Carnegie Mellon University

McGinnis Venture Competition 2025

McGinnis Venture Competition Final Round Celebration

The McGinnis Venture Competition, a platform exclusively for Carnegie Mellon University's community of student entrepreneurs, brings together Carnegie Mellon's best and brightest student entrepreneurs to compete for $60K in investments.


Congrats to our 2025 Winners!

For 2025 only, with a special gift from the McGinnis family, we were able to double the prize winnings for each team!

Undergraduate Winners

Thursday Thrift

First Place: Thursday Thrift, Inc.: Where Discovery Meets Demand. Team includes Chibuike Dumebi-Kachikwu, Paul Davis and Amy Guo. (Receiving $8,000)

noVRel

Second Place: noVRelRedefining the OR through Augmented Reality. Team includes Tanvi Mittal and Sejeal Katiyar. (Receiving $5,000)

Graduate Winners

Solstis

First Place: Solstis: Solstis is an AI powered platform that allows you to create workflow automations using API specialized agents in natural language. Solstis is like having a group chat where your app agents talk to each other, execute workflows on command and learn over time - like a team that never sleeps. Team includes Samika Sanghvi, Pratik Satija and Aarav Bajaj. (Receiving $50,000)

Beyond Reach Labs, Inc.

Second Place: Beyond Reach Labs, Inc.: Building rapidly deployable infrastructure for austere environments. Team includes Mitchell Fogelson. (Receiving $30,000)

Sabana

Third Place: Sabana: Accelerate your product research and construction specifications. Team includes Ruben Quesada, Saket Kulkarni and Alexander Zhu. (Receiving $20,000)

Fighting Spirit Award

BAM!

BAM!: For those everyday moments where you need a little BAM!. Team includes Kaitlyn Chow, Tarek Fakhri, Melody Chu, Liam Merino, Shanting Hou and Nyomor-Da Tackie-Yarboi. (Receiving $1,000)


Help cheer the final round teams to victory by attending our in person event.   

The McGinnis Venture Competition is made possible by a generous endowment from Gerald E. McGinnis, founder of Respironics.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025
1:00 - 5:00 p.m.        Final Round Team Presentations

5:30 - 7:00 p.m.        Award Ceremony & Networking Reception

Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
Carnegie Mellon University

Tepper Quad
, 3rd Level

4765 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15213


The event will also be live-streamed to allow our international and remote community members to view. To view the live-stream visit the events page the day of the event.

Visitor parking available at the East Campus Garage


Schedule of Events

Little Moochi

Undergraduate Team Pitches

Undergraduate Teams: 5 min pitch and 5 min Q&A
2 min break between presentation

1:00 - 1:10 p.m.

GoRide

1:12 - 1:22 p.m.

NoVRel

1:24 - 1:34 p.m.

Thursday Thrift, Inc.

1:36 - 1:46 p.m.

Wurklife, LLC

Graduate Student pitching at McGinnis

Graduate Team Pitches

Graduate Teams: 5 min pitch and 5 min Q&A
2 min break between presentations

2:15 - 2:25 p.m.

Check Me Ltd

2:27 - 2:37 p.m.

Umuganda Energy Finance

2:39 – 2:49 p.m.

BAM!

2:51 – 3:01 p.m.

Beyond Reach Labs, Inc.

3:03 – 3:13 p.m.

Goodrunss AI

3:15 – 3:25 p.m.

BioVita Intelligence

3:35 – 3:45 p.m.

Perflection AI

3:47 – 3:57 p.m.

PlanWise

3:59 – 4:09 p.m.

Sabana
4:11 – 4:21 p.m.

Scottie Fetch

4:23 – 4:33 p.m.

Solstis

4:35 – 4:45 p.m.

Speak Smart.ai

Glow Up

Networking Reception + Awards Ceremony

5:30 - 7:00 p.m. EST

Join us as we announce the winners of the 2025 McGinnis Venture Competition.

Awards to be announced between 6:10 - 6:30 p.m. EST.
Hear the winner of the Social Enterprise Prize Teams give a quick pitch during this time.

