Austin is teeming with ambitious young entrepreneurs -- some shooting for the moon, some hoping to simply bring a seemingly brilliant idea to life.
From high school kids to students at colleges to universities and tech schools across town to startups and even big tech, Austin's young innovators help drive the city's entire tech and startup ecosystem forward by challenging old school ideas and practices, as well as churning out exciting new ideas and startups.
Many of these rising stars fly well below the radar. A few grab a headline or two. In both cases, we wanted to follow up on our inaugural 25 Under 25 list last year with an updated version that brings in mostly new faces.
Our list was built largely from nominations, as well as our own observations covering the city's tech ecosystem for both this website and our daily newsletter, the Beat. And, while this year's list is out, we hope you'll continue to help us spot the young talent that helps refuel Austin's ever-expanding base of creatives, entrepreneurs and dreamers.
Now, let's meet the 25 Under 25 of 2019 ...
Katherine Allen, 23, and Atreya Misra, 23 | Flo Recruit
After being on this list last year, Flo Recruit pitched at Y Combinator and landed $150,000 in funding from the prestigious accelerator. Prior to that, she co-founded The Genesis Fund, a $1.2 million fund that backs student startups. Meanwhile, her company has also spotlighted some of the young interns who are helping the company grow -- some of whom may one day wind up on this list.
Rajya Atluri and Clio Harralson, 22 | Swayy
These UT founders launched Swayy in 2017 as an online subscription service that curates a variety of themed apparel from across college campuses. The startup prides itself on offering "essential boss-lady statement jackets," not to mention dresses and music festival outfits. Atluri has also been part of UT's student government and led its Women's Resource Agency. Harralson, meanwhile, has previously worked as a tutor and founded a design startup in 2015.
Nikhil Bhargava, 23 | Valkyrie Intelligence
After starting at Valkyrie Intelligence as a part-time associate date scientist, Bhargava proved to be a rising star and climbed to a full-time data science role, helping build the company after its launch a couple years ago. He's now working on some of the startup's most critical work, while also mentoring fellow young scientists and interns -- and he's also said to have a sweet sneaker collection.
Reese Byrne, 24 | Galvanize
After stint in college athletics, Reese Byrne started at Galvanize in 2018 as a part time event coordinator. Less than half a year later, she was promoted as their full-time Event Manager, helping pull off some 800-plus events. She's known for building relationships with local startups, such as The Guild, Lumen Insurance, Bridgepoint Consulting and so on. She was recently recruited as a sponsor lead for the Lesbians who Tech Global Conference in New York this month.
Suguey Carmona, 14 | KIPP Brave High School
Carmona caught our eye when we saw the ninth grader had published an Alexa Skill in the Amazon Appstore. It helps English- and Spanish-speaking immigrants get basic answers about their rights, whether that's asking about obtaining a visa or what to do about state-issued identification. She developed the concept through her family's experience and got exposed to computer science through the Hello World program.
Eunice Chendjou, 23 | OpenTeams
As COO at OpenTeams, an Austin startup backed by local VC firm Quansight Futures, Chendjou helps lead and develop the startup's online marketplace to connect with writers and leaders of open source projects. Prior to that, she founded DataGig, an online marketplace for businesses to find vetted data experts and vendors for their big data and analytics projects on-demand. She was also previously a mentor at Code2College.
Abhishek Dasgupta, 21 | TEDxUT
Talk about crushing it. Dasgupta co-founded TEDxUT, which delivers top-notch presentations to campus and remote viewers. He's also a biomedical engineering student who is researching brain cancer at MD Anderson and building a food tech startup. He's the executive chair at the UT BME Undergraduate Advisory Board. He's also a real estate agent who fixes motorcycles and loves motorsports.
Daniela De Stefano Pachon, 24 | Trip Loop
In one of her biggest moves, De Stefano Pachon helped Trip Loop consolidate a strategic partnership with the largest travel agency in Japan, the Japan Travel Bureau. But she's make big moves locally, too. She helped unite 70 travel startups in Austin under a single organization, which not only helps highlight the area's strong travel tech ecosystem but helps each startup learn from each other and collaborate as needed.
Kelsi Kamin, 24 | Silverton Partners
Last year, Kamin was on this list for her work at Capital Factory's venture fund and accelerator. Since then, she's moved on to the investment team at Silverton Partners, which makes significantly larger investments -- often in local startups. The former Texas Longhorn also helped create the Genesis Fund to back student startups and helped organize the Texas Crypto Meetup.
Kendall King, 24 | Tenant Advisors
At Tenant Advisors, King has created a platform to uncover unique office solutions that threads the needle for companies like CS Disco, Diligent Droids, Clockwork Solutions, Company.com and more. She has built quickly on her background in marketing and real estate since her UT days.
