The McCloskey New Venture Competition Semifinalists have been announced!
A record-breaking 184 teams originally submitted. Through two rounds, the teams were evaluated by nearly 300 judges and guided by individual mentors.
Of the 30 semifinalist teams, nine include ESTEEM alumni or current students, and one future student!
Cold Brew Fuel
Team Leader: Nick Wilt '20
Team Members: Lisa Slomka '21, Anshul Dhingra '20, Jeff Riney '20
Cold Brew Fuel's mission is to inspire and encourage fitness enthusiasts to reach their potential through clean, simple nutrition. We have formulated a prepared pre-workout drink that enhances cold brew coffee with nootropics to elevate gym-goers energy levels, mental clarity and attitude throughout their exercise. By providing safe, and natural levels of caffeine and natural nootropics, this beverage will allow athletes to reach their potential without digesting harmful emulsifiers, unregulated chemicals and unsafe levels of stimulants.
FloWaste
Team Leader: Rian McDonnell '20
If food waste was a country it would be the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, with 1/3 of food produced for human consumption being wasted. While this chronic misuse occurs, 11% of the world's population is severely undernourished and we have entered a climate crisis. FloWaste gathers data on food waste and derives recommendations to allow the user to make changes, reducing their food waste and consume food more sustainably.
Igbo
Team Leader: Nessan Harpur '17
Team Members: Samuel Cowdery '20, Odhran Reidy '19, Tyron Pretorius '18
Igbo is a product of the intersection of sustainable thinking and sustainable development. With the recent deforestation initiatives in the Amazon Rainforest, the world is desperately in need of a new way of thinking about sustainability. Tried and tested methods have explored recycling, reducing waste, and improving efficiency. The Igbo team believes that the optimal way to encourage sustainability is through an interactive educational and competitive setting. To this end, the team has designed a strategic board game which rewards sustainability, critical thinking and resource efficiency.
Lieuburger
Team Leader: Audrey Shannon '20
Team Members: Leanne Tang '20, Nicholas Wilt '20, Travis Hotchkiss '20
Animal agriculture has a large environmental footprint and is one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems. Lieuburger, a 100% plant-based fast-food restaurant, seeks to reduce these issues by providing 100% plant based options at a convenient pace and affordable price. According to The Good Food Institute, substituting a plant-based burger for a beef burger reduces water use by 72-98%, land use by 47-99%, greenhouse gas emissions by 30-90%, and potential water pollution by 51-94%.
Lumen Bio, LLC
Team Leader: Julie Doran '20
Lumen Bio, LLC is a biotech company that seeks to utilize its patented technology to create a weight management pet food. Our product offers a scientifically backed solution that will help pet owners and veterinarians improve the lives of overweight pets. Lumen Bio’s patented weight management solution involves manipulation of the microbiome, specifically the stomach protein gastrokine-1.
Otter Therapies
Team Leader: Colton Karch '19
Team Members: Emily Link-Carrillo '19, Shane Earley '19, Brian Scott '19, Kalyn McDermott '20
Otter is an online platform target towards families and care teams of children with special needs. Through various user interviews the Otter team discovered poor care coordination was a common problem for families of children with special needs. By listening to what parents, doctors, and therapists struggled with most, we've developed a unique solution that helps coordinate care, thus improving patient outcomes.
PWR Training
Team Member: Allison Berding '20
Level Development (formerly PWR Training) is a sports performance program specifically designed for the pre-collegiate female athlete. Through group training sessions, Level trains athletes to be stronger, faster and more durable with strength and agility, injury prevention, and mental strength building tactics. Every phase is guided by highly trained coaches who have worked at the collegiate level and are passionate about training the next generation of elite female athletes in a facility with equipment specifically designed for their needs.
Taxedo
Team Leader: Samuel Cowdery '20
Taxedo is a mobile accounting and expense-tracking platform built to empower self-employed workers towards financial independence. With the massive shift of the workforce towards independent work and the rise of the "gig economy," there is a growing need for mobile bookkeeping software in the market of freelancers and sole-proprietorships. Taxedo will leverage AI and data analytics to maximize tax-deductions, track income, and classify expenses to minimize the burden of accounting and maximize the profitability of self-employed professionals.
Viewtique
Team Leader: Christopher Cali '15
Viewtique is one website to shop your local fashion boutiques. We make it drastically easier for buyers to buy and sellers to sell by giving boutique owners digital user experiences to meet their shoppers' online demands. Online traffic increases store foot traffic and vice versa, but individual boutiques don't have access to best-in-class online UX to offer shoppers and so miss out on this. Viewtique solves this by creating local online fashion districts equipped with bespoke UX for designed for local boutique shopping. Viewtique is generating revenue and has organic customer referral sales.
As teams have been working diligently all year, the Competition will continue as scheduled, with all components being virtual.
Please note the following on how the competition will progress this April:
- Thirty semifinalists will submit a virtual pitch to a panel of judges, with concessions being made for Q&A.
- Teams moving on to the final round will be announced at the end of the day on April 23.
- Those teams will compete "live" via video conferencing on April 24, in front of the final round judges. These final round pitches will be recorded and available on our website.
- A live streamed awards event will take place Friday afternoon, April 24, highlighting all the award winners and the Grand Prize Winner! This live streamed event will be recorded and posted online.