CORE (COnnecting REsearch)

School Affiliation: Michigan Ross

Description: CORE is an innovative tool that democratizes clinical trials by promoting diversity, equity, inclusivity by using machine learning technologies to connect and match the participant with the clinical trial sponsor and vice versa, thus creating a win-win for both researchers and participants by allowing studies to recruit and retain traditionally underrepresented populations while giving these groups more opportunity to enroll in lifesaving and boundary-pushing medical research.

Problem:

Insufficient demographic diversity in clinical trials has long been recognized as an issue that may hinder innovation and access to therapies. There are currently a total of 471,052 registered clinical studies according to clinicaltrials.gov. Clinical trials in the U.S. have long skewed toward recruiting mostly white males and among 32,000 individuals who participated in new drug trials in the U. S. in 2020, only 8% were Black, 6% Asian, 11% Hispanic, and 30% were age 65 and older, showing relative underrepresentation of these important demographic groups. These estimates have worsened since 2019 and are not aligned with U.S. Census data, which found 14.2% of the population was Black, 7.2% Asian, and 18.7% Hispanic.

In contrast to these low trial participation statistics, underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups carry a disproportionately high burden of chronic diseases that garner the most investment in drug research and development. In addition to being underrepresented as participants in clinical trials, racial and ethnic minority groups are underrepresented among investigators in clinical research. Among 600,000 full-time faculty at academic institutions, less than 5% are African American, 3% Hispanic, and 1% Native American.

Our research into CORE’s market has revealed that $708 billion spent is spent in U.S. research and development, and clinical trials that support FDA approvals of new drugs have a median cost of $19 million, according to a new study by a team including researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The median cost of conducting a study from protocol approval to final clinical trial report was US$3.4 million for phase I trials involving patients, $8.6 million for phase II trials and $21.4 million for phase III trials. Each additional month for phase III trials translates into a median $671,000 spent. With this as a baseline, even small cycle-time reductions could have meaningful benefits on overall clinical development budgets. A 10% decrease in costs leads to 20,000 additional studies or approximately 380 million dollars in savings.

In their guidance for industry, the FDA identified the use of digital health technology tools as a key strategy to enhance diversity in clinical trials. CORE can help improve access and decrease participant burden, thus enhancing participant experience and increasing diversity in clinical trials. It can also reduce the cost and improve recruitment and retention from a sponsor perspective resulting in more robust outcomes.

Solution:

CORE is an innovative accessible, user-friendly software platform that democratizes clinical trials by using machine learning technologies to connect and match the participant with the clinical trial sponsor and vice versa.
Outside of simple matchmaking, CORE also includes basic avenues for users to express interest for studies; the system will evaluate if the potential participant meets the criteria to join the study and provide an option to join a database of interested users and attain access to contact information.

While currently, as a standalone digital health product, CORE is uniquely positioned to tackle the unmet recruitment and retention challenges that face modern clinical trials, especially when it comes to DEI and it fits securely in the participants recruitment and retention portions of the clinical study workflow. After researchers set up their studies, CORE supports them in finding the best participants possible, while at the same assisting anyone in finding clinical trials that match their qualifications, interests, and demographics.

Market:

Our research into CORE’s market has revealed that $708 billion spent is spent in U.S. research and development, and clinical trials that support FDA approvals of new drugs have a median cost of $19 million per study, according to a new study by a team including researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with 10% YOY growth rate. The median cost of conducting a study from protocol approval to final clinical trial report was US$3.4 million for phase I trials involving patients, $8.6 million for phase II trials and $21.4 million for phase III trials. Each additional month for phase III trials translates into a median $671,000 spent. With this as a baseline, even small cycle-time reductions could have meaningful benefits on overall clinical development budgets. A 10% decrease in costs leads to 20,000 additional studies or approximately 380 million dollars in savings.

Competition:

There are a number of competitors in the digital research/clinical trial management space but CORE’s principal edge and value proposition over the other competitors is in improving access, DEI focus and bi-directional matchmaking by creating an accessible interface on both the researcher and participant sides which enables us to facilitate recruitment more efficiently than Ripple Science, EZ Access, or Medable. Our strength in this area combined with our focus on recruitment, retention and stability in other comparison categories helps us stand out in the ever-changing digital research landscape.

Value Creation:

In their guidance for industry, the FDA identified the use of digital health technology tools as a key strategy to enhance diversity in clinical trials. CORE can help improve access and decrease participant burden, thus enhancing participant experience and increasing diversity in clinical trials. It can also reduce the cost and improve recruitment and retention from a sponsor perspective resulting in more robust outcomes.

The Team:

Karthik Ramani, MD, MBA’24; Ethan Marshall, CSE’25; Amit Dongaonkar, BE,MBA’24

Team Crewmate

School Affiliation: WashU, WUSTL Olin

Description: No-code builder for custom communities that deploy to a brand’s website.

Problem:

If you’re a modern brand looking to build a community of superfans, you could tell your customers to follow you on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. But then – your audience isn’t likely to see your content as you’re realistically competing with cat videos, advertisers, and algorithms for your audience’s attention.

This is why brands have begun launching online communities on dedicated platforms, recapturing their audience’s attention and redirecting it to topics and content from the brand.

Solution:

Our team’s experiences utilizing other platforms and struggling to launch communities led us to build Crewmate, the ultimate no-code builder for brands to design and deploy customized communities onto their website or product. In Crewmate communities, users stay engaged and community metrics are tracked and available. Brands can finally have data on who their superfans are, how they buy, and what they’re excited about. Major brands like Vans, Chobani, Oakleys, and Coursera, among others, are organically getting connected to our team with an interest in launching community experiences for their customers.

