On November 7, the Vanderbilt Center for Entrepreneurship hosted the second Firestarter Pitch Competition of the 2022 – 23 academic year. Firestarters provide an opportunity for all students, faculty, and staff at Vanderbilt to pitch their business concepts to a panel of judges and receive feedback. The winner receives a $500 prize to put toward furthering their business concept.
Judges for the November Firestarter were Daniel Rosenzweig (BA ‘11), Founder of Kettle, Dan Alminana, Founder & COO at Elysium Health, Stryker Warren, Associate Director of Venture Development and the Founder Program + Launch Incubator at The Wond’ry, Chad White (MBA ’98), Director of Business Development at Mighty Oak Financial, Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director of Tip of the Spear Ventures, and Justin Hancock ( BA ’90 & MBA ’92), President of Hancock’s of Paducah.
Congratulations to our winner:
Optomar Technologies
Presented by Marc Nabhan (Ph.D Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) & Mark Hilton (Ph.D, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
Optomar Technologies is a metabolic diagnostic devices that uses caloric expenditure data to combat malnourishment in hospital critical care units.
Thank you to all the students who participated!
The Birth Control App Presented by Julia Schuller (MBA ’23)
The Birth Control App is a digital contraceptive that analyzes the user’s bio data to determine fertility each month to offer a 100% natural contraceptive.
RIV_Design Presented by Chuan Wang (Research Fellow)
RIV_Design is an online library using animations to communicate complex research.
AxonBlast Presented by Neelesh Raj (BA ’25)
AxonBlast is an app helping caretakers more accurately monitor patients who have neurodegenerative disease through personalized memory quizzes.
Pure Oasis Presented by Wade Patten (MBA ’23) & Hunter Moore (MBA ’23)
Pure Oasis is a noncarbonated, vegan, zero sugar, fruit-infused, alcoholic beverage.
Booksy Presented by Coco Gao (BA ’23) & Emma Ding (BA ’23)
Booksy is an online book community focused of promoting diversity and fostering relationships.