Some of us seem to find our stride earlier in life than others. And that's what Austin Inno's 25 Under 25 list is all about — highlighting the young innovators who have accomplished an exceptional amount in their 25 or fewer years.
This includes students who are juggling undergrad or master's degrees while founding and running startups, as well as young adults who have pursued their dreams to help others or bring interesting new products to market.
To highlight some of the those young entrepreneurs and leaders making the biggest impact in the local ecosystem aged 25 or younger, Austin Inno has put together a list of the brightest minds in the region. This year’s list was chosen based on nominations and Inno’s editorial selection process.
Now, let's meet Austin Inno's 2020 25 Under 25 rock stars...
Arooj Sheikh, 21, founder at Fuze8 and Mera Marketing
Arooj Sheikh is a former founder who has since taken the venture capital route. Her first company, NuDrops, launched in 2014 and created health supplements to enhance cognitive function. She later became a fellow at Female Founders Fund and an associate at Lvl Up Ventures, all before founding Fuze8, which connects real estate agents and lenders. More recently, she was a venture associate at Austin-based Newchip. In July, she became a startup advisor with London-based Babble -- all while authoring a book about pitch decks and founding Mera Marketing.
Krishan Sachdev, 25, CEO of HiPR Innovation
Many great startups are born out of entrepreneurs seeing a need first-hand. That was the case for Krishan Sachdev, founder and CEO of HiPR Innovation, Inc., a medical device startup that has developed innovative ways to reduce compression bedsores among people with long term paralysis or other disabilities that keep them bedridden for long periods of time. The device uses an intelligent pressure management system to prevent pressure ulcers. He has built a team, has bootstrapped and won several competitions for funding, and is part of the Austin Technology Incubator. The startup was also sponsored by the Southwest Pediatric Device Consortium and landed a financial prize.
Ariel Lee, 22, co-founder and CEO of Remane
After winning the Longhorn Investment Competition in 2019, the startup Ariel Lee co-founded, Remane, went on be a finalist in the Austin Young Chamber's Fast Start pitch event in January. And, this summer, it joined the Target Incubator. Remane pitches itself as "data driven hair care." It seeks to empower Black women on their hair journeys by helping navigate through products and providing insights from hundreds of men and women across the country. Lee graduated this year from UT Austin with a degree in studio art and a minor in government. She is also a service and interaction designer with Accenture Federal Services.
D'azhane Cook, 22, co-founder and COO of Remane
D'azhane Cook has become no stranger to the stage. As co-founder and COO of Remane, a data-driven hair care company helping people care for kinky-curly hair with more ease, she has been on "Good Day Austin," helped pitch her business and win first place for pre-revenue startups in the Longhorn Investment Competition and as a finalist in Austin Fast Pitch. Cook is a recent 2020 graduate from The University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in management information systems, a minor in African and African diaspora studies and an interdisciplinary certificate in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship
Jonathan Wong, 20, founder and product director of Texas Product Engineering Organization
Jonathan Wong founded his first startup, a food rescuing app called SwipeMeIn, back in 2018. The project was featured in The Daily Texan and won a few awards at the HackTX hackathon. But it was hardly his first foray into tech. Before that he had served as a TEC Fellow at True Ventures, interned at Bay Area company Pulse Q&A, and worked as a research intern at Dell Medical School. More recently, Wong co-founded the Texas Product Engineering Organization to bolster UT's tech education opportunities through real world software projects with community impact. And, earlier this month, he became a venture capital fellow at venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.
David Stavis, 21, CEO and co-founder of RealQuik
David is a technology enthusiast who was first recognized at SXSW at age 16 for his innovative work on mineral oil supercomputers in collaboration with Dell and Nvidia. He closed out his teenage years working on a variety of engineering projects, from submersible robotics with the Navy to new computer hardware coolant solutions. He was the top ranked business student at Baylor University and was chief operating officer at WorldSnackPacks in Austin before dedicating all of his time to RealQuik in 2018. RealQuik, a content and lead generation startup for real estate professionals, has landed funding from several angel investors.