2025 Final Round Teams

GoRide

GoRide

Undergraduate Track

Erika Ramirez and Audrey Simon

The Long-Distance Student Rideshare Marketplace

noVRel

noVRel

Undergraduate Track

Tanvi Mittal and Sejeal Katiyar

Redefining the OR through Augmented Reality

Thursday Thrift, Inc.

Thursday Thrift, Inc.

Undergraduate Track

Chibuike Dumebi-Kachikwu, Paul Davis and Amy Guo

Where Discovery Meets Demand

WurkLife

WurkLife, LLC

Undergraduate Track

Luca Adams and Josh Ramos

WurkLife is a software platform that aims to revolutionize the recruitment landscape with an all-in-one platform that connects applicants and employers. It facilitates a seamless, user-friendly experience for the everyday job-seeker and employer. Think the common app for colleges, but for jobs!

Check Me Ltd

Check Me Ltd

Graduate Track

Yuyun Francis Berinyuy, Assynath Mlay Thompson and Alice Mugengano

Transforming Breast Cancer Care inAfrica with AI and Community Support

Umuganda Energy Finance

Umuganda Energy Finance

Graduate Track

Iyata Adikpe, Peace Bakare, Cynthia Iradukunda, Theogene Gasigwa and Alvina Minja

Umuganda Energy Finance (UEF) is a digital platform that enables global investors to fund renewable energy projects in Africa, specifically Rwanda.

BAM!

BAM!

Graduate Track

Kaitlyn Chow, Tarek Fakhri, Melody Chu, Liam Merino, Shanting Hou and Nyomor-Da Tackie-Yarboi

For those everyday moments where you need a little BAM!

Beyond Reach Labs

Beyond Reach Labs, Inc.

Graduate Track

Mitchell Fogelson

Building rapidly deployable infrastructure for austere environments

Goodrunss AI

Goodrunss AI

Graduate Track

Anthony Edwards

Revolutionizing recreational sports with AI

BioVita Intelligence

BioVita Intelligence

Graduate Track

Gweneth Ge, William Wu, Shivang Vijay and Gloria Ma

Private LLM for Biopharma Company

Perflection AI

Perflection AI

Graduate Track

Guangzhao(Zack) Li, Yuhao (Gary) Liu, Yinong (Oliver) Wang, Yu Tong Tiffany Ling, Qilin(Kimi) Wu, Jialu Gao, Ming-Feng(Justin) Li, Ruwei(Cindy) Chen, Shenghua Huo, Yiming(Frank) Liu and Mingyu(Myles) Tang

Perflection AI builds AI coaches that interactively deliver real-time, personalized sports instruction. Their smartphone-based app, Swingie, directly observes, analyzes and discusses tips with sport amateurs just like a human coach powered by their unique vision and motion foundation models, tailoring unique learning progressions to unique individuals.

PlanWise

PlanWise

Graduate Track

Max Hsiao, Jacinto Suner and Anshika Agarwal

AI-powered dentistry that makes care smarter, more efficient and more transparent.

Sabana

Sabana

Graduate Track

Ruben Quesada, Saket Kulkarni and Alexander Zhu

Accelerate your product research and construction specifications

Scottie Fetch

Scottie Fetch

Graduate Track

Timothy Watts

Scottie Fetch aims to be the fastest matchmaker for top-quality, independent sponsor led small business acquisitions in the lower market by providing a platform to connect isolated networks, educate acquisition participants and consolidate the information that matters most. Buyers, sellers and equity partners can now more easily and more quickly find their acquisition partners and finalize the deal.

Solstis

Solstis

Graduate Track

Samika Sanghvi, Pratik Satija and Aarav Bajaj

Solstis is an AI powered platform that allows you to create workflow automations using API specialized agents in natural language. Solstis is like having a group chat where your app agents talk to each other, execute workflows on command and learn over time - like a team that never sleeps.

Speak Smart.ai

Speak Smart.ai

Graduate Track

Naufal Nafian, Jeremia Redmond, Shounak Karmalkar and Vir Toolsidas

The New LLM: Limitless Learning Model