Market:

We’re targeting brands with existing loyalty or online customer programs, which in the US represents over 500k+ mid-market businesses generating millions in revenue per year. We charge these businesses $500/mo for our software that modernizes their customer’s loyalty experience – converting their customers into community members. We also charge a $0.15/mo fee per active user in their community, which allows us to scale our revenue monthly with the growth of the brand’s deployed online communities.

More brands than ever are launching online communities for their customers in 2024, whether they be CPG, SaaS, or Creator brands.

“The big idea in 2020’s decade of marketing is community. Reaching consumers in the communities they are a part of and helping them express community membership by participating in your brand.” – McKinsey & Company

Competition:

Brands are using multiple workaround platforms to launch online communities today. But these workaround solutions and platforms fall short – because they aren’t made for brands to launch professional, customer-centric communities.

Platforms like Facebook Groups, Discord, Circle, and Slack are built for local groups, gamers, workplace internal communications, and creator influencers – not branded community experiences where brands have total customization, full data access, and total ownership.

Value Creation:

We have a robust pipeline of 20+ brands interested in launching a community that we’re closing on in Q1 to reach $10k MRR and also have pitch meetings with C-Suite execs from Chobani, Vans, and Oakleys in Q1. In just the past month, we closed paid pilots with Mass Invest (Gen Z financial learning platform) and Iteration Era (3D printed women’s garments).

Our mission is to bridge the gap between the customer and their favorite brands that stand for something beyond their products. Consumers buy into the message a brand is selling, and we want to create a space that allows like-minded customers to discuss topics related to these missions for brands ranging from a non-profit angle to CPG.

The Team:

Raj Thaker (2024), Computer Science + Mathematics and Financial Engineering (McKelvey + Olin)

Team Elcove

School Affiliation: Babson College

Description: A line of zero-waste and non-toxic home care products.

Problem:

Elcove is addressing a critical and pressing environmental issue: the overwhelming use of single-use plastics and harmful chemicals in traditional home care products. Annually, over 2.5 billion plastic bottles from cleaning products are discarded in the U.S. alone, significantly contributing to the growing crisis of plastic pollution. These bottles not only take hundreds of years to decompose but also pose a severe threat to marine life and ecosystems.

Additionaly, traditional home care products are predominantly composed of water, accounting for 90-95% of their content. This high water content not only adds unnecessary weight to the products, leading to a higher carbon footprint due to transportation, but it also questions the efficiency of the product itself. Furthermore, the chemicals used in these products are not just harmful to human health but also have detrimental effects on the environment when they leach into our water systems.

Elcove aims to be a part of the solution in mitigating the adverse effects of traditional home care products, making a substantial impact on both the planet and humans.

Solution:

Elcove is a line of a zero-waste and non-toxic home care products on a mission to make a sustainable lifestyle affordable and accessible for everybody! Elcove offers a zero-waste alternative with reusable glass bottles and compostable refills for those who want to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Simply mix the pouch with water at home to create a highly effective product of choice. While others offer sustainable packaging or non-toxic ingredients, we uniquely combine both. Unlike current options like tablet refills, our solution ensures high performance with more active ingredients, setting us apart in effectiveness. We launched in January 2023 with a foaming dish soap, followed by two hand soaps in August. Our products are available on our website and Amazon.

Market:

Our Total Addressable Market consists of the expansive global home care market, valued at approximately $106.40 billion as of 2023, with an anticipated growth rate of 3.74% through 2024-2032. This broad market includes a range of products from kitchen to laundry care. According to the Global Household Care Market Outlook done by Expert Market Research, “the market growth is anticipated to be led by the introduction of eco-friendly and natural products and the growing focus on sustainable development of innovative household care products.”

Within this market, Elcove’s customer base is diverse and can be primarily segmented into two distinct groups. The first segment consists of Eco-Friendly Moms, aged between 30 to 55 years, typically married with children, and with a family income ranging from $70,000 to $100,000 per year. These customers are based in the United States and are highly invested in eco-friendly products for their family’s health and environmental well-being. The second key segment is the Eco-Conscious Generation Z, individuals aged 18 to 27, usually single and without children, earning between $50,000 and $70,000 annually. This younger demographic, also in the United States, is drawn to sustainable and non-toxic products that align with their environmental values.

Competition:

While other companies offer sustainable packaging or non-toxic ingredients, we uniquely combine both. Unlike many current sustainable alternatives that use tablet refills, our powder refill pouches approach ensures superior cleaning efficiency. The small tablet is not able to have as many active ingredients for cleaning and requires ingredients to keep it congealed in the form. Unlike tablet refills, our solution ensures high performance with 2x as many active ingredients, setting us apart in effectiveness.

Elcove’s innovation extends beyond the product to the user experience. Our refill pouches are designed to solve within a few minutes, addressing common inconveniences associated with tablet refills that take a long time to dissolve. In addition, our refills create a luxurious foam, unlike the watery foam that many tablets create. This user-friendly approach supports our mission to make sustainable living an easy, accessible choice.

Value Creation:

Elcove’s revenue model is a blend of one-time purchases and a subscription service. Recognizing the diverse needs of our customers, we offer the flexibility of individual purchases for those exploring our range of sustainable and non-toxic home care products. These one-time purchases are available through our website, Amazon, and social media platforms, catering to customers who prefer to try before committing or need specific items intermittently. Complementing this, our subscription model for our refills caters to a growing consumer trend favoring convenience and consistency. It not only ensures a reliable revenue stream for Elcove but also fosters lasting customer relationships by providing regular, hassle-free deliveries of our products. Launching in 2023 not only showcased that are revenue model works, but also that we will be able to make a lasting environmental impact.

