The following was written by Jessica Mo, Pava Center Venture Insights Intern
On November 11, the Pava Center’s inaugural Kindling cohort of 11 teams showcased their innovative solutions to some of today’s most pressing societal challenges. The teams spent five weeks brainstorming problem statements, conducting customer discovery interviews, and completing their final presentations.
Judges Panel:
- Kevin Keenahan, Chief Product Officer at Net Health
- Jodi Miller, Founder of WellCheq
- Karthik Seshan, President of GeNEUROsity – The Seshan Family Foundation and Founder and Managing Director of Global Electrodiagnostics LLC
- Serena Shapero, Director of Community at XPRIZE
All teams will receive $200 upon completion of the program for further development of their venture ideas. In addition, the judges selected three teams for presentation awards, each worth $350.
Winners
Best Problem: Team David
Drew Chico and Navid Modiri of Team David presented on waste-to-energy systems and the technique of pyrolysis, a more climate-friendly alternative to putting plastic in a landfill. “We may have started as Drew and Navid, but together we became unstoppable as Team David,” Modiri said. “From trash talk to trash sorting, we tackled the recycling challenge head-on and came out on top.”
Best Pitch: The Electrolytes
Keaton Morrison and Ellyn Wong of The Electrolytes presented maintenance challenges for stormwater systems in the public and private sectors, which impact the surrounding community and wildlife. “Throughout the process, everything about it was new,” Morrison said. “We were deciding what questions to ask, who to ask these questions to, and being able to ask those questions to the people that we found. It was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.” The team plans to continue the customer discovery process and is considering applying to the Pava Center’s Spark accelerator program and I-Corps. “[The award] was a catalyst and gave us positive feedback to know that we were on the right track and could keep going,” Wong said. She also said that the team was grateful for the mentorship provided by Selena Shirkin and Wesley Hamilton, Kindling’s peer facilitators.
Best Customer Discovery: Trials.AI
Anisha Purohit of Trials.AI presentation focused on utilizing AI to optimize the patient identification process for clinical trials. “Going through Kindling was a great practice in defining a problem statement, conducting thorough customer discovery, and thinking critically about the current challenges in healthcare and what tools we can create to solve them,” Purohit said. “I’m planning to take this idea and develop an MVP over the next month or so. One really exciting thing was seeing how excited and invested some of the physicians were to start using this tool in their workflow.”
Looking Forward
“I think this first cohort of Kindling was amazing. We had so much collaboration with teams and some great ideas were discovered,” Kindling peer mentor Shirkin said. The next iteration of Kindling will be seven weeks long, with an even greater focus on customer discovery and a deeper dive into problem areas.