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Elevating Innovation

Northwestern's Alumni VentureCat Startup Competition

Alumni VentureCat

Alumni VentureCat is a new initiative hosted by the university that aims to feature and support innovative early-stage ventures founded by Northwestern University alumni by providing access and exposure to critical connections and resources.

In this inaugural year, five finalists were chosen to pitch live and in-person for the chance to win $100,000 at the Finals Public Showcase on Friday, July 19, 2024, at Northwestern’s academic space in San Francisco, CA.

This year, we welcomed Mike Raab, Executive Director of The Garage at Northwestern, to the VentureCat stage as the event emcee.

The esteemed judging panel included John Cowgill ‘14,  Partner at Costanoa Ventures; Kristin McDonnell ‘85, Founder and Managing Partner at Menlo Group; and Dinesh Moorjani ‘98, Founder and Managing Partner at Time Zero Capital.

Eric Perreault, Vice President for Research, kicked off the Showcase with a few remarks. Then, the event quickly transitioned into the finalists’ pitches! Each contender received 5 minutes to pitch, and then answered questions from the judges for another 10 minutes. 

The Alumni VentureCat 2024 Public Showcase Livestream recording can be viewed here.

To receive Alumni VentureCat news and announcements, subscribe here. 

Alumni VentureCat Finalists

Blip Energy's grid-edge smart home battery gives modern households lower electric bills and backup power, while equipping grid operators a powerful battery network to stabilize the grid and reduce their operating costs.

Sophia Wennstedt, Co-Founder and CEO of Blip Energy, is passionate about climate justice and energy equity. Drawing on her background working as a Mechanical Engineer on Roomba, she pivoted into the energy space with work at Exelon and at Tesla as a Product Manager for the home energy order portal. Sophia has been recognized by Forbes 30 under 30 Energy, Harvard Climate Circle, and has shared her perspective and experience on panels for ReutersNEXT, Chicago Venture Summit and SXSW. Sophia received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and MSDI from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern in 2022.

Campground Systems is a purpose-built CRM and hub for program leaders.

Sruti Bharat is the founder and CEO of Campground Systems, a CRM and hub purpose-built for program leaders delivering vital services to their communities. She founded FutureMap while at Kellogg School of Management (2Y 2019) to support first-gen, low-income students in their careers; since then FutureMap has served 3.5K students, 150+ employers, and 50+ nonprofits. She started her career at a global IoT software company called OSIsoft in strategy, ops, and product launches; consulted at Bain & Co after her MBA; and was named Interim CEO of All Raise, a national nonprofit promoting gender equity in the VC ecosystem.

CollabWORK is the first community-powered hiring platform connecting companies to the "Hidden Job Market" - niche newsletters like the Morning Brew, Slack communities, Discord servers, etc. - to automate recruitment marketing at scale. 

Summer Delaney is the Founder and CEO at CollabWORK and an award-winning journalist, content strategist, and community builder. Over the past decade, Summer has grown digital networks and produced award-winning content at CNN, Yahoo News with Katie Couric, CBS Interactive and Tribune Media where her videos have received over 500 million views. She has also worked as a consultant and a program manager at Amazon Studios and News Corp. Summer received her BS from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2015 and her MBA from Columbia Business School.

 OrdrSmart: Bridging the gap between a CRM & ERP - one sample at a time.

 Prarthana Gupta is the Co-Founder and CEO of OrdrSmart - a software platform aiming to bring manufacturing software out of the 90s. Her experience building software for suppliers at Wayfair and spearheading change management put her in a unique position to solve manufacturers' challenges at scale. Prarthana has been a speaker at The Grace Hopper conference, led a team of 50+ volunteers to build and launch a financial and legal assistance COVID-19 portal for India in the past. She is a proud Chicago resident, having loved the city since she graduated with her undergraduate (2017) and graduate degree (2018) from Northwestern University.

 Zest is building Duolingo for cooking. We are a consumer subscription app that teaches people how to cook.

Jake Gutstein, Co-Founder and CEO at Zest, graduated Northwestern in 2020 with a degree from the McCormick School of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Management Science. As an undergrad and while a resident at The Garage, Jake founded eo, a campus specific dockless bikeshare, which he sold by his senior year. Jake was a Resnick Sustainability Grant Recipient, winner of the ImproveNU Pitch Competition, and emcee of Northwestern's Dance Marathon.

 

Additional Program Information

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Timeline & Key Dates

  • February 20 - April 6, 2024: Accepting Applications  
  • June 12, 2024: Finalists Publicly Announced
  • July 19, 2024: Finals Public Showcase in San Francisco, CA 

 

Application Details

The application for Alumni VentureCat 2024 is now closed.


 

Eligibility Requirements

Alumni VentureCat is a startup competition intended to support and showcase high-growth Northwestern University alumni-founded ventures with viable business models that will allow their businesses to efficiently scale, and that have the potential for significant financial growth.

Please read the complete Official Rules & Guidelines prior to applying. The program reserves the right to disqualify any participant, or submission if Northwestern University determines, in its sole discretion, that there has been a violation of rules and guidelines or if it determines that an entry does not meet all eligibility requirements.

  • Ventures founded more than five years prior to the application open date (February 20, 2024) are ineligible to compete.  
  • Venture must have at least one Northwestern University alum who is a founder or co-founder and substantial equity holder in the business who is actively involved full-time in day-to-day operations, and who graduated from Northwestern prior to December 31, 2023.
    • To be considered a Northwestern alum, you must have completed an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree from Northwestern University. Graduates of Northwestern University certificate programs are not eligible to participate.
  • The Northwestern alumni founders invited to participate as finalists must fully commit to participate in-person on Friday, July 19, 2024, for the Finals Public Showcase at Northwestern’s educational space in San Francisco, CA and must serve as the lead pitch presenters (non-alumni co-founders can participate in the Q&A).
  • Ventures must have less than $2 million USD in annual revenue. 
  • Businesses that have raised more than $ 2.5 million USD in total debt/invested equity capital are ineligible to compete. This amount includes money received through grants, awards, and other funding sources.
  • Northwestern alum investors are not eligible to apply on behalf of a company unless they are identified as a founder and involved full-time in the day-to-day operations. 
  • Investment funds, acquisitions, and consulting services are not deemed "new ventures" and are not eligible to apply/participate.
  • Subsidiary companies are not permitted to apply.
  • Venture must be a U.S. based registered business entity and applicants must provide a completed W-9 form (with Employer Identification Number) at the time of application. Payments cannot be made to foreign business entities. All prize payments are made to companies, not individuals.
  • Companies that have previously won the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place Finals prizes at the annual student VentureCat competition are ineligible to compete in the Alumni VentureCat competition.

 

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria for all stages of application and competition include:

Problem

  • Significant problem/need identified.
  • Customer groups sized and identified.

Proposition (Value Prop & Business Model)

  • Compelling solution with path to scalability or growth
  • Differentiated customer value
  • Demonstrated understanding of the competitive landscape
  • Business model outlined with realistic revenue sources.

Progress (Progress & Traction)

  • Progress beyond idea stage (e.g., proof of concept, customer research, customer outreach, testing, product development, patent or trademark application, sales)
  • Proposal for additional funding to accelerate progress.

People (Team)

  • Presentation materials and responses to questions demonstrate expertise, commitment, and a thoughtful approach.
  • The founder, key team members, and advisors have the required industry knowledge, skill sets, leadership abilities, and established relationships/networks needed to operate and scale the business successfully.

 

Questions and comments can be directed to, venturecat@northwestern.edu.