The Team:

Our team consists of two full-time dedicated members. Elcove is led by Anastacia Yefimeko, Co-founder & CEO, a current student at Babson College. Anastacia is pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and will graduate in May of 2025. Anastacia has a variety of knowledge and skills in business vision and scaling, honed through Babson’s specialized curriculum. Her experience and skills are further taught by a year-long internship at a Shark Tank startup, where she gained invaluable insights into startup operations and client relationship management. This experience has been augmented by a robust network of mentors and connections. Anna Galonskaya is the Co-founder & Operations Manager, who possesses 25 years of experience in scaling ventures. Anna’s diverse background includes owning a company and working in a large corporate environment, giving her a broad perspective on business optimization and growth. In her role, she manages accounting, vendor relationships, product manufacturing, and order fulfillment. This combination of entrepreneurial education, hands-on startup experience, and comprehensive operational expertise uniquely positions our team to guide Elcove’s growth as a leader in the sustainable home care market.

Team King Of The Curve

School Affiliation: WashU Med School

Description: Turning student stress into student success through high-quality examination prep.

Problem:

King of the Curve (KOTC) is revolutionizing medical education by providing students with engaging and accessible preparation materials for key standardized tests like the MCAT. This platform is addressing the financial and emotional burden typically associated with these exams. KOTC utilizes a unique approach that includes personalized mentorship, quality test materials, and predictive analytics to address the diverse learning needs of students that traditional test prep methods often overlook.

KOTC’s impact goes beyond just enhancing individual learning experiences. It is also playing a crucial role in addressing the critical shortage in the physician pipeline by simplifying the journey from pre-med to clinical practice. As a long-term educational ally, KOTC supports students from their early educational stages right through to their residency, underlining its commitment to the ongoing success of medical students.

In terms of scalability, KOTC is expanding its offerings to include a variety of medical education exams, transitioning into a more inclusive educational resource for multiple stages of medical training. This strategic expansion increases the platform’s reach and adaptability, making it a comprehensive tool for a broader range of medical students’ needs. Such growth not only enhances KOTC’s utility but also positions it to make a substantial impact on medical education globally, marking it as an invaluable tool in the medical community.

Solution:

KOTC’s adaptive platform and framework are designed to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of students’ study time, particularly for high-stakes exams like the MCAT, NCLEX, PA-CAT, and DAT. The adaptive nature of our platform ensures that students can access the most relevant and challenging content quickly, without wading through material they’ve already mastered. This targeted approach not only saves time but also keeps students engaged and focused on areas where they need the most improvement.

Our platform’s ability to adapt to individual learning styles and pace is key in enhancing content retention. By presenting material in a way that aligns with each student’s unique learning process, KOTC facilitates a deeper understanding and longer retention of complex topics. This personalized learning experience is crucial in preparing for exams where a comprehensive grasp of a wide range of subjects is essential.

The effectiveness of KOTC’s adaptive learning approach is reflected in the exam scores of our students, who consistently outperform their peers using traditional study methods. The higher scores achieved by KOTC users are a testament to the platform’s ability to provide a more efficient, engaging, and effective study experience. By focusing on the most pertinent areas of study and adapting to individual learning needs, KOTC not only accelerates the learning process but also significantly boosts the likelihood of exam success, setting a new standard in test preparation for healthcare professionals.

Market:

Our target audience is college students who aspire to pursue healthcare careers. We specialize in providing comprehensive preparation for critical exams such as MCAT, NCLEX, PA-CAT, and DAT. We cater to the unique needs of this demographic, which is increasingly seeking careers in the healthcare industry. Our platform is designed to offer resources and guidance that are relevant to their academic and professional journey.

The test preparation market, where KOTC operates, is an extensive industry worth $120 billion. Our platform resonates with our target audience, providing them with the education and support they need to succeed in their healthcare professions.

Looking ahead, we plan to expand our platform to include all standardized exams, leveraging our success in the healthcare education space to establish a more significant presence in the broader test preparation market. Our aim is not only to extend our reach but also to enhance our contribution to the educational landscape, providing comprehensive resources for a wider array of standardized exams.

In summary, our focus at KOTC is on college students aspiring to healthcare careers, within the $120 billion test preparation industry. Our future expansion plans are set to further cement our role as a key educational resource, making a substantial impact across the spectrum of standardized test preparation.

Competition:

KOTC has a unique approach and advanced features that set it apart from other test preparation providers. Its direct competitors, such as Kaplan and Princeton Review, offer structured test prep courses for exams like the MCAT and NCLEX. Although these companies provide comprehensive content, KOTC provides a more personalized and adaptive learning experience. KOTC’s platform tailors the study material to each student’s learning style and pace, ensuring a more efficient and effective preparation.

In contrast, indirect competitors such as Khan Academy and Coursera offer a wide range of educational resources but lack the specialized focus and adaptability that KOTC provides for medical and healthcare exams. KOTC offers a bespoke experience specifically designed for the unique challenges of healthcare-related standardized tests.

What makes KOTC stand out is its integration of interactive learning techniques and predictive analytics. This modern approach not only engages students more effectively but also provides real-time insights into their performance, a feature not typically offered by other test prep solutions. By pinpointing areas for improvement and adapting content accordingly, KOTC enhances learning outcomes, evidenced by students consistently achieving higher scores than those using traditional methods. In summary, KOTC’s combination of personalized, adaptive learning with advanced technological tools positions it as a superior choice in the competitive landscape of test preparation.

