A La Care is an 8 month-old startup operating in the hospitality industry providing sustainable packaging (estimated $290bn TAM globally and $60mm in LA alone). We design and distribute elegant, uniquely shaped compostable foodware (plates and bowls) made from bamboo and sugarcane. Since June 2023, we have provided free samples to local food businesses in LA and collecting feedback. Our anticipated go-to-market strategy is wide-ranging from B2B (other food businesses) to D2C (instagram marketing) to traditional retail stores (in future, as we get initial validation). Currently the team is myself and Mimosa Tran, who is a social media guru.
The story behind A La Care is a sad one. Aside from being a conscious environmentalist, I am a lifelong foodie (the kind that’s willing to travel for food). These two passions quickly exposed the glaring problem of styrofoam and disposable plastic usage in the food service industry. I attend food festivals almost on a weekly basis and always feel a pang of guilt when I see trash cans overflowing with plastics that will take 500 years to decompose. The oceans are estimated to have more plastic than fish by 2050. This is too HIGH of a price to pay when we use the foodware for mere minutes while enjoying one meal or sample! Some claim they use recyclable plastics but what's the point if only 10% of them actually get recycled – clearly that’s not an acceptable answer. To make matters worse, not only do landfills get bigger but water resources are often cross-contaminated with plastic byproducts (PFAS and microplastics) that are known to be health hazard to humans and animals. This huge problem attracted my attention and after numerous hours of research, I knew this was a perfect niche where a successful business could flourish so I set off to work immediately.
Rachel Jaffe
Masters, Information Science / Urban Planning, 2017
CEO / Founder
A mobile app that helps potential founders connect and Community Managers better understand the needs and potential of their communities
BroughtBy is a two-sided marketplace that connects food and bev brands to groups for samplings and tastings.
Energy Kaizen provides software tools to help manufacturers engage and train employees in energy efficiency, maximize energy savings and decarbonization potential, and drive continuous energy performance improvement.
Since 2000, the amount of textiles being sent to landfills has grown by 80% in the United States. This waste, in the US and elsewhere, represents an estimated $500B per year industry if it was possible to resell, repair, and recycle used apparel in a more circular model of manufacturing and consumption. A key challenge to realizing a functioning circular textile system is the lack of information transfer between different parts of the complex supply chain, currently achieved via removable and often inaccurate labels. Our goal is to provide easy-to-scan fiber "barcodes" that are an integrated part of the item making them non-removable and thus able to provide critical information such as content, manufacturing origin, and instructions for proper disposal from the beginning to the end of the useful life of the item.
FreightMiner is developing autonomous driving technologies that enables commercial fleet trucks to operate nearly 24/7 under any weather condition, and enables military supply trucks to increase combat effectiveness and reduce safety risks to soldiers in convoys during combat. Our technology is an aftermarket teleoperated-autonomous driving conversion kit that can be up-fitted on existing supply trucks. With our hybrid approach, commercial trucks can be remotely operated during the beginning and the end of the drive portions, while being autonomously driven over the long-freeway stretch where most long-haul trucking companies confirmed the challenge of not having enough drivers."
Glow is a mobile app that allows you to easily coordinate events and activities with friends, co-workers, and/or family members; think When2Meet (or Doodle) plus Evite (or Partiful).
Our team sees a future where AI assists in the travel consideration, planning, booking, prep, and hospitality experiences. However, we also acknowledge the shortcomings of AI in providing a personalized human hospitality experience that many crave. To achieve this, our team is serving human travel advisors software that helps them plan itineraries and communicate with clients. For this software we have an LOI and ravenous demand from a 700 seat agency and a 3 seat boutique as well as a pipeline full from minimal initial outreach. As we service this demand, we will get all the data and deep booking functionality required to release the future of consumer travel.
Marco Hidalgo
MBA 2016
Founder
Hate waiting in line for your coffee? So do we! Lights Out Coffee is a fully autonomous drive thru coffee shop. We deploy state of the art robots and IoT technologies to bring wait times to near zero.
