©Myaskovsky: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau
Ten alumni teams from NYU’s award-winning Summer Launchpad Accelerator gathered for a night of pitches and networking at the Friends & Family Demo Day on Jan. 26 at the Leslie eLab.
The event marked the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute’s first in-person Friends & Family Demo Day since the start of the pandemic. The presenting teams all participated in the nine-week Summer Launchpad between 2020 and 2022.
Over 30 venture capital investors watched as the startups were each given five minutes to showcase their progress. After each presentation, the floor opened up for three minutes as investors were invited to ask founders follow-up questions about their business models, scalability, and more.
Meet the seven pitching teams and their founders:
Baton is a blockchain-enabled collaboration protocol that ensures creatives are properly credited and compensated for their work.
Gabe Warshaw (Tisch ITP ‘23)
Jones is a judgment-free journey to a vape-less life, through a personalized nicotine replacement subscription, behavioral support and digital community.
Caroline Huber (Stern '23)
Hilary Dubin
Voltela (formerly Veccnet) provides connectivity assurance for commercial drones. The mobile network was not built for aerial connectivity and connection failures hinder regulatory approval. Our software leverages any mobile network for aviation-grade connectivity.
Kim Mahler, PhD (CUSP Postdoc '20)
Jivika reduces health worker burnout and attrition by teaching mindfulness through micro-habits via a series of workshops and daily micro-habit training. Our B2B clients include 31 health systems (Cleveland Clinic, Rush, Mt. Sinai…) and 6 non-healthcare related companies that found us through word of mouth. Clients have seen 40% reduction in turnover within 3 months of using Jivika.
Ayman Mukerji (Silver ‘21)
Resist is shaking up the "bro-tein" aisle with plant-based protein bars for hormone & blood sugar health with a clinically proven slow blood sugar response! We make it easy for everyone, but especially the 163M+ Americans with hormonal imbalances from diabetes to PCOS, to snack for happy hormones on-the-go.
Drew Lederman (Tisch ‘20)
Emily Cohen (Steinhardt ‘22)
Trousso is the next-gen recommerce platform built for life's biggest moments - starting with weddings. Trousso's circular economy is creating an affordable and sustainable way for Brides to access upscale fashion for every wedding celebration.
Erica Ramos (Stern ‘23)
Justina Breen
Rodeo is an e-commerce channel for the creator economy, with a suite of tools to power the future of social commerce. For GenZ shoppers, Rodeo is the destination to shop products featured in social content. For brands and creators, Rodeo is the infrastructure to scale marketing efforts.
Lindsay Perper (Stern ‘23)
Additionally, these three ventures shared updates on their business growth with the audience:
Dathic is an artificial intelligence startup building a market location and recommendation software for CPGs that understands US hispanic consumers and recommends the best location to deliver products that communities love.
Laura Rocha (Wagner ‘20)
She Matters is a digital health platform designed to support Black women who experience postpartum morbidities through community, culturally relevant resources and culturally competent healthcare professionals.
Jade Kearney (Steinhardt ‘20)
Sabai makes sustainable living accessible with a circular model for creating, repairing, revamping, and reselling furniture products.
Phantila Phataraprasit (Law ‘20)
The Summer Launchpad, now in its 11th year, is one of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute’s core programs. Open to highly scalable and differentiated ventures from any NYU school, the Summer Launchpad pushes teams to achieve key business milestones, validate product-market fit, acquire customers, and solidify their business model.
Summer Launchpad alumni are collectively generating more than $200 million in annual revenue, have created over 400 new jobs, and have raised over $200 million in venture capital.
The next Summer Launchpad will be held from June 13-Aug. 10. Applications open in early February and will be due March 22.
Learn more about the Summer Launchpad.
Congratulations to the outstanding Summer Launchpad alumni, and thank you to all who attended the 2023 Friends & Family Demo Day!
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