The old adage "youth is wasted on the young" may be true of some, but certainly not these 19 Philadelphia-area entrepreneurs. Quite the opposite, these individuals — all 25 years of age or younger — are making the most of their early years.
In the first edition of this PHL Inno feature, we're showcasing some of the region's promising young innovators. From building companies out of their college dorm rooms and raising funds to back their launches to expanding the reach of their early-stage ventures, each is making waves locally and in some cases nationally.
These young founders have their hands in everything from tech firms to health care companies to nonprofits. Collectively, they are a mix of recent graduates, current college students, and those who left academia behind to pursue their startups full-time.
In choosing the nominees, PHL Inno reviewed previous Business Journal coverage and sought recommendations from within the region's startup community. Final selections were made by the PHL Inno and Philadelphia Business Journal editorial team.
Reid Moncada, 23
Founder and CEO, Fitted Laundry
Doylestown native Reid Moncada started Fitted Laundry in his Penn State dorm room in 2018 and raised a $600,000 pre-seed round in 2019. Without owning a single washing machine or van, Fitted works with existing laundromats that have delivery fleets to pick up, wash, fold and deliver laundry to customers. The company is now in 18 locations, including Philadelphia, Villanova and Newark, Delaware, with nearly 3,000 users signed up. The startup is expanding its footprint to more college towns and looks to open up shop in one or two cities a month moving forward.
Maya Nazareth, 22
Founder and CEO, Alchemize Fightwear
A 2020 graduate of the University of Delaware, Maya Nazareth began building Alchemize Fightwear during her junior year. The startup develops jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts clothing for women. As a jiu jitsu fighter herself, Nazareth decided to start the company because she couldn't find gear that fit her well. She has since taken the concept to various jiu jitsu and MMA camps and introduced it to other fighters. Alchemize Fightwear’s revenue grew by 30 times in the last year, and Nazareth is projecting her first “six-figure” year for the company. The startup is looking to develop new fabrics to improve the fit of the clothes and expand its collection into women’s wrestling.
Matthew Wray, 22, and Michael Palumbo, 25
Co-founders, Lenz
Youth travel sports guide Lenz might have only launched this summer, but it's already live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and New York. Founded by Matthew Wray and Michael Palumbo, Lenz offers parents with children participating in youth travel sports the ability to rate their experiences with teams, tournaments and camps through its website. Wray and Palumbo have spent years in youth sports, with Wray working for Philadelphia Baseball Training and Palumbo working as a pitching coach at The Haverford School. Youth sports is a massive industry, valued at $19 billion in the U.S., according to Research and Markets, and the pair is looking to tap into that market and expand Lenz into the Southeast by the end of 2022.
Adit Gupta, 23, and Tom Falzani, 23
Co-founders, Lula
Drexel University is rapidly becoming known for its entrepreneurial alums. Now, another duo is making waves in the delivery space. Adit Gupta and Tom Falzani founded Lula, a platform that opens up delivery to convenience stores and bodegas through existing companies like DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats, along with its own website. The company raised close to $1 million this summer in an oversubscribed pre-seed round and closed deals with major distributors in an effort to double its store count to 200 locations by the end of 2021.
Christopher Gaeta, 21
Associate, VU Venture Partners
Christopher Gaeta may still be an undergraduate economics student at Swarthmore College — and concurrently working toward a master’s degree in neuroscience and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania — but he is already an associate at New York-based venture capital firm VU Venture Partners. Landing the job at just 20 years old, at VU Venture Partners Gaeta focuses on investing in health care companies. He was named to Business Insider’s list of “Gen Z VCs'' this year for his part in co-leading a Series A for removed organ preservation startup X-Therma.
Gabriella Rudnick, 21
Co-founder, Sonder
After using dating apps to try to make friends while traveling in the U.S. and abroad without much success, Temple University students Gabriella Rudnick and Co-founder Hayley Gigliotti sought to build their own app to find travelers with similar interests. Thus Sonder was born. The startup recently received a $10,000 grant from the Lori Hermlin Bush Seed Fund Competition through Temple. Rudnick and Gigliotti spent the spring and summer traveling to learn more about their customer base and are now working to raise capital and join accelerators to develop and launchthe app.