Eliott Lee and Mandeep Patel | ElecTrip
Patel is co-founder and founder of two companies, Sun Co. and ElecTrip, which have recently won two different Austin Fast Start competitions (Sustainable Business and Mobility Innovation, respectively). Sun Co. is making prototypes for next generation passive solar trackers. ElecTrip, meanwhile, helps folks get between Texas' largest cities in Teslas, which offer a luxury ride without the emissions. He founded that company with Elliot Lee, who is a fellow UT student.
Mallory Martin, 23 | Iris Telehealth
Described as an "absolute force of positive disruption" at Iris Telehealth, Martin is credited with revolutionizing hiring practices for top clinical talent by using data analysis and advanced algorithms to forecast applicant pipelines and consulting with cross-functional teams. She also took the lead on the expansion of the company's downtown Austin headquarters.
Ryan Martinez, 21 | Rocket Dollar
As a pivotal early hire at Rocket Dollar, Martinez was Rocket Dollar's founding engineer and built its patent pending core infrastructure and API. After freelancing since age 11, he has continually built on his experience, learning 11 computer languages along the way -- plus Spanish and Latin.
Keegan McClure, 22 | The Mentor Method
Keegan is head of partnerships at The Mentor Method, which helps companies retain employees and promote diversity. He's helping the startup engage with other companies in new ways and takes being an ally in diversity and inclusion seriously. He was also a key team member is making the Austin Mosaic Awards a success earlier this summer.
Veronica Peñaloza-Wolfermann, 25 | Facebook
Before becoming an account manager at Facebook in Austin, Peñaloza-Wolfermann was a UT student with an interest in helping nonprofits. Now, that's what she does at Facebook by helping large and small NGOs meet fundraising goals using Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. She was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, and she was recently awarded the AdColor Futures award, which celebrates the next generation of diverse leaders in the advertising, marketing, media, and public relations industries. She is also co-lead for Facebook Austin’s Latin@ employee resource group.
Kush Singh, 20 | Hitch
Back again on this year's list, Singh, now 20, has seen his ride sharing startup Hitch evolve. And he's come a long way. After working on meetHere, which was recognized as a top startup by CNBC, and being employee No. 2 at Peeyr, Singh launched Krew, later renamed Hitch, and raised about $1 million. He and CTO Tanuj Girish participated in the Longhorn Startup Lab at the University of Texas at Austin where they connected with Jay Manickam and Matt Chasen, two UT graduates who founded uShip, an Austin-based online marketplace for shipping services.
Rohit and Sidharth Srinivasan, 19 and 17 | Trashbots
Back for their second year, the Srinivasan brothers have continued building upon their startup, Trashbots, which aims to give children around the world a chance to learn the basics of rocketry, robotics and other STEM skills -- while also having a lot of fun. Paul Austin, a software engineer from National Instruments, is also part of the founding team. And, they've had a series of successes -- two SXSW awards, a GESA top tech startup award and an innovation highlight by Texas Monthly. The team has revamped its website, conducted TED talks and got featured on Entrepreneur.com. And they even hung out with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Lemonade Day (see below).
— Lemonade Day (@LemonadeDay) July 24, 2019
Lauren Welch, 25 | Xelpha Health
Welch is the co-founder of XELPHAhealth, a health care solutions company helping advance quality care in resource-constrained environments via machine learning. She's an alumni of MIT’s Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, according to her LinkedIn page. She has significant hospital experience, and she's on the board of directors for Kimberly’s List, which helps students of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She also recently won the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Association competition in San Antonio. Learn more in this profile by St. Edward’s University.
Keagan Wernicke, 23 | Freedom in Tech Alliance and Moonshot Marketers
Wernicke started exploring entrepreneurship at the University of Texas in 2014. By 2015, at age 19, he decided to dropout and help build a startup -- GroupThreads, an e-commerce business for sorority and fraternity merchandise, where he was president and COO. That merged with another local startup in 2016. By 2018, he had co-founded the Freedom in Tech Alliance, which is a nonprofit that encourages political diversity and discourse in the tech industry. He also started another business -- a boutique marketing firm that has worked with AppSumo, theCHIVE and others.
David Zakariaie, 22 | Senseye
No shortage of nominations for Zakariaie in this list. He appeared here last year for, then at age 19, winning Capital Factory's first-ever $100,000 challenge and founded Senseye, which had landed deals with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. "Our moonshot, Human-Computer Symbiosis, will revolutionize the way humans communicate with technology, using a unique, sensory interface technology..." the startup says on its site. His company also showcased this year as part of Oracle's global startup accelerator. And his team has grown to 25-plus.
Giovanni Zinzi, 21, and Keegan Black, 21 | CollegeHustle
This UT duo create CollegeHustle, a mobile application that helps students get part-time jobs near campus. Students find jobs through a map-interface and connect directly with employers within 48 hours of applying through their in-app messaging system. Earlier this year, it soft launched at UT Austin with 10 businesses. It's an entrepreneur in residence company at local accelerator Sputnik ATX.
