Thursday, Chicago Inno hosted its inaugural Inno U Challenge, a pitch competition and showcase for the city's student entrepreneurs. Featuring fifteen startups from UChicago, Northwestern, DePaul, IIT, UIC, Loyola, and UIUC - from 3D printed bow ties to (two!) virtual reality startups for the healthcare industry - the event was a reflection of Chicago's thriving, diverse, and eclectic entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Every tech hub in the country worries about its pipeline and whether it's fostering enough founders to drive its innovation economy forward in 5, 10, 15 years. Well, after last night, it's safe to say that Chicago will be all right.
The event kicked off with the impressive pitches, with 15 startups getting 3-minutes each to present their businesses and vision to the audience. Everyone in the audience was given an 'Inno Buck' to invest in their favorite presentation. And the 'most funded' startup from last night was....
GRAPEVYNE!
Grapevyne, co-founded by Maria Mckiever, an industrial engineering student at University of Illinois-Chicago, "connects users to stylists in the black hair care market through an app that shows hair stylists who are closest to a user's location." The app then displays information that helps users decide the best stylist for their needs. Earlier this year, Grapevyne won the top prize at Campus 1871. For winning the Inno U Challenge, the Grapevyne team will receive VIP tickets to 50 on Fire and 3-months of free office space at WeWork.
The other amazing presenting startups were:
- Ember: A subscription service beauty consultant creating personalized looks and tutorials based on makeup users already own. (UChicago)
- Finalyze: An equity research platform that implements recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing to revolutionize the way investors source and screen investment ideas. (UChicago)
- 3 Dime Designs: The maker of fashionable, easy-to-put-on 3D printed bow ties. (DePaul)
- Shac: (Student Housing and Collective) A platform that helps students (specifically commuter students) find free housing arrangements with other students near their college, all while creating new friendships and lasting connections. (DePaul)
- The Roots Foundation: A multi-platform social network that unites local communities through means of technology and values of humanity. (Loyola)
- Rambler Consulting Group: A student-run consulting practice structured as a social enterprise. (Loyola)
- Zcruit Optimizes the college football recruiting process through predictive analytics, saving universities time and money and yielding better on-field results. (Northwestern)
- Trashy: A sustainability startup whose mission is to promote recycling through innovative design. (Northwestern)
- Omnipointment: Aiming to end the long email chains and group chats with a simple interface for coordinating team meetings. (IIT)
- Diid: (Distributed ID) Developing a robust solution to digital identity. (IIT)
- Codemoji: A coding platform that's as easy to learn as texting friends with emojis. (UIC)
- Urban Delivery: A B2B technology marketplace that enables on-demand delivery in urban areas. (UIC)
- VRMD: A virtual-reality based tool for physicians to acquire ergonomic training and tracking for injuries sustained as a result of practicing medicine. (UIUC)
- Therapalz: The makers of therapeutic robotic stuffed animals for Alzheimers and dementia patients. (UIUC)
Following the pitches, we had a panel featuring graduate students and recent graduates who are currently scaling their startups. The panelists offered advice on what to look out for in an investor, how to navigate a pivot, how to create a solid company culture early, and much, much more.
- Mitch Kirby, Founder and CEO with TransparentCareer, a platform that helps students and job-seekers access reliable crowdsourced data on compensation and career trajectories.
- Carrie Shaw, Founder and CEO with Embodied Labs, The creators of immersive, interactive, VR experiences for health training.
- Viktor Mateevitsi, founder Spider Sense, wearable technology designed to help the blind see.
Finally, thanks to our partners, Allstate - they're expanding their world-class technology and data capabilities to help better serve their customers, advance public safety and improve the quality of life on our roadways, in our homes and in our workplaces - World Business Chicago - an organization focused on driving economic growth in the city, and Dev Bootcamp - the country's first the first short-term, immersive code bootcamp.
Also, thanks to Google for hosting the event and to WeWork for offering three months of free office space to the winner! (The office space has been donated as part of 'Mission Possible,' a new initiative WeWork has launched to empower companies with a higher purpose. More info here).
The Inno U Challenge is an event we'll be doing again; we will see you at the next one. Now, on to some pictures from last night's event....
Grapevyne's presentation...
Omnipointment's presentation...
VRMD's presentation...
Therapals' presentation...
Attendees were each given one 'Inno Buck' to invest in their favorite pitch
Attendees investing their 'Inno Bucks'
The Dorm Room Fund, getting pitched...
The Inno U Panel, featuring, from left, Viktor Mateevitsi with SpiderSense, Carrie Shaw with Embodied Labs, Mitch Kirby with TransparentCareer, and Chicago Inno's Jim Dallke
Network'n...
More network'n...
Learning about Dev Bootcamp...
