Wharton Magazine
Mexican cowboy beans from A Dozen Cousins
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

A Dozen Cousins

The impact of family runs deep at A Dozen Cousins. Not only did founder Ibraheem Basir C07 WG12 name the venture after his daughter and her 11 cousins; he also drew inspiration for his line of ready-to-eat beans from his mother’s cooking. The company’s selection of Cuban black beans, Mexican cowboy beans, and Trini chickpeas is the direct result of the Caribbean and Latin American flavors his mom infused in her Southern-style cooking as he was growing up in Brooklyn. Basir isn’t the only fan of those flavors: The company recently expanded its reach with buy-in from one of America’s most influential grocers—Amazon’s Whole Foods Market, where it now has shelf space at roughly 450 stores.

Vlada Lotkina
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

ClassTag

Too many emails, fliers, messages, signup forms, and outdated website info—it wasn’t until Vlada Lotkina WG08 became a parent that she grasped the daily grind of staying on top of parent/teacher communication. In 2015, she founded ClassTag, a free app that serves as a hub for teacher-to-parent messaging, calendar updates, and activities announcements. Currently being used by 50,000 educators nationwide, the app just received $2 million in seed funding. In Lotkina’s spare time, she teamed up with Allison Williams W07 to launch POP256, an initiative named for the number of female billionaires in the world and aimed at connecting trailblazing women through invite-only dinners.

Color Noir creators Muoyo Okome and Nicaila Matthews Okome
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Color Noir

Recognized for its creative and calming benefits, adult coloring is a trend based in nostalgia that has 21st-century impact. Tech power couple Muoyo Okome WG11 and Nicaila Matthews Okome C06 took the concept one step further when they created Color Noir, a coloring app that amplifies Black lives and celebrates Black culture. The Okomes identified a lack of cultural imagery in similar apps, and now Color Noir’s hundreds of images have attracted thousands of users globally. With Muoyo as the app’s developer and Nicaila in charge of visuals and user interface, they’re proudly carving out an inclusive space in the mobile app business—one that totaled more than $71 billion in revenue last year.

Light switch illustration
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Instahub

Instahub has created a simple, sustainable solution for lighting automation without expensive rewiring and complex installation. CEO Michael Wong W19 and CTO Dayo Adewole ENG15 GEN15 GR21 developed an occupancy sensor that snaps directly onto existing light switches and turns lights on and off by detecting motion in a room. Their bright idea, which was initially beta-tested in buildings across Penn’s campus, has earned them both accolades and funding—Instahub won the Hult Prize Ivy Competition, Our Climate’s Youth Step Up Challenge, Fulphil’s Smart Impact Competition, and the President’s Innovation Prize at Penn, for $158,000 in startup support.

Text conversation
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Genies

Genies is going all-in on online avatars, those animations that resemble you but can express themselves in ways you can only imagine. It’s a familiar concept: Users create look-alike characters on their phones that they can then use in apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Apple’s iMessages. Where Genies separates itself from the competition is with its star-studded cast of users. Led in part by Evan Rosenbaum W14, the company has made waves with investors including Shawn Mendes, Russell Westbrook, and A$AP Rocky, who are also part of a network of athletes and artists who use their hyper-realistic animated avatars to promote events and products. A-listers aren’t the only ones on board: The app also has a general user base and has attracted business from companies that include Disney, Gucci, and New Balance.

Perennial protein drink
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Perennial

Baby boomers and Gen Xers who form one of the largest demographics in the $4.2 trillion global wellness market are leading the demand for generationally authentic healthy-lifestyle products. Recognizing that this 50-plus cluster is all-in for taking a smart approach to getting older, Brent Taylor WG10 developed Perennial, a vanilla/nut-flavored plant protein drink optimized for healthy aging. Thirty-something Taylor—who already helped found the wildly successful meat substitute Beyond Meat—says he and his Perennial co-founder, Sara Bonham, are committed to “creating a better world for ourselves to age into.”

Penn shield.
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Coffee Meets Bagel

Founded in 2012 by sisters Arum W04, Dawoon C04, and Soo Kang, Coffee Meets Bagel is the dating app for those who’ve been burned by endlessly swiping on other services. It aims to achieve better connections through in-depth profiles and personalized icebreakers, and its smart algorithm curates a limited number  of quality matches. That translates to less shallow browsing and more meaningful conversations. Rather than connect based on photos alone, Coffee Meets Bagel’s users are encouraged to talk about what they’ve read about each other. The company has established thousands of lasting relationships, and investors have wanted to see what all the buzz is about—the Kangs have raised more than $23 million in funding to date.

Geneoscopy team
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Geneoscopy

During her medical training, Erica Barnell met a 52-year-old woman just diagnosed with stage-four colorectal cancer. Sadly, the disease hadn’t been caught sooner because the woman couldn’t take time off work for a colonoscopy. Motivated to make early detection more accessible, Barnell partnered with her brother, Andrew Barnell WG17, and data analyst Yiming Kang to found Geneoscopy. The trio devised a screening methodology to non-invasively detect cancer and other conditions using RNA biomarkers in stool samples—and during his MBA studies, Barnell developed the company with support from Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship’s Summer Venture Award. Geneoscopy’s second round of funding raised $1 million, and its third clinical trial will enroll more than 1,000 patients. For the 70 million Americans affected by digestive diseases each year, the future looks healthier.

Class of 2018 Reunion dinner in Philadelphia
News
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Alumni News
Fall/Winter 2019

On the Scene

From London to Dubai, Wharton alumni gather around the globe.

Stylized cannabis leaf
News
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Entrepreneurship
Fall/Winter 2019

Cannabis's Major Money Problem

Marijuana businesses are being shunned by big banks—and forced to handle large sums of cash under precarious conditions.

The New Space Race 2
People
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Innovation/Tech
Spring/Summer 2019

The New Space Race

A thrilling era of space exploration has begun, fueled by the potential for tourism among the stars, the ingenuity of private industry, and the ambitions of a few billionaires (including one Wharton alumnus you may have heard about).

Freeze for All
News
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Entrepreneurship
Spring/Summer 2019

Freeze for All

These alumni see the business sense—and the smiles—behind the growing ice-cream and frozen-treats sector.

Ideas
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Entrepreneurship
Spring/Summer 2019

Is Your Business Ready to Scale?

Operations, Information and Decisions professor Gad Allon offers a litmus test for when to consider scaling.

20 Years of Knowledge@Wharton
Ideas
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School News
Spring/Summer 2019

20 Years of Knowledge@Wharton

In the two decades since its launch, Knowledge@Wharton has become an invaluable resource for lifelong learning online, on the radio, and on podcasts. Meet its visionary founder and the team that’s spreading insights and education to a global audience.

Reflections on the Wharton Undergraduate Experience
People
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Leadership
Spring/Summer 2019

Reflections on the Wharton Undergraduate Experience

For one senior, the stories written in personal journals reveal the depth of his four-year journey—on campus and beyond.

Empowering Girls Through Storytelling 2
People
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Entrepreneurship
Spring/Summer 2019

Empowering Girls Through Storytelling

Kali Bhandari WG18 on why she and Autumn Huiatt WG18 have created a business around writing fresh takes on famous fairy tales.