Value Creation:

KOTC demonstrates strong potential for sustainability in both economic and social realms. From an economic standpoint, the platform targets the lucrative market of high-stakes medical exams and offers a subscription-based model that capitalizes on the consistent demand for effective test preparation. This sector presents significant opportunities for growth and expansion, given the vastness of the standardized test prep market. KOTC’s adaptability to various exams and learning styles enhances its potential to scale within this substantial market.

From a social perspective, KOTC addresses the urgent need for competent and diverse medical professionals in the United States. By making high-quality test preparation accessible and engaging, our platform lowers entry barriers into healthcare professions, thereby contributing to a more diverse medical workforce. This is crucial because a diverse range of healthcare professionals is essential for addressing the varied healthcare needs of a diverse population. The improvement in preparedness and competence of healthcare professionals that KOTC facilitates directly impacts the quality of healthcare outcomes.

Furthermore, the framework KOTC employs has relevance beyond the medical field, reflecting a broader need for diversity and skilled professionals in various professions. This universality suggests potential applications in other fields, opening avenues for further expansion and impact. The combination of a large, untapped market and the platform’s capacity to contribute significantly to social change in professional landscapes positions KOTC for sustainable success, both financially and as a catalyst for positive societal impact.

The Team:

Heath Rutledge-Jukes, William Kelly, and AndrewPaul “AP” McIntosh, the co-founders of King of the Curve (KOTC), have been successfully managing and growing the company since their graduation from Florida Southern College in 2020. They have leveraged their diverse backgrounds and skills to create a formidable player in the test preparation market, especially for high-stakes medical exams and beyond. Heath Rutledge-Jukes, the technical lead and full-stack developer for KOTC, is a top scorer in MCAT and an expert in pedagogical tools research. His expertise encompasses the use of mobile app games for enhancing STEM learning and comprehension at the college and graduate levels. Heath’s research is instrumental in shaping KOTC’s approach to test preparation, ensuring that it addresses diverse student needs effectively. His published papers have accelerated KOTC’s development, enabling the creation of engaging and evolving study apps. William Kelly, a graduate of Cornell University, manages KOTC’s finances. He has prior experience as a Forensic Accountant and a strong background in growth and digital marketing, making him well-equipped to handle KOTC’s finances and market positioning. His expertise ensures that the company remains competitive and financially robust. AndrewPaul “AP” McIntosh bridges the technical and logistical aspects of KOTC. With his background in psychology and communication, he plays a pivotal role in managing the intern program and engaging directly with users to gather customer insights. His efforts have helped KOTC to continually refine and improve the product. Overall, the trio’s complementary skills and expertise have positioned KOTC as a leading player in the test preparation market.

Team Oheada

School Affiliation: Dartmouth Tuck

Description: Digital health platform that focuses on wellness visits and social determinants of health for hospitals.

Problem:

Hospitals are missing out on opportunities to minimize avoidable readmissions and generate additional patient volume (to increase revenue).

Why?

Hospitals lack the digital expertise and capabilities to expand beyond its four walls to reach at-risk patients and collect social determinants of health (SDoH) insights that lead to lower readmission rates and higher revenue generation.

Solution:

An evidence-based and personalized wellness visit platform that digitally captures the patient’s physical, behavioral, and environmental experience within the home to improve cost of care savings and increase revenue for hospitals.

Market:

Target customers are hospitals whose payer mix is starting to lean heavily towards Medicare patients. The type of hospital will have to be a non-rural hospital as well.

• Medicare patients are growing around 6-8% per year as the number of Americans grow older. As of 2021, there are over 58 million members on Medicare

• The U.S. healthcare software market is estimated to grow at 19.2% CAGR from 2023-2030. Currently it is a $14B industry

• According to CDC and other health sources, less than 40% of patients per year will utilize an annual wellness visit even though it is free for the patient and helps hospitals better manage patients in the future

Competition:

What makes my product different and hard for competitors to imitate?

• The proprietary assessments (i.e. wellness + SDoH) provided to the patients in their homes. The assessments are created from CMS and RAND validated guidelines. The assessments can also be uniquely tailored depending on what hospitals are wanting to measure within their population

• The data that is collected from the visits and how that data is integrated into the hospital’s EMR to generate insights and next steps for providers and care coordinators

There are a few similar competitors like Signify Health, Help-At-Home, and NaviHealth. However, they’re distinct from my solution because Oheada is focused solely on wellness visits and social determinants of health. Furthermore, we’re only targeting hospitals.

• Signify Health is a health-risk assessment vendor focused on payors and bought by CVS

• Help-at-Home is PE backed and is probably the closest competitor; however, they don’t integrate with hospital EMRs since they’re more urgent care and home health focused

• NaviHealth focuses on post-acute discharges from hospitals and is now expanding that model for payors and providers

Value Creation:

• The ability to leverage digital capabilities and conducting assessments at home to increase engagement with patients who would otherwise forgo a visit in the hospital, which will drive up volume and revenue for hospitals

• Reliable and standardized SDoH data that ties to social service referrals and population health analytics

• Digital, secure, and integrable with hospital’s current EMR, patient portal, and workflows

The Team:

Alix Faulker, MBA 2025, and Chris Bloomer, MBA 2025

Team OpenGrid Technologies | Urban EV Fast-Charging Made Easy

School Affiliation: Georgetown University

Description: For EV users living in urban multi-family housing where personal charging is inaccessible, OpenGrid operates a network of proprietary design chargers to provide urban EV drivers subscription-based electricity packages through innovative, fast-charging technology.