Molus is an early-stage company automating candidate research by using AI to index, search and summarize long-form political content (speeches, reports, etc. etc.). We have a working tool that can search and summarize any YouTube video and are exploring customer segments. We believe there are opportunities in political research, news and campaigns. See PerplexityAI for a demonstration of the technology.
OTECAT is a company dedicated to design and develop awesome learning experiences that catalyze organizational change. In the last 4 years OTECAT has been training people in organizational settings. From our experience, we started to develop our solution. We call it "CAT Tails" a SaaS people analytics platform that connects job competencies, work activity assessments with training activities and then using AI, the platform generates:
• Feedback that tells our clients what we need to improve to increase effectiveness and efficiency.
• Feedforward that informs our clients what would be the best learning experiences for each employee.
• Microlearning, gamified, social learning content according to the need for personalized training.
Ali Wazne, BS Economics/Biopsychology (BCN) 2017
Alina Alam, BS Material Science Engineering 2013
Co-Founder & Brand Ambassador / PR
http://www.paradisestreeteats.com
Creating complex and flavorful food through a culture-rich story. PSE is a seed-stage, pioneer Indian fusion concept ambitious to scale through nationwide franchising. Our goal is to make accessible intricate Indian fusion dishes that satisfy every palate. Our flagship storefront opened in 2019, and our franchise system is complete with professionally crafted operating manuals & training, wholesale packed gourmet kits & sauces, and the option to license state-of-the-art turnkey "mobile restaurants" (Paradise food trucks) for barrier-averse entrepreneurs.
AI resume tailoring SaaS
Jonathan Marceau
BS 2001
Founder & CEO
Synapse Creations builds innovative classroom software solutions to improve educational outcomes while making teachers' lives easier. Our first product, Spelling Safari, will target each student's spelling ability level and individualize their learning, thereby maximizing progress through a gamified, mastery-based experience. The process is automated for teachers, saving them more than 100 hours per year while delivering superior educational results and feedback that can better drive instruction.
Team Up Improv offers customized business consulting rooted in improv, business, and tech fundamentals to drive connected teams that get business results. We offer customized workshops backed by pre-surveys and post-surveys, as well as 1:1 leadership coaching throughout the process. Team Up Improv will soon have an onsite home within a brewery and theater in Ann Arbor.
The Silverfit is a startup in age tech, specializing in designing and producing cutting-edge inflatable safety attires for distinct customer groups: seniors and individuals with disabilities.
Our team consists of a few ex-automotive engineers and post-MBAs. Our mission is to create innovative products that enhance the safety and well-being of all our customers, regardless of their age, ability level, space, or sport of choice.
Anna Lam
MBA & Urban Planning 2023
Founder of procss studio and UnfoldKit
The UnfoldKit is a toolkit for developers, architects, planners, and designers to build real estate with the intentional inclusion of community voice and input. Let's increase public understanding, appreciation, and support for real estate development while also pushing the boundaries of innovative and equitable design.
Ultima Insights uses LLM to help investors better construct and monitor investment ideas. We use AI to scan over 250,000 web pages daily to help pick up on trends both retail and professional investors can use to create better investment thesis. We help cut through the noise so investors can make connections quicker and investment decisions faster.
A generative ai language learning app that recommends truly personalized exercises based on a learner's needs and interests.
Vittas a Digital Lender (Techstars '22) using machine-learning/partnerships to provide loans. We built an inventory financing solution for Nigerian healthcare providers that allows them to purchase medications and medical equipment. We are also providing accounting/inventory software through a partner to our customers to increase our revenue while also getting access to this data to improve our risk assessment.
Arshan Ahmed
MBA 2017
Founder, CEO
Worksense is a people analytics tool that automatically captures everything employees have seen, said, or heard in order to provide anonymized insights into productivity and retention using our AI models.
Worksense will replace archaic HR tools like Workday by automating Surveys, Performance Management, and more.
YourCheck seeks to democratize background check information by bringing a closed industry directly to consumers. YourCheck has developed a platform where individuals can obtain their own criminal background check or certifications, understand the results, and share the results directly with another person without risking privacy. This will allow individuals to have safer interactions and avoid the pitfalls of anonymity that have risen with so many opportunities to connect over the internet.