HUNGRY Marketplace
Traditional catering companies aren’t designed to feed large offices. Enter HUNGRY Marketplace: Jeff Grass WG99’s startup offers a twist on the usual catering model, hiring top chefs to cook in “ghost kitchens.” The result? High-quality restaurant food delivered to corporate teams for a fraction of the budget. HUNGRY features a centralized dashboard and mobile app for easier group orders. The company also donates a meal for every two purchased, totaling nearly three million meals to date. HUNGRY acquired Foodee in May, and the service is available in 13 U.S. cities.
Grey State Apparel
Saima Chowdhury WG05
Saima Chowdhury WG05 launched Grey State to “make women’s lives easier” — a mantra that extends far beyond comfortable workwear and relaxed joggers. Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework, the clothing company is rooted in kindness, from using recycled textiles to offering childcare in production facilities to giving back — Chowdhury funded a girls’ school in her native Bangladesh. Tapping further into her heritage, she also employs local Bangladeshi artisans and factory workers, ensuring healthy and safe working conditions. Grey State was featured as one of Cosmopolitan’s 20 Asian-owned fashion brands in May.
BuildOps
(Illustrations by Cristina Spanò)
Led by U.S. Army veteran Alok Chanani WG10, BuildOps is “mission control” for contractors. The software platform manages scheduling and invoicing for workers across electrical, plumbing, and other blue-collar industries. Chanani’s reverence for the commercial trades started when he was a combat engineer; during his deployment in Iraq, he delivered U.S. currency to remote areas, inspiring him to help companies running on little to no technology. Today, BuildOps has eliminated antiquated systems — such as paper ticketing — for its clients, cutting billing time up to 73 percent. The Los Angeles Business Journal reported that BuildOps received a $127 million investment in March; the company was also named one of Forbes’s America’s Best Startup Employers and made the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.
Hightouch
Kashish Gupta GEN18 W18
Hightouch’s AI marketing tools harness companies’ data to create personalized customer experiences. Co-founded by Kashish Gupta GEN18 W18, Hightouch enables companies to combine information from their various data sources to shape marketing efforts. One flagship feature: The startup’s AI agents can decide which marketing content — such as welcome emails and special offers — to send to individuals in order to boost engagement and new customers. Valued at $1.2 billion earlier this year, the company counts Spotify, PetSmart, Grammarly, and other big-name brands as users.
Brightwheel
This Shark Tank success has developed software that preschools and child-care providers use to manage billing, communicate with families, handle admissions processes, and more. After appearing in front of “the sharks” in 2016, founder Dave Vasen WG10 made a $600,000 deal with investors Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca. Since then, Brightwheel has expanded its user base, attracted additional investors, and acquired Experience Early Learning, adding that company’s educational curriculum to its own ecosystem.
Simply Good
Brandon Huang WG25
This innovative management software is bringing OpenTable-style functionality to recreational sports. Co-founded by Brandon Huang WG25, Simply Good is helping athletic facilities replace outdated workflows for bookings, billing, and other processes with its all-in-one platform. While basketball courts and other sporting venues use Simply Good to handle their operations, players use the company’s GoodRun service — which Huang accelerated in Venture Lab’s VIP-X Philadelphia program last year — to rent spots for recreational games, similar to how diners book reservations on apps. The complementary services together offer a way for facilities to not only rent their spaces, but to manage their businesses at large.
CoffeeSpace
CoffeeSpace is playing matchmaker among entrepreneurs. Co-founded by Carin Gan W19, the platform lets users create profiles and match with potential startup co-founders — in much the same way that Hinge, Tinder, and other dating apps facilitate romantic relationships. Among the filters users can set to find fits are industries and entrepreneurial experience, such as whether someone previously worked at, founded, or sold a startup. Launched just last year, the company recently announced $1 million in pre-seed funding to boost its growth.