Problem:

In the US, along with unprecedented government funding and incentives entering the EV industry, cheaper and better new EV models are coming out every year, and consumer interest in EV ownership is at an all-time high. By 2030, over 50% of new cars sold will be EVs. As demand for EVs increases, so does the need for charging. However, public charging operators are not incentivized to build urban fast-charging networks due to uncertainty in demand, no access to prime locations, and power availability issues. Private charging is not feasible either – less than 10% of multi-family buildings have electrical access for EV charging. As a result, 40 million urban dwellers are left behind by the scarcity of public charging infrastructures in the electrified era.

Solution:

Our unique approach brings the Uber magic to urban EV charging. With a mix of dedicated and partnership charging stations, we sit in the middle of EV drivers and the urban environment. Thanks to the proprietary design of fast charging stations (lithium batteries integration) and an innovative subscription model, urban EV drivers can confidently top off their day in minutes with cost stability in place. Our dedicated locations and the no-cost partnership program with local businesses ensure us access to prime locations that serve the drivers best. Simply put, we are establishing a highly scalable urban EV charging standard of speed, cost stability, proximity, and driver experience that can’t be matched. Imagine an EV driver living in Rosslyn, VA, who has a 20-mile roundtrip to work every day; she can stop at her favorite local shop for a coffee while her car is being fast-charged in 15 minutes, providing more than enough electricity to top off her commute.

Market:

The Total Addressable Market (TAM) is a worldwide figure estimated to be $78 billion by 2030 with a 30% CAGR. The figure is calculated by using the world’s estimated number of EVs, the percentage using public charging, the charging frequency, and the average cost. The Service Addressable Market (SAM) is $12.4 billion based on parameters similar to the TAM but only represents the US market. The Service Obtainable Market (SOM), a $86.4 million market, is calculated by estimating 3,000 station deployments with 20 subscribers per station.

Competition:

We target a particular customer segment – the EV owners living in urban settings. Our research shows that large public charging providers overlook these customers. By providing our customers with a convenient and fast charging experience, we offer a uniquely defined value proposition different from the incumbents. Additionally, one can see us as a complementary service to fill the gap between cities and suburban public charging.

For fast charging networks (providers of DCFC or level 3 charging) such as Tesla, EVgo, and Electrify America, it’s difficult for them to set up stations in urban areas due to power availability and construction issues; it’s also costly to get the land needed in a city environment. For slow charging networks (providers of level 2 charging) such as ChargePoint and Blink, most stations are located in gated public garages, leading to low accessibility and unnecessary difficulties, not to mention that their charging speed is slow. If you ask a driver, they will tell you they can never find a charger.

We do have competitors, which are the personal chargers EV users install. Our service is less attractive if they already have a personal charger. However, only a fraction of urban EV drivers living in apartments and condos have such chargers, and most would require public charging like ours.

Value Creation:

Social impact: 40 million Americans live in multi-family housing. According to national research, rented homes have the worst electric access for EV charging, leading to severe charging inequity in the electrification era. Therefore, the social goals we set for ourselves are twofold. First, we want to support programs like Justice40 by leveraging our built-to-scale technology and symbiotic business model to equip disadvantaged communities with EV fast-charging capability. To this end, we will measure how many stations go to those communities and how many EV users we serve. Second, we want to help accelerate the adoption of EVs and race to a greener future by quickly building out an urban network of fast chargers. So we will measure how many prospective EV drivers we convert and the EV sales in a region through surveying users and working with dealerships.

Climate impact: We calculate how much kWh we deliver to EVs and how many tons of CO2 we help eliminate by allowing people to drive more EVs. As a mid-term goal, we want to partner with companies like AES Corporation as our supplier of renewable energy to increase environmental benefits even further. Additionally, we have participated in “The Future of Energy for Mobility” collaboration event organized by Plastic Omnium, in which we were recognized for how offering electricity in smaller sizes (e.g., 10kWh) can help reduce energy waste in mobility. Our usage-optimized model has shown its potential to decrease energy consumption while meeting the commuting needs of urban dwellers.

The Team:

Nanbo Liu, Co-founder, Georgetown University, MBA’ May ’24; Theo Hebblethwaite, Co-founder, Georgetown University, MBA Dec. ’23; Mike Wen, Co-founder, Temple University, PhD; Georgetown University, MBA May ’23

Team Plastic Purge

School Affiliation: San Jose State University

Description: Utilizing bio-chemical applications to turn plastic into oxygen/chemically recycle it.

Problem:

Only 9% of plastic is recycled. The remaining 93% is either dumped in the ocean where it harms aquatic ecosystems, or is sent to the landfill where it creates massive amounts of carbon emissions.

Solution:

We’ve developed a new sustainable process for eliminating plastic waste utilizing piranha solution and micro algae.

Market:

Our target customer is waste management companies. Plastic Purge can help waste management companies save money on over-sea shipping costs and over-sea buyer rates. In addition to this, we can help them receive a government incentive for working with us.

Competition:

Current chemical recycling process (such as pyrolysis) require massive amounts of energy and are not sustainable. Plastic Purge has developed an end-to-end sustainable solution. Plastic Purge can provide government incentives to waste management companies that other chemical recycling companies can’t qualify for because they don’t meet the sustainable criteria in the eyes of the government.

Value Creation:

Our sustainable process for eliminating plastic waste has the potential to significantly reduce the impact that plastic waste has on our environment. In addition to this, we have developed the business model to make the process cost effective.

The Team:

Devon Rodriguez, Business Major with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, graduating Spring, 2024. Rishi Birudaraj, Business Major with an emphasis in entrepreneurship (with honors), graduated Fall, 2023. (We have university professors and industry professionals in the relevant field advising us.)

Team Uplift

School Affiliation: WashU

Description: A travel planning app for people with disabilities.