Evan Ehlers, 25
Founder, Sharing Excess
What started as an idea to give his extra dining hall dollars at Drexel University to the surrounding Philadelphia communities has grown into a citywide nonprofit organization. Evan Ehlers' company Sharing Excess “rescues” surplus food from grocery stores, restaurants, wholesalers and farmers that would otherwise be thrown away and delivers it to food banks and other organizations. So far the nonprofit has delivered 3.7 million pounds of food across 45 ZIP codes in Philadelphia. It aims to have over 5 million pounds delivered by the end of the year.
Nicodemus Madehdou, 25
Co-founder and CEO, JumpButton Studio
JumpButton Studio has been part of Nicodemus Madehdou’s life since he was 15 years old. Now 24, his team at JumpButton is preparing to raise a $3 million seed round. JumpButton builds video games, apps, animated content and websites for its clients. Among them is Black and Mobile, a delivery service catering to Black-owned restaurants, as well as several original games now available on the Google and iOS app stores. This year, the company brought in $600,000 in revenue, and looking ahead Madehdou is seeking to increase diverse representation in the video games industry.
Daniel Goodman, 23, and Alex Pickett, 21
Co-founders, Ultimate Tournament eSportsbook
With sports betting and esports more popular than ever, University of Delaware graduate Daniel Goodman and Alex Pickett, currently a senior at UDel, founded a platform for play-by-play betting on esports. Ultimate Tournament eSportsbook lets commercial gambling operators like casinos and sportsbooks offer betting on esports matches to their customers. So far, Goodman and Pickett have raised more than $220,000 from angel investors. The platform is in early-stage alpha testing and is in the process of getting licensed in the U.S. and abroad.
Rui Jing Jiang, 25
Co-founder and CEO, Avisi Technologies
Along with co-founder Brandon Kao, Rui Jing Jiang started Avisi Technologies in 2017, developing VisiPlate, a nanotechnology-enabled ocular implant to treat glaucoma. The University of Pennsylvania spinout has raised more than $3 million from groups like Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Quaker Capital and Life Science Angels. Avisi also recently snagged the Glaucoma Foundation's H. Dunbar Hoskins International Innovation Award and the Octane Ophthalmology Technology Summit People's Choice Award.
Joel Amin, 24, and Bryce Fender, 24
Co-founders, Wilminvest
Social impact real estate investment firm Wilminvest buys vacant properties and rehabs them into livable homes. The startup was founded in 2017 by Joel Amin and Bryce Fender while they were students at the University of Delaware. Wilminvest recently housed its 12th family, bringing the total number of people housed by Wilminvest to 54. The company renewed its contract with the state of Delaware and is looking to work with more investors, nonprofits, architecture firms, developers and contractors to ramp up rehabilitation in the state in 2022.
Dylan Ingerman, 21, Cole Mattox, 21, and Blake Kernen, 21
First Generation Investors
In the fall of 2018, Cole Mattox and Dylan Ingerman co-founded First Generation Investors during their freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. First Generation Investors establishes chapters at colleges to teach high school students about financial literacy and investing, providing participants their first investment funds. The bottom 50% of Americans by wealth only control 1% of the value of financial accounts holding stocks, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by the New York Times. Their goal is to help close that wealth gap. Last January, fellow Penn student Blake Kernen joined the team as director of corporate strategy, becoming their first “hire." First Generation Investors now has 25 chapters across about 20 states, with plans to double to 50 during the fall 2021 semester.
Joseph Kitonga, 24
Founder, Vitable Health
Kitonga founded Vitable Health in 2019 to bring urgent care services to uninsured and underinsured people in their homes or virtually. Dropping out of Penn State University to pursue growing Vitable Health, he even turned down a full-time offer from Microsoft to further Vitable. He later joined the Y Combinator accelerator and became a Thiel Fellow. Kitonga also raised $1.6 million from Softbank’s Opportunity Fund.
