With 10 days left to their residency, Halcyon Incubator’s latest class of entrepreneurs showcased their startups with a pitch event Thursday afternoon. Eight early-stage companies took the stage to present their ventures to investors, peers and partners.
“The future is bright,” said Halcyon’s Chief Innovation Officer Ryan Ross in his opening remarks. “It doesn’t always feel that way in this town ... but I’m telling you, the future is actually very bright.”
He said anyone worried about the state of the world would feel uplifted by the work of these fellows, who have spent the last five months living and working out of Halcyon and benefiting from the help of Halcyon resources and mentors. Each venture has a social impact component, and founders spoke on stage about their personal connections to the work and how they felt compelled to make a difference.
Here are the Halcyon startups that pitched on Thursday:
“I was diagnosed with autism at 14 and felt ashamed of my diagnosis. Stereotypes told me that I couldn’t connect with people” said neuroscientist Vanessa Gill. So she created Social Cipher, a story-driven video game for kids with autism that provides a safe, accessible and empowering space to practice social skills. “Our players use their autism to solve problems instead of thinking that their autism is a problem that needs to be solved.”
In her powerful presentation, Yolanda Hancock spoke about losing a child close to her to obesity. Her startup M-Size-Me, a pediatric obesity management tool, helps doctors visually explain the diagnosis for teens. It uses teen language to engage the kids, who are also given the support of a virtual coach 24-7. The app will be free to all customers so that cost is not a barrier.
SmartBridge Health CEO Hua Wang is also motivated by a desire for high-quality affordable healthcare. After seeing the struggles her father faced after his diagnosis, the former lawyer developed the technology for a more seamless, affordable way for those with cancer to navigate the world of clinical trials.
Equal Reality co-founder Brennan Hatton creates diversity and inclusion training in virtual reality because “equality shouldn’t be 100 years away.”
The product “reveals to you data about your own biases” and allows you to walk in someone else’s shoes. Attendees were able to test it out in a meet-and-greet after the presentations.
Kari Clark founded online coaching platform Uplift out of her own experience as a working mother of two. Uplift “empowers working women to turn motherhood into a career advantage, not a setback” and helps companies retain “top mom talent.” She found out what works by interviewing more than 100 moms at the top of their fields. Clark proudly announced that since beginning at Halcyon, she now has paying corporate clients.
Rhodes Scholar Nat Ware presented Asterik, a tech solution for education finance. Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar demonstrated their product SoaPen, a liquid soap that makes hand washing fun for kids (and gives back to low-income communities) that is now available on Amazon. And cognitive scientist Roopam Sharma demonstrated Eyeluminati’s flagship product Manovue, “the world’s first intelligent wearable visual assistant” that he said would eliminate the need for braille by allowing the visually impaired to read printed text in real time.
“This showcase is a building block and there are many more levels for them to grow and scale as they build these companies,” program manager Mike Malloy told us. “Seeing them grow, not only as individuals, but really as a family, mature and reach that next stage of life as entrepreneurs is really inspiring to me.”