Problem:

According to the WHO, 1/6th of the world has a disability with over 50% of them having difficulties traveling. Each year travelers spend over $58.2 billion on accessible travel and yet face significant obstacles due to the lack of centralized, reliable, and community-driven resources. Despite this being a multi-billion-dollar market, information related to accessible transportation, accommodations, and attractions is often scattered, unreliable, or simply non-existent.

Solution:

Our solution is an easy-to-use mobile app where users can read and write reviews based on their own experiences. These reviews are then used to populate an interactive and customizable map interface for users to explore, navigate, and discover places near them, all while easily deploying accessible resources on the way.

Market:

The WHO reports there are an estimated 1.3 billion disabled people in the world, of all ages and genders, with this figure growing 4.7 percent between 1990 and 2017. And according to MMGY Travel Intelligence, a research firm focused on the travel and hospitality industry, $58.2 billion a year is spent by disabled individuals on travel. And yet still the top listed concern in this research by disabled people is a need for increased accessibility information and expanded infrastructure. Our solution is able to provide for the target market’s top need, while also expanding site-specific information for all travelers, tapping into the $631 billion dollar travel and tourism sector as a whole and its 3.47% growth annually.

Competition:

No other solution on the market is as centralized, reliable, or community-driven. Disability-specific travel agencies on the market right now employ a human-backend, which can create a cost-barrier. Other existing resources such as Tripadvisor and comparable alternatives often contain large amounts of information, but oftentimes users have to scroll through dozens, or even hundreds of reviews to get to useful accessibility information.

Value Creation:

Our solution not only crowdsources this information, but also uses it to power a universally accessible tool that aims to revolutionize the way people with disabilities plan and experience their travels. By leveraging the collective knowledge of the community, our platform provides up-to-date and detailed insights into accessible transportation, accommodations, and places to visit worldwide. Our app integrates advanced mapping features, real-time updates, and personalized preferences, ensuring that users can navigate their journeys with ease. Additionally, it fosters a sense of community by allowing users to share their firsthand experiences and recommendations, further enriching the platform’s wealth of information. In doing so, we aspire to break down barriers and make the world more accessible for everyone, one journey at a time. No more mindless trudging through dozens of websites, calling ahead for hours on end, or winging it, when there’s no information at all.

The Team:

George Mitrev, B.S. Systems Engineering, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, Minor in Computer Science, Graduating in 2024; Josh Nixon, B.B.A Finance, B.A. International Relations, Graduating in 2024; Ceridwen Grady, B.A. Art History and Business, Graduating in 2024

Team MeetYourClass

School Affiliation: Michigan Ross

Description: MeetYourClass helps colleges form community by revolutionizing the way incoming students meet and find resources.

Problem:

The core problem MYC addresses is twofold: For universities, there’s a significant challenge in creating a cohesive, engaging community among students, particularly before they arrive on campus. Traditional engagement methods like outdated platforms and university-managed forums often fall short, especially in resonating with Gen-Z students who are digital natives. These students face their own set of issues: social isolation, information overload, and the intimidating transition to university life, which are exacerbated by existing platforms that are either too generic or not student-centric.

The problem’s significance is further highlighted by its impact on university operations. Ineffective strategies for student engagement can negatively affect retention and enrollment rates, as students are more likely to seek environments where they feel a strong sense of community and support. Moreover, universities often struggle with the lack of appropriate tools to understand and respond to the evolving needs and preferences of their students, hindering their ability to make informed decisions to enhance the overall student experience.

Compounding these challenges, a survey conducted by MeetYourClass across more than 350 colleges, with 7,500 student responses, revealed a concerning trend: approximately 20-25% of students felt that their universities did not support them adequately in their transition to college life, particularly in providing resources for making social connections. This data suggests a significant portion of the student body feels disconnected from their campus community, indicating a widespread issue that affects a substantial number of students across various institutions.

Solution:

MeetYourClass offers an innovative solution that directly addresses the problem of student disconnection and engagement in higher education. Our approach centers around a “social media ecosystem” that leverages platforms where Gen-Z students are already active (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), creating a natural and familiar environment for them to engage with their university community. This ecosystem acts as a funnel, directing students to our platform which offers higher functionality tailored to their needs.

Our platform stands out by offering features that go beyond typical social media interactions. These include a roommate finder, community groups, and resources specific to university life, all designed to facilitate easier and more meaningful connections among students.

For universities, our platform not only helps in attracting and retaining students but also offers valuable data-driven insights into student behavior and preferences. Who’s engaging the most? What are they engaging on? What are the social trends in the class? What are the most common questions students are asking? These and other similar questions can be answered with our access to social data. This information is critical for universities to tailor their services and improve the overall campus experience.

In summary, MeetYourClass adeptly addresses the significant gap in current student engagement strategies. By blending a familiar social media approach with enhanced functionalities specific to university life, our solution effectively fosters a more connected, engaged, and supportive university community.

Market:

MeetYourClass operates in a substantial and expanding market within the higher education sector. Our Total Addressable Market encompasses the colleges and universities in the U.S. With an estimated 4,500 such institutions and an average target contract size of $50,000 per institution annually, our TAM is approximately $225 million. Especially post-COVID, this market is not only sizable but also growing, as more educational institutions recognize the need for innovative engagement and community-building solutions.

Our Serviceable Addressable Market narrows down to U.S. colleges, specifically targeting institutions that are seeking to enhance their student engagement but may not have the same recognition as larger, ‘name brand’ universities. This segment, comprising about 3,500 colleges and maintaining our average annual contract size goal, places our SAM at around $175 million. These institutions represent a dynamic and responsive market, more likely to adopt new technologies to improve student experiences.

