Husky Startup Challenge Fall 2018: Impact Report
What is the Husky Startup Challenge?
The Husky Startup Challenge (HSC) is the flagship startup competition at Northeastern University run semesterly by the Northeastern University Entrepreneurs Club. Student build their business ideas from scratch in a series of workshops called ‘bootcamps’ and the top ventures get to pitch their idea/business model on ‘Demo Day’ for $5,000 in cash prize.
Ideation Session: The program was kickstarted by an ideation session where in the participants were introduced to the various Mosaic (NU entrepreneurship ecosystem) organizations and their leaders. These organizations included:
- Compass (Accounting Resource Center)
- Generate (Student-Led Product Development Studio)
- Idea (Northeastern University’s Venture Accelerator)
- IP CO-LAB (law clinic)
- NU Impact (NU’s Impact Investing Initiative)
- Origin (NU’s Deep Tech Hub)
- Scout (On campus Design Studio)
- SEISA (Social Enterprise Institute)
- Entrepreneurs Club
After this Connor Gross, Giovani Armonies-Assalone (co-founders of Cardly) and Miracle Olatunji (Founder of OpportuniMe) shared their story of how they founded their respective companies and ran a small workshop to help the participants brainstorm ideas.
Bootcamps:
Bootcamp 1: The founders of Parade came in and shared their entrepreneurial journey. Post this we had an ‘idea pitch’ (student who had an idea pitched it stating what kind of co-founder they were looking for) and ‘free agent pitch’ (students who did not have idea pitched themselves with what they could add to a business). This was followed by a brief networking session
Bootcamp 2: Francisco Calderon (CTO of Scholarjet which is an ex HSC venture *see their pitch here*) led a workshop on ‘value proposition’ and Myron Shneider (ex HSC participant and founder of Brushed) led a workshop on finding the right ‘target audience.’ Post this for the first time we introduced an HSC alumni panel featuring:
- Keith Corso (Founder of BusRight)—HSC’17 winner ($2,500), 2nd place ($40,000) at E-Fest
- Katie Wilhoit (Founder of Unsize) — MassChallenge (one of the biggest venture accelerators in the world) Finalist
- Matt Voska (Founder of Flytenow — he is trying to build the uber for planes) — licensed Pilot, dropped out of Northeastern University to pursue his venture at Y Combinator (one of the most competitive venture incubators in the world) which invested $120,000 in Flytenow.
Bootcamp 3: Ted Johnson (Assistant Director of the Sherman Center) introduced the Sherman Center for engineers interested in entrepreneurship. Katherine Connors and Jacqueline Quill (co-founders of blistabloc) led a workshop on how to build the ‘minimum value proposition (MVP).’ Susan Otten (Founder of Otten Associates) then led the workshop on building the best ‘go to market strategy.’ At the end of the workshop we introduced the newly formed ‘Technical Panel’ (members including: Matt Ognibene, Joseph Wang, Darren Lee, Christopher Conard, Amanda Varrichione) who would offer office hours to give advice on website/software development, front end/ux, legal, brand/marketing design and Electronic Systems Design).
Bootcamp 4: Taylor Adams (Director of Regional Learner Experience Operations & Development) introduced NU’s Semester in Silicon Valley program. After which 6 members of the Huntington Angels team (including founder: Nick Myers and Director: Ellias El Hamzaoui) led a workshop on fundraising and pitch prep for early startups.
Audition Process: After 1 amazing ideation session, 4 intense bootcamps, 1 practice audition and multiple office hours 18 ventures made it to the main audition process where they pitched their ideas to 12 judges in 3 rounds. The judges included Blake Billet (Analyst, Hyperplane Capital), Brenna Sorkins (Directors of ops, Generate), Danny Kim (Venture Partner, Contrary Capital), Stephen Golden (serial entrepreneur and Professor, Northeastern University), Katie Wilhoit (Founder, Unsize), Keith Corso (Founder, Busright), Shivank Taksali (community builder), Vanessa Gregorchik (Executive Director, Scout), Vidhan Bhaiya (Founder, Richard Brinsley), Bailey Kane (CEO, Idea), Hannah Meiseles (Founder, Epidemik).
Demo Day: 12 HSC ventures pitched their ideas to a packed Curry Student Center Ballroom to an audience of over 450 people for $5000 during Demo Day. For the first time we also had ventures from India visiting Northeastern University, 3 of whom pitched for $1000 in a separate competition. The winners were the following:
1st Place: Burncam (a diagnostic tool for non specialists to triage burn wounds with higher accuracy).
2nd Place: Finito (Calendar/productivity platform that enables professors to help organize their students schedules).
3rd place: Fancily (A clothing app that suggests outfits for users based upon their current wardrobe, and provides intelligent suggestions to augment their wardrobe).
Audience favorite: Quickkonnect (a mobile platform that allows for 1 step social media and contact exchange while also allowing users to better manage their up to date contacts).
The judges for Demo Day were Chuck Svirk (Investor, MassMutual Ventures), Laura Lande-Diner (Scientist, inventor and serial entrepreneur), Steve Ganem (VP Engineering, WiTricity) and Leo Guyshan (Program Director, MassChallenge).
HSC: By the numbers
Numbers (Speakers, judges and mentors):
- Ideation session speakers: 11
- Bootcamp speakers: 5 + 2 + 3 + 6 = 16
- HSC alumni panel: 3
- Technical panel: 5
- Judges: 16
- E-Club mentors: 5
Total number of Speakers, judges, panel members, mentors this semester: 57
Hours (Bootcamps, office hours, auditions):
- 15+ hours of bootcamp
- 95+ Director office hours
- 40+ Technical panel office hours
- 8+ Practice auditions hours
- 10+ Demo Day prep/auditions/miscellaneous hours
- 20+ Hours of tabling
Total time for Bootcamps, office hours, auditions: 188+ Hours
Participation:
312+ participants signed up for the program this semester
68+ teams initially taking part
- 18+ teams made it to the final auditions
- 12 teams pitched during Demo Day
Demo Day Numbers:
568+ people responded they are going/interested to the FB event
550+ tickets sold on EventBrite
- 19 ventures + NEXPO team tabled for venture showcase
- 15 ventures pitched for prize money
450+ members in the audience (SOLD OUT event!)
Social media presence:
70+ individual posts
11560+ hits
260+ shares
People who make it possible:
The 2018 cohort of the Husky Startup Challenge was one of the most successful cohorts of HSC by quantity and quality of ventures. This program would not have been possible without the entire NU Entrepreneurs Club board, the amazing Mosaic and entrepreneurship faculty we have backing us (in particular Bob Lentz, faculty in charge of the NU Entrepreneurs Club), the leaders and members of various Mosaic clubs, bootcamp speakers, mentors, judges and panel members.
There is one group of people who deserve a special mention and that is all the participants who took part in this program, who show us everyday what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Without them we would have no Husky Startup Challenge.
Lastly, I owe a special debt of gratitude to my other two co-directors: Mia Nyugen and Eric Gift for making this program what it is and for putting in countless hours to make this a worthwhile journey. They truly showcased what it is like to have a dream team.
Final words
To any student who has an idea and wants to make it a reality, there is no better time than NOW. And, if you study at Northeastern University then take part in the Husky Startup Challenge. Some of Northeastern University’s most successful ventures have incubated through this program. I promise you it will be worth it and an experience like no other.