Jonathan Franco, 16, Breakthrough Junior Challenge global semifinalist
Westwood High School student Jonathan Franco is already working on potential game-changing ideas at the age of 16. Earlier this year, he focused on how quantum computing might provide opportunities for major breakthroughs, including things like curing Covid-19. This summer, he entered the Breakthrough Junior Challenge and roes to the semifinals, Spectrum News reported.
Allen Zhou, 19, CEO and co-founder at Big & Mini
UT student Allen Zhou co-founded Big & Mini in April this year as a nonprofit to connect youth and seniors virtual to combat social isolation. The startup has already gained recognition on the Today Show, and won the LaunchPad Fellowship, Encore.org Gen2Gen Fellowship and Points of Light Youth Summit Pitch Competition. But this isn't his first foray into entrepreneurship. As a teenager he published articles, developed a nutrition calculator and launched a website focused on astrophysics.
Aditi Merchant, 19, COO and co-founder at Big & Mini
UT biomedical engineering sophomore Aditi Merchant has helped catapult her startup, Big & Mini, into mainstream media and several pitch competitions and fellowships. In her earlier years, she had regular conversations with people from all generations through her experiences volunteering at senior living communities and coaching youth on everything from robotics to financial literacy, which helped her become an advocate for intergenerational connection. She's also a Forty Acres and Stamps Scholar, as well as an engineering honors student.
Anthony Zhou, 17, co-founder at Big & Mini
Big & Mini co-founder Anthony Zhou is also a student at the Texas Academy of Math and Science at the University of North Texas. As CTO of Big & Mini he leads a team of two engineers, and he was responsible for most of the startup's backend and matching algorithm. Zhou has also conducted research at MIT and created Dallas's official Alexa Skill.
Teodoro Mefalopulos, 25, founder of Nimaroh
Nimaroh, the company Teodoro Mefalopulos founded, is a creative agency focused on production, design and development. Two years ago Teo launched Nimaroh and opened up an office space in downtown Austin. Already, the startup has worked with CNN, Lyft, TEDx, City of Austin, University of Texas at Austin and local robotic barista startup Briggo. When the pandemic arrived, the startup reached out to companies in need to offer any assistance they could. Prior to Nimaroh, Mefalopulos, who attended Iowa State University, was a creative director at Directed by Creatives in Des Moines.
Miguel Plascencia, 23, multimedia director at Nimaroh
Talk about someone who's up to a challenge. Miguel Plascencia late last year was told that if he could reach 100,000 followers on TikTok, Nimaroh would double his salary, the Statesman reported. His post about that challenge helped catapult him to 200,000 subscribers. Before getting a massive wave of attention on TikTok, Plascencia was a graphic designer at Autonomy Movement and worked as a design intern at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin.
Umar Brimah, 25, GoingVC cohort 7 member
Umar Brimah got his start as a founder at age 12, launching an anime retail store in downtown Cape Girardeau, Misouri. He later founded entertainment company BleauxEvents, selling thousands of tickets for events. He then got interested in investing and joined the investor relations team at Capital Factory, helping connect founders and VCs on the Texas Startups National Roadshow. He has recently joined GoingVC to expand his knowledge of entrepreneurship and build a career in venture capital investing.
Alex Dorr, 25, founder of Mushroom Revival
After self curing his own Lyme disease and getting a degree in mycology, Alex Dorr saw great opportunities for healing using mushrooms and later launched a startup called Mushroom Revival. He also authored a book called "Mycoremediation Handbook: A Grassroots Guide to Growing Mushrooms and Cleaning up Toxic Waste with Fungi" in 2017. Mushroom Revival offers mushroom based supplements geared to help people relax, get energy, boost immunity or focus, depending on the concoction. His startup plants a tree for each product sold -- 33,000 over the past three years. And Dorr donated more than $10,000 worth of herbal medicine to People of Color during the coronavirus pandemic. As a mushroom expert, he has traveled the globe research and teaching. He also co-hosts The Mushroom Revival Podcast with his partner, Lera Niemackl.
Maggie Engler, 25, lead data scientist at The Global Disinformation Index
Data science and security have been at the core of Maggie Engler's career since graduating from Stanford University with a master's degree in electrical engineering, where she was also a research assistant. She joined risk analytics company Cyence in 2017 before becoming a data scientist at Duo Security in Austin. This year, she became the lead data scientist at The Global Disinformation Index, a London-based company focused on detecting and demonetizing the spread of online disinformation.
