Congratulations To Our Winning Teams!
InNUvation would like to thank all of the teams who submitted abstracts and competed in the semi-final
and final rounds of the NUVC. We would specifically like to thank all of the finalists for their extremely hard work in
putting together extremely impressive final presentations. The judges all agreed that the quality of presentations was
extremely high and all the ideas were compelling.
The winner of the 1st annual NU Venture Challenge was Rhea Mobility Footwear which will
design, develop, and plans to market medical footwear that will deliver clinically proven benefits to those in the aging population with
osteo-arthritis or lower extremity joint pain. The Rhea Mobility Footwear team consistes of Debarshi Sengupta (Kellogg '07), Ben Fritz (Kellogg '07),
Cary Shiao (Kellogg '07), and Bo Zhao (McCormick). Rhea Mobility Footwear is a perfect example of how interdisciplinary teams with various areas of
expertise can create powerful business ideas with tremendous possibilities for commercialization.
In second place was GreenGene, a team working on a method for recycling microarray chips used in
biological laboratories. GreenGene is make up of Simon Lin (Feinberg Faculty), Mark Price (Kellogg '07),
and Renae Martinez (McCormick). GreenGene demonstrates the tremendous possibilities which can arise when people come together from
medical, business, and engineering. This diverse group of participants met at an InNUvation team-building event earlier in the year
and began comtemplating the business side of Simon Lin's existing personal research. In addition to placing 2nd overall, GreenGene
took the Biotech Prize sponsored by Misty and Lew Gruber.
BeExtraordinary took 3rd place, the undergraduate award and the prize for social entrepreneurship.
BeExtraordinary aims to revolutionize how individuals interact with charities by providing a compelling user-
generated social experience to its members and a more efficient fund raising system for non-profits.
BeExtraordinary is an undergraduate team made up of Matt Cynamon (Weinberg), Devin Balkind (Communications), Jackson Froliklong (Medill),
and Micah Freidman (Weinberg). BeExtraordinary is an example of how far creativity can go, and proved that you don't need to be a
grad student to be innovative. In fact, the team beat out well over 30 teams of graduate students to make it to the final round.
The InNUvation team helps all interested teams find mentors to help coach and develop their strategies. BeExtraordinary was
paired with Michael Thompson of Interlude Executive Coaching Incorporated. Michael Thompson agreed to continue
working with the team in the coming year. The team has already invested some of their prize money into the launch of their website.
1st Place:
Rhea Mobility Footwear
Contact: dsengupta2007 {at} kellogg.northwestern.edu
Rhea Mobility Footwear will be the leader in clinically-proven medical footwear, improving the
lives of the aging population by promoting joint health and enabling a more mobile lifestyle.
Our Rhea footwear mimics the dynamics of barefoot walking to reduce stress on knee and hip joints,
consequently providing pain relief to people suffering from knee osteoarthritis or lower-extremity joint pain.
Rhea Mobility's footwear will change how patients with knee OA are treated. This shoe was invented
and studied by two physicians at a local Chicago hospital. It isn't until recent years, that clinical
researchers have begun to think of the lower extremities as a cohesive system; and learned that movements
of the feet, and footwear, can negatively impact a diseased knee. Our footwear is based on this groundbreaking
research and will use innovation in the footwear to reduce stress on knee and hip joints.
The founders of InNUvation and NUVC are true visionaries. Their recognition of the vast talent pool
within the Northwestern community, and their commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit within
this community has definitely inspired us. The InNUvation club provided us with the support structure
we needed to take the research idea from the lab to a commercially viable opportunity. All four of our team
members connected at various points through either InNUvation's Applied Research day event or the online web-board.
In addition, we used the coaching sessions and online tutorials provided by NUVC to guide us through the pitch and
business plan formation process.
We believe Rhea Mobility Footwear is an excellent opportunity and are excited for its prospects.
We are currently discussing how to best move forward with forming a company that will deliver
the benefits of the Rhea footwear to those in the aging population who will benefit the most.
--Debarshi Sengupta
2nd Place:
GreenGene
Contact: simon.lin.2000 {at} gmail.com
GreenGene BioRefresh Technology will provide a cost efficient microarray recycling service to medical labs
without compromising quality to microarrays. The microarray market is currently a $1 billion market.
By providing a service to recycle microarray chips, BioRefresh Technology will enter the microarray market
with an 88% cost advantage over the current microarray suppliers. The NUVC has been a key to our venture. Our team
evolved from networking contacts through Todd Melby and Mike Marasco. Our NUVC prizes not only validated our business
model but also provided seed money for our Stage 1 action items. We are excited about the prospects of
our new business and look forward to the tasks that lie ahead.
--Simon Lin
3rd Place:
BeExtraordinary
Contact: m-cynamon {at} northwestern.edu
BeExtraordinary will revolutionize how individuals interact with charities by providing a compelling
user generated social experience to its members and a more efficient fund raising system for non-profits.
We use a unique challenge based fund raising system that integrates with other social networks. The non-profit
marketplace is remarkably unsophisticated and extremely large at over $260 billion a year. Our site will
merge social networking and challenge-based fund raising to create an interface between potential donors,
non-profits and corporations. We enjoyed an excellent experience with the NUVC as it provided us with the
impetus to work diligently developing our idea and also linked us with our invaluable mentor, Michael Thompson.
The entire BeExtraordinary team came together through our mutually shared fraternity, The Lodge. Matt discovered
the NUVC and we all agreed that we ought to get involved. Our team spent the prize money from the first round on a
professional web designer, and will spend the prize money from the finals on an information architect. We hope to
launch our site by September.
-- Jackson Froliklong