Jubilee Media
With millions of subscribers across YouTube, TikTok, and other social media channels, Jubilee Media is bringing difficult, provocative conversations to the table. Founded by Jason Y. Lee W09 in 2017, the digital media company tackles political issues, social topics, and more in its videos, including the viral “Surrounded” debate series. Offshoots of the main brand include Jubilee’s Nectar channel, specializing in relationship-related content, while its Twobilee channel produces behind-the-scenes and reaction videos. In a milestone for the company, the global United Talent Agency signed on earlier this year to represent Jubilee and Lee.
StepLadder
Matthew Addison G06 WG06
The idea for this fintech company originated in the Lauder Institute thesis of co-founder Matthew Addison G06 WG06. Started in 2016, StepLadder is championing collaborative finance with its Savings Circles. Here’s how the product works: Users with the same personal goals — such as saving for a home deposit — pay an identical amount into a shared Circle. Once a month, one person in the group receives the total amount that was put in until everyone has received their payout goal. The company — a tech-enabled take on a savings method that has typically been used by people excluded from traditional banking — currently partners with financial institutions in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East to offer its services under their branding.
Poppins
Jenn Schoen WG17
A survey found that 51 percent of parents with kids under the age of 18 search online for at least an hour when they’re faced with an issue regarding their child. Jenn Schoen WG17 co-founded Poppins to stop the Googling. The digital platform pairs each parent with a coach they can text anytime, about anything from tantrums to teen independence. Members get access to pediatric care, with professionals from CHOP, Duke University Hospital, Boston Children’s, and NYU Langone on call 24/7 to handle questions about fevers, rashes, and other medical emergencies. The staff learns the family dynamics, offering a customized action plan for each parent. “As both a founder and a mom,” says Schoen, “I created Poppins to offer the kind of support I wanted to have — expert, accessible, and designed for real life.”
Civic
At a time when government operations are under the microscope, Civic offers clarity. Created by Julian Trajanson W12 and Jon Kokot WG25, a former White House military social aide and U.S. Navy legislative affairs officer, the AI-powered platform is designed to modernize and streamline public-sector work. Tools such as sentiment tracking, district heat maps, policy one-pagers, and automated email batching allow staffers to interact with constituents faster and more effectively. Civic is a recipient of Venture Lab’s 2025 Bridge Fund Award, which totaled $50,000 in support for student projects continued post-graduation.
Teal Health
On a mission to increase cervical cancer screenings, CEO Kara Egan WG11 teamed up with interventional radiologist Dr. Avnesh Thakor to launch Teal Health, which has produced the first FDA-approved at-home Pap smear kit. In May, the company’s Teal Wand, designed for seamless sample-taking, received the coveted “breakthrough device” designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after clinical trials showed a 96 percent accuracy rate. Teal Wands started shipping in California this summer, and the founders are looking to expand insurance coverage.
Obvio
Ali Rehan and Dhruv Maheshwari ENG15 W15
This startup is making use of AI technology to improve road safety within communities. Co-founded by Dhruv Maheshwari ENG15 W15, Obvio works with municipalities to provide solar-powered cameras that can detect a range of driver wrongdoings, from stop-sign violations to phone use. Obvio’s cameras can be paired with signs to deliver real-time feedback (“Phone down”), inform officers where to patrol, and deliver automatic enforcement action, among other solutions. The company — which has deployed its technology in a handful of U.S. cities so far — recently raised $22 million in venture capital to expand its reach.
Amoureux Beauty
Jeanine Mojum WG24 was a bit of a skin-care Goldilocks: Traditional products were too weak for her breakout-prone skin, but stronger products were way too harsh. Voilà — Amoureux Beauty was born. Amoureux, which translates to “in love” in French, caters to sensitive skin while still delivering luxe results. Mojum stays attuned to what her customers need, from testing on at least 100 people to answering comments on TikTok. She also promises responsibly sourced ingredients, such as pH-neutral pomegranate enzymes in the brand’s “Soft Serum” exfoliant. The company was part of Venture Lab’s VIP-X Philadelphia Spring 2024 cohort.
Published as “Matchmaking for Founders, High-End Catering, and Child Health-Care Help” in the Fall/Winter 2025 issue of Wharton Magazine.
Read about other alumni-powered ventures in the full Watchlist.
