2018 Finalists
Venture Path
101
Venture Description: 101 is transforming the college STEM lecture hall with a next-generation active learning platform that promotes student engagement and improves student outcomes. Our first product for chemistry, Chem101, has quickly grown over 50 higher-ed campuses in the past year. Our unique approach focuses on elegant, discipline-specific interactive assessment tools, such as molecular structure drawing, that triumph over traditional and generic multiple-choice tools.
Founders: Justin Weinberg, Igor Belyayev
Website: https://www.101edu.co/
60-Second Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI6TbaQpJnE&feature=youtu.be
Twitter: @101educ
ABAL THERAPEUTICS
Venture Description: ABAL Therapeutics increases the accessibility of ABA Therapy by enabling therapists and special education teachers to remotely schedule and run autonomous exercises via tablet device to be completed at home. By decreasing the number of one-on-one hours needed for impactful ABA therapy, more patients can receive this life-changing intervention at a lower cost.
Founders: Shamus Roeder, Logan Grote, Max Salinger
Website: https://www.abaltherapeutics.com/
BLOCKSCAD, INC.
Venture Description: The BlocksCAD 3D modeling software fills a critical need for teachers in k-12 schools seeking ways to leverage engaging 3D printers, makerspaces, and virtual reality environments with teaching math and coding fundamentals. In classrooms and afterschool programs around the country, we have shown that students who engage in activities using BlocksCAD have improved attitudes towards math, engineering, and computational thinking.
Founders: Solomon Menashi, Jennie Yoder
Website: www.blockscad3d.com/
60-Second Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scy9wNYKU-w&feature=youtu.be
Twitter: @BlocksCAD
CURIO LEARNING
Venture Description: Curio is an online space for teachers to discover new ideas, curate them visually, and collaborate with other teachers. Curio is built around actual teacher behavior and empowers educators as experts who learn from each other. Our philosophy is to #TeachLikeARebel because the best way to support education is to elevate the teaching profession, and teachers need real opportunities to innovate and personalize learning for the students in front of them.
Founders: Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, Tarik Nally
Website: www.curiolearning.com
60-Second Video Pitch: https://vimeo.com/260593341
Twitter: @CurioLearning
DEBATE IT FORWARD
Venture Description: Debate it Forward utilizes its collaborative, game based, debate curriculum to cultivate healthy discourse by increasing the cognitive skills, empathy, and self-efficacy of students overlooked by the traditional debate circuits (young students, students of low-income, and students with learning or developmental differences). Debate it Forward utilizes college campuses as hubs, employing university students to teach programming.
Founders: Leah Shapiro, Joshua Aaronson
Website: https://www.debateitforward.org/
60-Second Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNb--IFNi-s&t=1s
Twitter: @DebateitForward
MENTORPRO
Venture Description: MentorPro is a friendly platform that fosters communication between feedback providers and teachers. It optimizes the follow-up process by increasing feedback frequency and enhancing communication. Mentors will be able to track the progress of their teachers, have access to data analysis, pre-made qualitative reports, and a video analysis system, among other features.
Founders: Carol Neumann, Cecilia Hevia, Magdalena Izquierdo
60-Second Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUaFPT2X44&feature=youtu.be
MINDRIGHT
Venture Description: MindRight’s mission is to empower youth of color to heal from trauma from systemic oppression, including structural violence, poverty, and discrimination. We meet teens where they are by providing personalized, evidence-informed mental health coaching over text message to teens. Our vision is to leverage technology to create opportunities of systemic healing for youth of color.
Founders: Alina Liao, Ashley Edwards
Website: www.getmindright.org
Twitter: @textmindright
PEERLIFT
Venture Description: Peerlift is the first student-led opportunities platform ever created, reducing the search for high school opportunities from hours to minutes. We profile a proven group of scholarships, summer programs, awards, study abroad programs, college fly-ins, and internships, ensuring they meet our standards and offer financial aid.
Founders: Samuel Gorman, Sravya Alla, Julie Chen, Jerry Registre
Website: www.peerlift.org
POULT VAULT ACADEMY
Venture Description: Poult Vault Academy is a payment system which helps parents in rural communities pay for their children's school tuition, school materials, and health bills using crops such as maize and soybeans instead of money.
Founders: David Morfaw
60-Second Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egbcRe2RoK0&feature=youtu.be
SIGNON
Venture Description: SignOn is a remarkable, female-owned, for-profit ed-tech company offering virtual American Sign Language (ASL) immersion. We provide live, one-on-one practice sessions for ASL learners with our Deaf ASL Ambassadors. SignOn is committed to bridging the hearing and Deaf Communities and creating meaningful employment with a living wage for the Deaf.
Founders: Ashley Trempus
Website: www.signonconnect.com
60-Second Video Pitch: https://youtu.be/Tw-8QuclMhI
UNRULY STUDIOS
Venture Description: Unruly Studios is the first EdTech company to combine physical fitness with STEM education for kids 6 and up! Our all-star team has experience from Scratch, the MIT Media Lab, Babson, Hasbro, Mattel, Nickelodeon, iRobot, and Disney. We recently collected pre-orders for our award-winning product, Unruly Splats, through a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Founders: Bryanne Leeming
Website: https://www.unruly-studios.com
60-Second Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBIdxryTL10
Twitter: @unruly_studios