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Six of CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ's top startups (HUG Solutions, LGBT50, Orbital Biodesign, Sarus, Seedling Biosystems and ToobTek) will vie for their portion of $100,000 in funding at the 13th annual NVC Championships.

More than 60 out of 110 registered NVC teams chose to participate in one of the three competitions: Impact Prize, NVC Newcomer Prize and Female Founder Prize. The winners represented all corners of campus, ranging from the Leeds School of Business to the College of Music, to freshmen, graduate students, PhDs and faculty.

TissueForm seeks to improve quality-of-life outcomes at lower costs for patients suffering from tissue disease, damage, or aging through stem cell and matrix-based therapies. The company—founded by Jeanne Barthold, PhD, and CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Corey Neu—is no stranger to the pitch competition circuit. TissueForm won $125,000 in Venture Partners' 2018 Lab Venture Challenge and took home multiple awards and more than $20,000 in CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ's New Venture Challenge 11. 

Want to turn your passion turn into a business? Learn how from Michaela Shepherd (MBA'21), the CEO and founder of W.P. Equestrian, a premier equine-facilitated, evidence-based leadership development program that focuses on inclusivity and authenticity.

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, won two top prizes within several days in support of her company, Chembotix, taking home a total of $11,000 in prizes. On March 18, Shara’s team won $5,000 during the New Venture Challenge 14 Female Founder Prize. Then on March 22, Shara’s team won another $6,000, the top prize in CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ’s New Venture Launch class.

As Marlo Vernon’s grandmother got older, her family began wondering how best they could keep an eye on her. As Vernon was completing her senior year at CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ, she began to dive deeper into this idea. By monitoring water usage, she had come across a non-intrusive way for people to keep tabs on older adults. After graduating last spring, Vernon took the project full-time and launched CarePenguin.

Max Young is a junior studying computer science and a solopreneur who has a passion for startups and building awesome products. His passion led him to compete in CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ's New Venture Challenge (NVC) in 2019 with his business idea for PartyFavor (now known as Hooot), a smartphone app that is aimed at empowering individuals with the gift of safety.

After competing in New Venture Challenge her freshman year at CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ, computer science major Andrea Chamorro is back competing as a senior with a new business concept: trAIn. The company hopes to change the way employee training is done in industry.

Meet Juan Esteban Duque, a CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Alumnus and founder of Tupró, a platform that provides a business portal to services and professionals in Colombia. Juan grew up in Colombia and lived in China before coming to the University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ to pursue a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Strategy and Entrepreneurship.

Matei Fawzy (Bus'23) is a co-founder of ASANTe, an innovative social media platform that empowers and recognizes users who engage in service and socially conscious enterprise by sending TCards (thank you cards) to one another. Launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matei and his team have made immense progress in just under a year by taking advantage of CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ's innovative and entrepreneurial resources.