Last Thursday, April 10th OIE hosted our 17th annual GW New Venture Competition Award Ceremony.
Students, deans, alumni, and faculty gathered to watch 20 finalist teams from across the GW community pitch their innovative ideas live on stage. The top teams were awarded a total of $128,500 in cash prizes in recognition of their outstanding efforts and accomplishments.
Round 1 began with over 500 participants across 224 teams, and in Round 2, 50 teams advanced as semi-finalists. In Round 3, 20 finalist teams emerged to compete for the top three spots and specialty category awards within the four Vertical tracks, along with three winners recognized in the Explorer track.
The competition is open to every GW student in one of five tracks: Consumer Goods & Services, Business Goods & Services, Social Innovation, Health & Life Sciences and Explorer. The vertical four tracks are focused on further developed ideas while the Explorer track aims to appeal to students with early-stage ideas.
We are so incredibly proud of our students’ accomplishments and cannot wait to see their ventures continue to grow. Thank you so much to our judges, sponsors and donors who supported our GW entrepreneurs and innovators! We appreciate your time, dedication and passion for our entrepreneurial community and are looking forward to next year.
Business Goods and Services
1st Place: Immutiverse, Inc.
Our SaaS platform automates and reduces the weeks-long firmware signing process down to minutes, shortening time-to-market and reducing reliance on scarce, expensive expertise. Embedded software engineers at manufacturing companies call our solution within their software development build workflows during the testing and production phases of the product development lifecycle.
2nd Place: Outlaw Motor Company
Outlaw Motor Company (OMC) is a manufacturing company that builds the LR8 engine for the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) market. The LR8 is a rotary hybrid electric engine that generates the power required for VTOL mission profiles without the requirement for a maintenance intensive and failure prone gearbox.
3rd Place: LayerPure Technologies
LayerPure Technologies is developing reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for the water processing units of the food and beverage industry. Our membrane lowers maintenance costs by 60%, and offers a lifespan 3 to 4 times longer than conventional products on the market.
Consumer Goods and Services
1st Place: NextBase
NextBase is a baseball-social-media-marketplace connecting 400,000+ high school players with 10,000+ college athletes for recruiting guidance, team insights, and career advice. It enables mentorship through messaging, posts, and video-calls, making recruiting 95% more affordable and 12x more engaging than traditional services, with potential in 32 other NCAA sports.
2nd Place: Shpapi Vision
An eyewear company started by two brothers sharing a passion for style and a desire to create high-quality, affordable sunglasses. Shpapi is on a mission to revolutionize the sunglasses industry by creating a community where people can express their style and protect their eyes from the sun and club lights.
3rd Place: GreenLit
GreenLit is a sports-betting advisory software platform that leverages advanced data analytics to provide unbiased bet recommendations that empower sports bettors to make informed betting decisions, while avoiding risky wagers influenced by sportsbook vested interests in gambling losses. Our intuitive grading process quickly provides bettors insights into their parlay risk.
Health & Life Sciences
1st Place: GuideGuard
GuideGuard is revolutionizing central line placement by redesigning the guidewire with an innovative P-shaped tail end that prevents retention incidents. Our intuitive, clinician-friendly design improves patient safety and outcomes while integrating seamlessly into existing central-line kits, positioning us as a key player in the quality improvement (QI) space.
2nd Place: PathPic
We are creating a pathology reporting service that seamlessly integrates tissue collection with rapid staining and preparation, followed by secure cloud-based uploads. This enables pathologists worldwide to access and deliver same-day diagnoses. By streamlining the pathology workflow, our service minimizes diagnostic delays, improves patient outcomes, and enhances efficiency for healthcare providers.
3rd Place: HorusRx
HorusRx is an AI-powered compliance platform designed to streamline billing, regulatory adherence, and operational efficiency for compounding pharmacies. By automating key processes like coding verification, audit preparation, and payer policy compliance, HorusRx ensures pharmacies meet complex regulatory standards while optimizing reimbursement and minimizing risk.
Social Innovation
1st Place: The Petition Co.
The Petition Co. created AI software to validate voter registration information on candidate petitions and ballot initiatives. At its core is a new system of parsing data that’s fast, accurate, and consistent. Now, we’re applying this technology to a new front: data from polling locations in nations where democracy is at risk.
2nd Place: Lulupoo
Lulupoo is a 100% water-soluble, pet-friendly, and non-toxic dog waste bag made from PVA sugarcane waste. Unlike traditional plastic bags, Lulupoo’s IWSFG-certified flushable design fully biodegrades, cutting down on plastic pollution while giving pet owners a cleaner, more convenient, and sustainable way to dispose of waste.
3rd Place: Run The World - Appalachia
Run the World - Appalachia empowers low-income, first-generation women in West Virginia to stay in college and become future leaders. By providing mentorship, leadership training, and career support, we reduce dropout rates and bridge the gap between education and opportunity, creating a network of resilient women driving economic and social change.
Explorer
1st Place: Bee Strong
Bee Strong streamlines stroke recovery with metric tracking, emergency alerts, secure caregiver pairing, and more, empowering survivors and caregivers to navigate recovery together through consistent, coordinated care. More than just a tool, our app fosters a connected community that allows stroke survivors to “Bee Strong” on their path to recovery.
2nd Place: Victory Lane
Victory Lane, a physical therapy 2-sided digital platform, eliminates waiting weeks for an appointment, using insurance, and traveling to a clinic. Unlike with traditional in-clinic or home PT, injured clients can use any mobile device to book expert PT care to be provided at their chosen location.
3rd Place: PoliCare
Policare is an app-based service and artificial intelligence tool provided to healthcare workers allowing for fast and accurate access and comparison of local, state, and national health policies. Policare will increase the regulatory compliance of traveling providers and will allow healthcare workers to easily understand location-based differences in health policy.
Specialty & Category Prizes
Best Customer Discovery Prize ($5,000): Nurse Math LLC
Best Financial Understanding Prize ($5,000): SepsisCare
Viewer's Choice Award ($500): SepsisCare
Best Market Assessment Prize ($5,000): NextBase
Best Storytelling Prize ($5,000): HeartWise
Spirit of NVC Prize ($5,000): GuideGuard
Global Impact Prize ($5,000): Weigh2Dose