UVA Entrepreneurship - Congratulations, Discovery Competition Finalists!
Eleven finalists will compete at 4:30PM on February 21st in Darden's iLab
The second stage of the UVA Entrepreneurship Cup (E-Cup), the Discovery Competition, is all about customer and product development. A total of $25,000 in prize money will be awarded as part of the Discovery Stage.
We are excited to announce the eleven finalists (listed in alphabetical order below) for the E-Cup Discovery Competition - this was a competitive application pool! The finalists will compete on Wednesday, February 21st at 4:30PM in the iLab Classroom (180/190) at the Darden School of Business.
:: FINALISTS ::
Chatty
Chatty is working toward a way for anyone, anywhere to efficiently and interactively prep for technical interviews. By manipulating the open-source API for GPT 4.0 available via Open AI we’ve been able to simulate the highly collaborative nature of technical interviews when the final solution is very objective. The computer science, investment banking, and quantitative sectors all have very objective solutions to commonly asked interview questions, and this has allowed us to prompt our model and platform into giving very brief and guided feedback, similar to a real interviewer.
Founded by: Sonith Sunku, College of Arts & Sciences & Advait Kushe
Ethiopian Delights
Ethiopian Delights is a consumer goods company that produces shelf-stable Ethiopian food. The company’s mission is to foster connection and community by sharing the rich flavors and cultural heritage of Ethiopian cuisine. We offer precooked, instant Ethiopian food, so consumers only need to add water to enjoy our products. The focus of the company is in crafting convenient and nutritious food that connects consumers to diverse flavors, filling the void of accessible Ethiopian food in rural areas. Currently our product offerings include Misir Wot, a red lentil-based stew with onions, oil, and berbere spice.
Founded by: Beza Bisrat, Darden School of Business
EZ_EAP
EZ-EAP is an emergency action plan (EAP) management app, specifically tailored to athletics. EAPs are crucial documents that are required to be at every athletic venue. They outline everything needed in a potential emergency. This includes EMS routes, emergency equipment, emergency contacts, emergency procedures, etc. However, current EAP’s are outdated, hard to use, and lack functionality. EZ-EAP takes preexisting EAPs and puts them in a format that is modernized, practical, and easy to use.
Founded by: Jacob Swisher, School of Nursing & A.J. Peppers, Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science
Gruvian
Gruvian is the first ever marketplace for native advertisements. Native advertisements are a type of advertising that blends in with the platform's regular content, making it less intrusive and more natural to the viewer. We connect publishers (businesses that sell ads) with advertisers by managing the advertising auctions, facilitating payments, and providing analytics to both publishers and advertisers.
Founded by:
Michael Djorup, Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science & Lior Ben-David, College of Arts & Sciences
Moment
Moment is an app solely dedicated to preserving life’s memories. The Moment app empowers users to craft lasting "moments" that encapsulate their memories using a combination of images, videos, text, and audio. They can see all their moment on a sleek, scrollable timeline. Each moment can be cherished privately or shared seamlessly with friends and family, regardless of whether they are currently using the app.
Founded by:
Ayush Bhatia, College of Arts & Sciences, Aryan Jain, College of Arts & Sciences, & Rohit Rajuladevi, Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science
Noogs
Noogs were created when co-founder, Paige, felt stuck with the available sports nutrition products on the market. As a dietitian, marathoner, and running coach, she understood the importance of nutrition on the run, but couldn’t find a source of fuel that matched her needs. Her favorite alternative, sour gummy candy, lacked essential electrolytes and required a fair amount of chewing. Paige decided to create an energy chew that would solve her fueling dilemma. She and her co-founder, Ben, partnered with Oregon State University’s Innovation Food Center to develop what is now Noogs. These delicious energy chews feature tasty sour gummy candy flavor, along with easy-to-digest carbohydrates and electrolytes athletes need to fuel their performance.
Founded by: Ben Foote, Darden School of Business & Paige Foote
Petrichor
Petrichor is a circular apparel startup that creates sustainable, affordable, and high-quality essential apparel. Our approach sets the standard for extended producer responsibility, taking on 100% of the end-of-life impact for our apparel and ensuring over 90% reuse. Petrichor not only retrieves its products at disposal but also designs a specific end-of-life stage for each of its products, whether it’s natural decomposition, upcycling, or a targeted recycling yield.
Founded by: Curie Chang, Darden School of Business
PLAY HENRY
Ellie Jamison and Grace Collins met at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in 2022. Early in their time at school, they fell in love with the sport of pickleball to exercise and make new friends. They quickly found a gap in the market for a unique, fresh pickleball brand serving younger generations of players. Their first product, the monochrome “Hank Pro” pickleball paddle sold out during pre-sale. PLAY HENRY focuses on the mission to create pickleball products that seamlessly transition from on and off the court, or as they like to say, “from court to cocktail”.
Founded by:
Ellie Jamison, Darden School of Business & Grace Collins, Darden School of Business
PortaHaler
The PortaHaler brings an award winning, modern touch to medication as the world's smallest and most compact inhaler, and the first and only inhaler that seamlessly attaches to objects such as, but not limited to, one's wrist and phone, displaying unmatched convenience. By bridging the gap between accessibility and innovative visual and mechanical design, the PortaHaler will revolutionize respiratory disease treatment, making accessing inhalers easier, greatly increase medication adherence, and ultimately improving the quality of life for millions worldwide.
Founded by: Miles Lanham, Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science
PulseCheck HR
PulseCheck was born from the recognition that the current approach to performance reviews is ineffective, lacks actionable feedback, and fosters negative sentiments in the workplace. Our mission is to revolutionize this process by offering an intuitive platform that facilitates frequent, quality feedback sessions. With just a few minutes each month, both managers and team members can benefit from improved alignment and performance.
Founded by: Jack Alexander, Darden School of Business & Colin Wilkie
SPLIT
Our mission is to reduce the cost of transportation for students and other people with limited budgets. SPLIT matches and coordinates rides for those traveling the same route at the same time. SPLIT prioritizes giving users a safe, convenient, and affordable service by using identity verification, in-app ride calling, and cost transparency. During the summer of 2023, we started a partnership with Uber which allows us to coordinate rides for our customers automatically. We are the first and only ride-matching service to do this.
Founded by: Ben Lawrence, Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science
:: WAHOOWA ::
As always, should you have any questions about Entrepreneurship here at UVA, feel free to check out our website, sign up for the newsletter, or email uvaentrepreneurship@virginia.edu.
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:: HELP WANTED ::
Looking for connections to a co-founder or need help with a project? Email uvaentrepreneurship@virginia.edu.