Kira Prentice, 25, product manager at Centaur Labs
After getting her start in startup land as a design intern at Capital Factory, Kira Prentice went on to work with local startups Student Loan Genius and OwnLocal. She later worked at athenahealth and Gradifi as a senior UX designer before founding her first company, Flawless Hacks, a New York City-based nonprofit hackathon for technical women. Now, she manages and develops a mobile app that enables medial AI through gamification
Nick Prijic, 24, director of customer experience at Fetch
Nick Prijic launched his first startup, SKNZ, while studying at Texas A&M University. And, after graduating with a master's degree in business administration, he joined Austin off-site package delivery startup Fetch as a relationship manager. Prijic quickly climbed the ranks, first leading customer service in Austin and last year becoming director of customer experience where he manages one of the company's largest teams.
David Love, 24, CEO of Winter Haven Capital
David Love founded Winter Haven Capital to offer average retail investors the tools to hedge their portfolios against market drawdowns and educate them on risk. He did so by developing a QuanTiles Analytics Terminal that offers quantitative trading analytics and models to the retail investor through a SaaS business model at a discounted cost. Prior to becoming CEO, he was Winter Haven's chief investment officer. Before that, he was an equity research analyst at GQR Global Markets and interned as a markets risk research fellow with J.P. Morgan.
Blake Settle, 23, CEO of Rev Energy Gum
While studying at UT, Blake Settle founded Rev Energy Gum, a caffeinated chewing gum that packs a punch similar to a cup of coffee. The startup has raised more than $1.3 million and is sold at 1,500-plus retail locations across 41 states, including heavy hitters such as H-E-B, Love's Travel Stops and Buc-ee's. Settle is also an Eagle Scout.
Annie Flowers, 23, sales director at Rev Energy Gum
After founding her first company, Hullabaloons, in 2016, Annie Flowers set up a licensing agreement with Aggieland Outfitters. She went on to work at PepsiCo in Chicago before coming to Austin and becoming sales director at Rev Gum, a caffeinated gum startup.
Kevin Hanan, 23, associate at CBRE Advisory and Transaction Services
After graduating from Saint Mary's College in California, Kevin Hanan joined commercial property company Marcus & Millichap before taking on a new role last year at commercial real estate giant CBRE. At CBRE, Hanan helps growth companies find office space that fits with our new remote-work world. With an innovative, data-based process, he helps startups save money and find better flexibility. Hanan is also a member of the Andy Roddick Foundation leadership council and a volunteer with the Austin Music Foundation.
Bryce Jurss, founder at The Odyssey Project
Baylor University grad Bryce Jurss started his tech career as an account manager at Dell Technologies last year. But even before that, he had launched his first startup -- The Odyssey Project. The startup, which he leads as CEO, is focused on humanizing technology and providing easy financial transactions on its RoyPay Network. The startup is now developing its RoyBank app, with plans for a launch in Apple and Google stores in November
Eunice Chendjou, 24, OpenTeams
As COO at OpenTeams, an Austin startup backed by local VC firm Quansight Futures and Sputnik ATX, 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. She was also on our 25 Under 25 list last year. Since then, she has appeared on several panel discussions, including Inno's Startups to Watch event, as well as the Austin Forum on Technology & Society, sharing insights about the role of data and technology in the fight for racial justice.
Rohit Srinivasan, 20, and Sidharth Srinivasan, 18, co-founders at Trashbots
Returning to Inno's 25 Under 25 list again this year for the third year in a row are brothers and Trashbots co-founders Rohit and Sidharth Srinivasan. Their robotics kit and STEM education startup this year secured a new group of investors to join its seed round. The new investors are Trinidadian DJ and entrepreneur Christopher Leacock (aka Jillionaire); Sputnik ATX; founder of Silicon Labs, Nav Sooch; Austin Ventures founder, Joe Aragona; and founder of Yodle and OJO Labs, John Berkowitz. The brothers co-founded Trashbots with Paul Austin, a software engineer from National Instruments.