Focusing on our Serviceable Obtainable Market, MeetYourClass targets smaller institutions with fewer than 5,000 undergraduates. These colleges, typically more adaptable and in need of building that ‘collegiate-feel’, are our ideal customers. We engage directly with Enrollment Directors, key in decision-making for student engagement strategies, to showcase how our platform can significantly enhance enrollment outcomes and student experience.

Once we establish our platform across these institutions, our strategy involves horizontally expanding our services within a given university. This expansion enhances the value we provide to both students and universities, and revenue we can generate.

Competition:

MeetYourClass differentiates itself from competitors with its innovative approach to student engagement and community building in higher education. Our solution uniquely combines integration with popular social networks, customization for individual university needs, and a keen alignment with Gen-Z culture, setting us apart in a crowded market.

Integration with Social Media: Unlike competitors such as Zeemee or traditional university platforms, MYC is not a standalone system. We integrate seamlessly with platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, aligning with the digital habits of Gen-Z students. This integration reduces friction for students, removing the barrier of adopting a new app and allowing them to engage with their university community in a familiar online space.

Customization for Universities: We offer a level of customization that goes beyond the capabilities of generic social media platforms or one-size-fits-all solutions. MYC enables universities to tailor the platform to fit their unique community dynamics and needs. We empower universities to make informed decisions to enhance the student experience and boost retention rates.

Alignment with Gen-Z Culture: Our platform is specifically designed to resonate with the lifestyle and preferences of Gen-Z students. By recognizing and embracing the importance of digital interactions and experiences for this generation, MYC provides a space that is not only familiar but also engaging, addressing common issues like social isolation and information overload.

In essence, MYC stands out by harmoniously blending social media integration with tailored solutions for universities, creating a unique and effective platform for modern student engagement in higher education.

Value Creation:

MeetYourClass presents a sustainable business model with significant potential for revenue generation and measurable social impact in the higher education sector. Our model hinges on a dual-revenue stream: a B2B approach through customizable contracts with universities and a B2C model involving a freemium approach complemented by targeted advertising and affiliate marketing. This structure ensures a stable and scalable income source while enhancing user engagement on the platform.

The sustainability of MYC is not just financial; it extends to creating substantial social value. Our platform addresses critical student needs by reducing social isolation and aiding mental well-being, particularly among incoming freshmen and transfer students. By fostering a sense of community and belonging, MYC plays a vital role in enhancing the overall university experience for students. We have grown to over 220,000 users across 350 different schools.

MeetYourClass has garnered significant recognition, being named one of the most disruptive business school startups of 2023 by Poets&Quants and featured on the Startup Hot List of Fall 2023 by Renaissance Ventures. This acclaim stems from the impactful difference we’ve made in students’ lives, not only at our home base, the University of Michigan, but across the hundreds of other colleges we have expanded to.

MeetYourClass is built for long-term sustainability, combining financial viability with a strong commitment to improving the higher education landscape. Our business model not only ensures profitability but also contributes to the broader educational and social goals, making MYC a value-driven enterprise in the truest sense.

The Team:

Blake Mischley, CEO, Computer Science, Class of 2025; Jonah Liss, COO, Business Administration, Class of 2025; Kaleb Schmottlach, Computer Engineering, Class of 2025; Jon Millar, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, Class of 2025

Team ASL Aspire

School Affiliation: Illinois Gies, WashU

Description: ASL Aspire is an online educational platform that teaches STEM literacy to K-12 Deaf and hard of hearing students and their teachers.

Problem:

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children don’t have access to basic vocabulary to succeed in STEM, making them seventy times less likely to pursue STEM careers, and much more likely to be unemployed. This is a huge loss to society, as the students are unable to contribute to the development of innovation and discoveries. Our primary focus is addressing the accessibility barrier that prevents STEM terminology from reaching deaf and hard of hearing students in K-12 classrooms.

Solution:

ASL Aspire teaches STEM literacy to K-12 deaf students and their teachers through online games. Expert-made ASL lessons are integrated with minigames to help students practice new signs while having fun. Our machine-learning technology enables them to validate signs in front of their webcam. With our user-friendly dashboard, teachers can track student progress and identify areas for intervention, making in-class instruction even easier. These games have been prototyped in 4 schools around the nation as part of a paid pilot program, with customer discovery interviews run on more than 250 decision makers and educators as part of the i-Corps program.

Market:

Globally, more than 400 million deaf people learn in sign language. Our initial market is the 720,000 deaf students in North America who need these words immediately. Support for this market is strong, as the U.S. Federal funding provides $122B to special education programs. Our secondary market is hearing ASL learners. All 50 states now accept ASL as a choice to fulfill the foreign language requirement. The demand for ASL classroom tools is becoming as high as Spanish and French classrooms, but the ASL market is far less saturated. The number of hearing ASL classrooms in America has skyrocketed an incredible 1000% in the past decade, reaching over a million students annually. In recognition of varying technology accessibility worldwide, we are addressing cultural challenges by developing a new physical board game with a partner company based in Mexico. This joint effort aims to overcome cultural and technological barriers, ensuring broader market relevance and accessibility.

Competition:

While numerous ASL learning tools exist, they predominantly target beginners and lack a specific focus on STEM education. For example, widely-used resources like ASL Pocket Sign and the ASL App cater to hearing users seeking basic sign language skills. In contrast, ASL Aspire distinguishes itself by being meticulously designed for students and teachers with a proficient understanding of signs, specifically addressing the gap in STEM-focused ASL tools.

