On Thursday evening, Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship hosted its annual “Startup Showcase” event at the Fuqua School of Business on Duke’s West Campus. The event marked the culmination of a lengthy and intensive process that began with 88 team applications.
From among those 88 teams, 50 were chosen to pitch to judges earlier this year, and from that group, 36 were on hand to table during the first half of the event. That’s a few too many to list here—but, using tremendous powers of foresight, I managed to get a photo of the full roster. So you can browse the photo on the left if you’re interested in exploring all of those 36 ventures (or perhaps if you attended the event and you’re trying to remember a name).
Attendees had about an hour and a half to explore these tables and interact from founders. After that, the full crowd funneled into an auditorium for what was functionally the final level of the progressive startup competition. Specifically, seven startups already designated as winners (and chosen from among 10 finalists) were on hand to give final, four-minute presentations.
Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director Jamie Jones welcomed the crowd, invited everyone to vote on an audience favorite startup from among those featured during the expo, and kicked off the pitches.
Here’s a brief look at the seven winners, each of which gave a four-minute presentation:
Helian (Presented by John Buxton) — Helian offers a multi-faceted, AI-powered quality measurement system (QMS) for medical devices. As Buxton put it, it’s “like having a regulatory expert working alongside your team 24/7.”
Helian was awarded the $30k Borchardt Grand Prize as the top undergraduate-led startup. (See GrepBeat’s past coverage here)
Toilemetry (Presented by Ben Neubert, PhD) — Toilemetry is addressing numerous problems associated with hands-on management of patient urine output with a “simple, accurate, and dignified” solution in the form of attachable technology and automated data collection.
Toilemetry was awarded $30k as the top graduate/professional-led startup.
VoxIntel AI (Presented by Y.B. Carr) — VoxIntel AI is operating on the premise that sales team coaching tends to come too late. Its solution is to provide AI-powered, real-time coaching during sales calls, helping to navigate sales teams “out of the morgue and into the cockpit.”
VoxIntel AI placed third in the graduate/professional category and was awarded $5k.
WeGotYou (Presented by Shayna Dahan, CPNP, PMHS) — WeGotYou offering a “new preventative layer in adolescent health.” The startup aims to make adolescent healthcare as dynamic as adolescence itself, providing “evidence-based, compassionate, and confidential care” for physical and mental health issues faced by young people.
WeGotYou was awarded the $10k Social Innovation Prize.
Serv Technologies (Presented by Jasper Svenson and Carlos Penzini) — Serv aims to “turn every drive-thru guest into a recognized loyalty customer—automatically.” The startup uses proprietary cameras to recognize (but not store) customer license plate information to automate recognition of and service for returning customers.
Serv was awarded the $10k Borchardt Runner-Up Prize as the second-place undergraduate-led startup. (See GrepBeat’s past coverage here)
Jeani (Presented by Ewan Bradley, Michael Bennett, and Stuart Bladon) — Jeani is providing “the world’s first movement intelligence platform.” Built around AI-powered wearables, this platform measures “movement itself” (joint and muscle activity) with 24/7 monitoring to preemptively discover musculoskeletal risks and keep athletes moving.
Jeani was awarded $10k as the runner-up in the graduate/professional category; it also received the $7.5k Dean Yep, Jr. Prize.
momnt. (Presented by Sean Fang and Cole Bonawitz) — Momnt. aims to bring about a “digital detox movement” via wristbands that help people set guardrails on scrolling time—and ultimately train themselves to be in the “moment.”
Momnt. placed third in the undergratudate category and was awarded $5k. (See GrepBeat’s past coverage here)
*Grid Intelligence did not pitch, but was awarded a $3k “Climate and Sustainability” prize and also received $5k as the audience’s pick from among the 36 tabling companies.
Here are a few more photos from the event:
