Stay up to date on upcoming events, deadlines, news, and more by signing up for our newsletters!
The 2025 Summer Launchpad wrapped up with Demo Day, where this year's teams shared the ventures they built, tested, and evolved over nine transformative weeks. From medtech to AI to pizza, this year’s cohort tackled big challenges and discovered even bigger opportunities.
But the best way to capture the spirit of SLP is through the voices of those who lived it.
Quotes on Growth, Pivots, Resilience, Community — and What’s Next!
“I did not expect to learn so much and to have one of the best times of my life! This is honestly a very new experience for me, and as someone from a heavy science background, I appreciate how experiments and the way of thinking are so different for startups/founders than they are for scientists/physicians. The lessons learned will stick with me for life.” — Dr. Khanh Pham, StewardGuard
“Summer Launchpad exceeded my expectations and was far better than most accelerators I’ve seen. The program brought together passionate, driven founders who created an environment that felt more like a collaborative family than a competition. I’m generally not a fan of accelerators, but the depth of support, quality of mentorship, and genuine sense of community made this experience both enjoyable and incredibly valuable.” — Sai Dhruv (SPS ‘26), Twinning AI
“Summer Launchpad was instrumental in filling the gaps you don't know you have as a founder. The feedback process is intense, but it provides stressful-but-essential clarity that cuts through the noise. For the first time, we felt like we were on the same side of the table as VCs, gaining a transparent view of what they're truly looking for. It gave us the missing big-picture perspective on the entire startup journey.” — Annan Yang (Tisch ‘24), IndieApp
“Summer Launchpad came at exactly the right time for us, helping to shape a pivotal transition in our journey. Looking back, I know it will be a defining part of our trajectory.” — Gaby Berne (Langone Clinician), MoveMend
“Summer Launchpad was a crash course in building smarter, faster, and with purpose. We pivoted three times, honed in on our ideal customers, and walked away with a clear go-to-market plan.” — Julia Kingsley (Stern ‘26), Context Data
“I hated it in the beginning — doing weekly presentations about customer discovery over and over — until I realized how important it was for that to become muscle memory for evaluating ideas, features, businesses, etc. It was pretty much a lightbulb moment for me. You can quote me on that.” — Punit Vats (Tandon ‘23), MoveMend
“Worth traveling across the continent for.” — Bryan Hellard, Sheltrium
“Summer Launchpad is one of the best ways you can spend a summer on your startup - the density of learning and progress is unparalleled. We learned in weeks what would have otherwise taken months (and a few catastrophic mistakes) to figure out.” — Pragun Sharma, Clique
“True to its name, Summer Launchpad actually accelerated our journey beyond what we thought possible. The program helped us get off the ground, pushed us to find our direction, and launched us into becoming an actual business.” — Anastasia Dor (Tisch Fellow), Mentivista
Final Thoughts:
This summer's SLP cohort proved once again that innovation thrives at NYU when bold ideas meet real-world testing. To all of this year’s participants: we’re excited to see where you go next.
Read the full Demo Day recap → HERE