What sets ASL Aspire apart is its emphasis on classroom functionality and seamless integration into existing curriculum. Teachers can efficiently monitor student progress, assign personalized word lists, and facilitate engaging multiplayer and individual modes. Unlike existing tools that primarily serve as dictionaries, ASL Aspire offers a comprehensive educational solution. Additionally, the competition lacks regular updates to incorporate new STEM signs, a critical deficiency that our solution actively addresses.

Beyond competing with other ASL learning tools, our primary competition is the makeshift curriculums that educators of the deaf currently create to enable them to teach STEM. ASL Aspire acts as a direct intervention in these classrooms, providing a pre-built, relevant, and innovative solution. What truly sets us apart is the expertise within our team – Deaf scientists who are pioneers in their respective fields and deaf linguists actively contributing to the development of new signs. This unique combination of features positions ASL Aspire as a cutting-edge solution for STEM-focused ASL education.

Value Creation:

ASL Aspire’s sustainability in 2024 is assured through a proven proof of concept, validated by engaging with 250+ educators and administrators, and refined with ongoing input from our educator focus group. Our three-phase go-to-market strategy solidifies this sustainability: Phase 1 secures partnerships with current schools and deaf residential programs; Phase 2 targets the broader public school market, including hearing students; and Phase 3 focuses on global expansion in collaboration with sign language companies, initiating pilot programs in negotiation in Mexico and Canada. Strategically balancing revenue generation and social impact at each step, ASL Aspire not only ensures financial sustainability but also advances its mission of inclusivity for deaf and hard-of-hearing students globally. With a commitment to sustainability beyond a vision, we only need four schools signed on to achieve sustainability in 2024.

In addition to its potential for financial sustainability, ASL Aspire emphasizes fostering positive social and environmental impact. Our innovative education platform empowers deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, breaking down barriers and promoting inclusivity. Enhancing linguistic and academic skills, the program nurtures a supportive community, encouraging self-expression and confidence. Furthermore, ASL Aspire empowers students by showcasing deaf scientists in America as living proof that it is possible to be anyone they want to be. This representation inspires limitless opportunities, contributing to the personal and professional growth of each student within our society.

The Team:

Mona Jawad, PhD Candidate in Speech and Hearing Science (2028); Ayesha Kazi, MS in Computer Science, Business Management (2025); Hamnah Razzak, BS in Finance (2025); Manuel Jacobo, BS in Finance (2025)

Team Sustain-A-Plate

School Affiliation: WUSTL Olin

Description: We help grocery stores alleviate waste and increase profitability.

Problem:

Grocery shoppers do not often buy food close to its expiration date. From the lack of these sales, a single U.S. grocery store discards around 670,000 pounds of consumable food annually, resulting in losses of over $3,000,000. This act contributes 30% of the food waste in landfills and is the third-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions globally, highlighting a critical environmental and economic issue.

Solution:

Sustain-a-Plate helps grocery stores sell their close-to-expiration date food items through a dynamic dual pricing model. We build the pricing software that splits a product’s price by its expiration date. To do this, the product information is fed into a machine-learning model that calculates an optimal price according to the input factors and displays the dynamic price on Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL). The ESLs are attached to the POS system, via the cloud, and at checkout, the discount is automatically applied using a unique identifier built into the system. This sales method incentivizes shoppers to purchase these products, alleviates waste, and simultaneously increases store revenue.

Market:

Our market consists of the global food and grocery tech market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.9%. With Sustain-a-Plate, our estimated revenue will be $91,500/store. For our TAM, we looked at 118,000 food stores across the US, creating a $10.8B value using the $91,500 revenue value for each store. Next, for SAM, we segmented 10,000 national and regional stores for a value of $915M. Our SOM consists specifically of Midwest regional grocery stores, such as Schnucks and Dierbergs, with a value of $275M.

Competition:

Wasteless and Smartway are two of Sustain-a-Plate’s main competitors. Similarly, they both use AI pricing models for their electronic price tags. However, Smartway stops there, with no dual pricing system, many labor hours are required to change tags and discounts and it is based solely in France. Sustain-a-Plate and Wasteless take these tags even further by using a dual pricing system to differentiate products close to expiration.

However, our tags surpass Wasteless in quality because our system is Wi-Fi-based, making it infinitely easier and quicker to update screens and prices every day, therefore reducing labor costs, unlike Wasteless. Finally, Wasteless is entirely EU-based giving us the upper hand as we are based in the US and know much more about the market and landscape. As we have seen from these competitors, AI-powered electronic pricing is successful in Europe so it is time to bring it to the US for an entirely untapped market. Dynamic pricing has become a standard practice across nearly every industry, and we must introduce this innovative approach to pricing in the grocery sector, launching it into the 21st century where it should have been years ago.

Value Creation:

When looking at value creation, it is first important to consider how much value we anticipate being able to save each individual grocery store. We aim to create $1,100,000 in value for stores through a combination of labor and label printing cost savings and recouping revenue from previously wasted food items. Knowing that grocery stores operate on low margins and their priority is often sales over sustainability, we believe the $1,100,000 in additional revenue and cost savings makes partnering with us a profitable investment decision.

For Sustain-a-Plate, we are looking at generating $91,500 in revenue per store a year which includes a subscription and percentage of sales of previously wasted items. Our estimated COGS of $17,500 includes the cost of tags and setup costs of the tags for pilot program stores. However, a lot of stores are already switching to electronic price tags, so for those stores, our COGS will be much lower. With a COGS of $17,500, this gives us a profit margin of 81%.

The Team:

Franklin Taylor, MBA, May 2024; Tanvi Jammula, BA Computer Science & Finance, May 2026; Kelsey Kloezeman, BA Entrepreneurship, May 2024; Anna Larizza, BA Finance, December 2024; Jason Ti, MA Computer Science, June 2024

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