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Rosenthal Pavilion buzzed with excitement on July 27 as startups from the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute’s Summer Launchpad and Yale Tsai CITY’s Summer Fellowship went head-to-head for the 10th year in a row at the NYU-Yale Summer Accelerator Pitchoff.
The time-honored tradition featured six promising, seed-stage startups — three representing NYU, and three representing Yale — pitching their ventures before a live audience and panel of VC judges. For the first time in Pitchoff history, three awards were up for grabs — Best Pitch, Most Investable, and Audience Choice — with the school that scored the majority of awards being named this year’s champion and taking home the trophy.
Back at full capacity for the first time since 2019, the Pitchoff drew more than 300 attendees from NYU and Yale’s collegiate communities, and New York City and New Haven, Connecticut’s robust startup ecosystems.
Below, meet the startups that competed for the top spots, and check out photos from the event!
NYU’s pitching teams:
Kaizntree is a cloud-based software for solo entrepreneurs who make their own products and sell on multiple sales channels to track inventory and manage everything from raw materials to sales in one place.
Team: Marcos Brisson (Shanghai '23), Michaela Vitug, Etienne Ortega (Shanghai '24), Benoit van Keer (Shanghai '23)
Peeramid helps university administrative offices optimize retention of students who fail to receive support for their well-being by providing a social wellness mobile app, because peers get it.
Team: Megan Fricke (Tandon '22), Vivi Wei (CAS '22)
Edgi helps autodidactic AP students ace their exams and pursue their own intellectual curiosities.
Team: Josh Shapiro (Gallatin '18)
Meet the full 2023 Summer Launchpad Cohort.
Yale’s pitching teams:
Carbon Loop creates a circular economy by converting CO2 emissions into liquid fuel and other high-value products.
Team: Perry Bakas (SOM '24), Harrison Meyer (YSE '24), Conor Rooney (Chemistry Ph.D. '24)
NAOS is building a solution that will enable the 100M+ existing Latin American crypto users to have simple access to investments for products for seeking alpha.
Team: Renato Carregha (SOM ’23), Jorge Villalobos Lara, Marcos Cohen
Spiel is the first interactive review platform for friends to share recommendations, expand interests, and deepen relationships.
Team: Jared Shelby (YC ’23), Sylvie Goldner (YC '25)
Meet the full 2023 Yale Tsai CITY Summer Fellowship Cohort.
This year’s panel of esteemed expert judges featured:
Kyra Durko (NYU Stern '19) of Two Sigma Ventures
Beatriz del Rio (NYU Stern '20) of Point72
Adam Chekroud, PhD (Yale GSAS '18) of Spring Health
Mendy Yang (YC '15), early-stage B2B SaaS investor
Matt Hooper (NYU CAS '10), former Tsai CITY Innovation Fellow, of Kaplak Partners
After each team presented their venture on stage, the judges deliberated to select the Best Pitch and Most Investable winners, while the crowd voted for the Audience Choice winner via a mobile poll. This year's winning teams were announced as:
- Best Pitch: Edgi (NYU)
- Most Investable: Carbon Loop (Yale)
- Audience Choice: Kaizntree (NYU)
We are thrilled to carry on the Pitchoff title for another year! A massive thank you to everyone who came out to this year's event and, of course, infinite thanks to the Yale Tsai CITY team and their founders for partnering with us. We can't wait for next year’s (tie-breaking) Pitchoff! 🏆
Want to be in the running to present your startup at a future NYU-Yale Pitchoff? Book a startup coaching appointment with our team members and learn more about applying for our Startup Accelerator Series!
