Now that I have a feel for the on-campus startup ecosystem, it’s become clear that Harvard has got it going on. That’s not to say that other Boston schools aren’t coming up with incredible innovations. But the sheer number and diversity among student startups coming out of the Harvard Innovation Lab is remarkable.
Many of the ventures sharing the space are all across the board in terms of stages of development - some are still getting everything together in stealth mode, while others are positioned to take off. Of the latter group, there are some particularly impressive startups that have been on my radar lately. So here are my selections for seven new student-founded startups out of the Harvard iLab that I'll be keeping my eye on:
DNA analysis technology isn’t anything new, so how could a startup get innovative with it? MiniPCR is a small, battery-operated machine that makes any DNA experiments portable and inexpensive. The startup hopes that its machine will expose students to this technology from an early age, but it’s also discovered other uses for its revolutionary device, bringing the machines to developing countries and even space.
After participating in MassChallenge, the venture partnered with Boeing to create the Genes in Space Competition, which encourages youths to design a DNA experiment for the chance for it to be done in space. NASA has also voiced its desire to use miniPCR machines on the space station.
Usually when you’re taking an academically rigorous course in college, you don’t have many options for getting help. Either you camp out at office hours, you ask your classmates (who are just as lost as you) or you splurge on a tutor. Quickhelp is giving you a far superior option: inexpensive, on-demand tutors who will meet with you in-person to go over all of your questions.
There’s no catch here. Snagging a tutor on Quickhelp will cost undergrads about $30 per hour, which is peanuts compared to the $100+ per hour you may typically pay for a tutor. The low price stems from the fact that the app recruits nearby graduate students, who can make some cash whenever they have a free moment. Quickhelp is already popular in Boston and it’s looking to expand to other college cities like D.C. and Atlanta.
Atkins, South Beach, Paleo - the list of fad diets goes on and on. Most of the diets out there will help you lose weight, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be keeping the pounds off long-term. That’s because many diets don’t change the underlying reasons why people aren’t eating or exercising properly.
Gain Life provides lifestyle medicine programs that use behavioral modification to address what’s going on individuals’ lives and how it’s impacting the way they’re treating their bodies. Over the course of the programs, people will receive personalized guidance based on their individual stressors - like work or family life - to alter how they cope. In the end, Gain Life aims to make their programs a more effective approach to health care, nipping bad habits in the bud to decrease preventable diseases and increase quality of life.
The on-demand economy has become ingrained in many of our weekly - if not daily - lives. So it would only make sense that it would take on new forms in the education realm. For instance, Parachute is trying to improve the quality and availability of substitute teachers in our country’s public school system to ultimately ensure students have a consistent learning environment.
The average student spends a total of six months with a substitute teacher throughout an academic career. Rather than having that time spent in front of a TV or in the back of another teacher’s class, Parachute wants to bring in members of a community who can add value to the educational experience and substitute teach a class. The startup is already getting into gear, preparing to pilot their on-demand platform and pitching at the SXSWedu competition next month.
The opioid crisis has become a serious nationwide concern in the past decade. According to the National Institute on drug abuse, the number of overdose deaths from prescription pills rose to more than 25,000 - nearly 19,000 of those being from opioid pain relievers - in 2014. Governments have been trying to combat the crisis, putting constraints on doctors with regards to opioid prescriptions.
At the same time, Blue Therapeutics is working to eliminate the need for current opioid prescriptions in general. It has been developing a new form of painkiller that’s stronger than morphine, but is entirely non-addictive. So patients will be able to be pain-free without the risk of dependency. The venture, which has participated in MassChallenge and MassBio, is now raising funds so it can do the studies needed to get FDA approvals to run clinical trials.
As progressive as we may aspire to be, there’s one topic that’s usually off the table for public discussion: sex. The result? People aren’t getting the right information about their bodies - besides the limited, filtered intel they may receive from their parents or sex ed classes - to take care of their sexual health. This is particularly a problem for women, which is why Confi has established a site where they can have all of their embarrassingly personal questions answered in a thorough, accurate and medical jargon-free manner.
The startup has been focused on building up its website content - all of which is verified by trusted doctors - but it plans to branch out its services by coming out with content on mental health, new sites tailored to different countries in the world and possibly events. What’s most amusing about Confi? Almost half of its page visitors are men, only confirming how everyone is lost when it comes to sexual health.
If the success of Birchbox has taught us anything, it’s that people are fans of curated, more exploratory retail experiences. But receiving boxes in the mail might not do it for individuals craving a true, in-person shopping trip. Vala Collection is bringing the best of both worlds to consumers with its tiny pop-up boutiques.
Sourced with goods from artists and artisans, Vala Collection selects a unique array of inventory based on a particular city and sets up shop in unexpected locations, such as sidewalks or inside hotels. The startup has already had two successful pop-ups in St. Louis and Los Angeles and it’s intending to bring its modern shopping experiences to New York, Boston, Santa Monica and Ventura, California.
