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How Optimistic Is Your CEO?

Vincent Firth WEV87 G94 distills results from a Fortune/Deloitte survey of 80-plus CEOs.

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Co-founder Caroline Strzalka C00 WG05 went swimming in the Shark Tank and walked away with a $500,000 deal from celebrity investor Mark Cuban. Since her appearance on the reality show aired in March, Strzalka has continued to disrupt social gaming with the DIY app, which boasts more than 200,000 downloads. Overplay allows users to turn videos — anything from cooking tutorials to extreme sports — into interactive games easily, without coding, and has totaled more than 1.3 million games played and counting. The app’s licensable technology generates its own revenue while simultaneously allowing content creators to access new audiences. As of August, Overplay had raised over $1 million from nearly 900 investors on Wefunder.

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Nirby

Precision agriculture results when technology meets farming, and it’s what Nirby does best. The soil analytics startup, founded by Piotr Lazarek ENG25 W25, cuts down on CO² emissions and can lead to up to 40 percent savings on fertilizer costs. Using data obtained from its own drones combined with satellite imagery from the European Space Agency, Nirby provides useful insights for farmers. The tool identifies the most productive zones of a field, even during the early stage of crop development, and recommends fertilizers accordingly. The company won the $50,000 grand prize in the 2024 Venture Lab Startup Challenge.

A woman in a denim jacket, red shirt, and jeans with a sun and other imagery painted on it sits in a chair, holding sunglasses slightly above her head.

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Re.Statement

“It doesn’t take a saint to be sustainable” is the motto behind Re.Statement, a one-stop shop for upcycled clothing. The online marketplace, founded by Hannah M. Le W20, lets designers sell fashion made from existing or used materials while offering customers unique clothing options. Designers apply to join Re.Statement, and a select few have their products featured on the platform. Customers can then shop and directly order any of the fashion items, from tie-dye sweatshirts to cigar-box purses. Le has a background in fashion design herself, along with a lifelong passion for upcycling.

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Seadrop Skincare

Serena Advani C17 W17 WG22 is taking on single-use plastic with Seadrop Skincare. Her startup’s first product, a “just add water” facial-cleanser tablet, eliminates the need for beauty bottles and the synthetic preservatives that keep bacteria out of them. Instead, Seadrop Skincare’s powder-based concentrates are packaged in biodegradable paper tubes, for a zero-waste experience. The company, a member of Venture Lab’s VIP-X Philadelphia Spring 2024 cohort, has been recognized by publications such as Elle and hailed as “my new favorite skincare investment” by Harper’s Bazaar.

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Chiyo

Co-founder and CEO Irene Liu WG22 was inspired to start this meal delivery company when her mom sent traditional Chinese medicine meals to her aunt, who’d just had a baby. “After seeing what postpartum care looks like in Asia and other more ancient cultures, I wondered why this doesn’t exist in the U.S.,” Liu told TechCrunch. She wanted to build on the concept of food as medicine, offering personalized nutritional guides and curated meals delivered weekly, for comfort and support when women need it most. Chiyo tailors nutritional plans to fit each phase in a new mother’s life — fertility, prenatal, and postpartum — using a “first of its kind” research database. The company, featured in the New York Times and Bon Appétit, recently raised $3 million in funding.

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Parentaly

When CEO Allison Whalen WG14 returned to work from her first parental leave in 2018, she was surprised to find her office in disarray: Projects hadn’t advanced without her input, and staff were exhausted after covering for her. After witnessing firsthand how parental-leave policies can backfire, she decided to do something about it. Whalen started Parentaly as an employee benefit service to support the parental-leave process and make it mutually beneficial: Employees get a structured career coaching program, while managers receive a custom checklist. Whalen made the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in 2023; Parentaly’s clients include Zoom and PwC.

Illustrated nose with flowers coming out of the nostrils.

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Hale

This alumni-run company is a breath of fresh air. Physician and chief of Cleveland Clinic’s Integrated Surgical Institute Patrick Byrne WG15 applied his medical knowledge to launch Hale, an innovative nasal-device startup. The product, created to relieve congestion, features an inconspicuous design that can be easily inserted and removed. Clinical trials at Johns Hopkins, where Byrne is a professor, show the device increases air flow by 54 percent, compared to 31 percent for nasal strips. Hale also shares healthy breathing tips, from mouth-taping to meditation, on a blog authored by CMO Sing Ling WG22.

Portrait of a woman standing in front of a table adorned with Jewish decor.

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Adara Rituals

When Tara Townsend W04 set out to find meaningful holiday decor a few years ago, she came back empty-handed. Her frustration sparked the idea for Adara Rituals — a nod to her daughter’s Hebrew name. Townsend’s online retail company features original crafted pieces intended to enliven Jewish traditions and celebrations. The website offers a range of spiritual and stylish home goods, including place mats, candles, challah covers, trays, garlands, and more. Adara Rituals was a part of Venture Lab’s VIP-X San Francisco Spring 2024 cohort.

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Maxim

It’s the new Wild West for the digital world, and AI-powered products are popping up left and right these days — some more dependable than others. Enter Maxim, a startup co-founded last year by former Googler Vaibhavi Gangwar WG20 that’s standardizing how businesses test and improve the quality of generative AI offerings, both before and after their release. The company, which recently officially launched to the public, boasts release cycles roughly five times faster than traditional ones while providing peace of mind that what you’re letting out into the world is reliable.

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Zicasso

Seeing a demand from vacationers for unique adventures, Yuchun Ku WG02 and her husband, Brian Tan, founded Zicasso — a luxury travel company that connects prospective clients with top experts in their destination. Based on their own jaunts around the world, Ku and Tan understand how insider knowledge can transform a trip into a culturally authentic experience. Customers are invited to describe a dream vacation and are personally matched with vetted specialists who thoughtfully curate and handle the logistics. Zicasso also offers themed itineraries, such as a Colombian excursion modeled after the film Encanto that Travel + Leisure called “magical.”

Illustration of a building sitting atop a microscope for observation.

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Honeycomb Insurance

Led by co-founder and CEO Itai Ben-Zaken WG08, this tech-forward real estate insurance company is harnessing artificial intelligence to power commercial property inspections. Honeycomb Insurance’s browser-based Inspector App enables building owners, property managers, developers, and condo and homeowner associations to document a property’s condition by snapping pictures — in return for a rate quote. The company, which raised $36 million in its latest round of venture capital fundraising, is set to sell $130 million in insurance premiums this year, according to TechCrunch.

Jeff Keswin and Bryan Verona standing side by side.

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Up My Art

Shopping for art and adding meaningful pieces to your home can spark joy. However, most collectors are well acquainted with the inevitable limits of space. Bryan Verona W94 and Jeff Keswin ENG90 W90, both avid collectors, founded Up My Art, an online platform that provides opportunities for aficionados and artists to lend pieces to their peers. By facilitating everything from insurance to installation, it enables art collectors to enjoy beautiful and inspiring works rather than letting them languish in storage.

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IssueVoter

Cutting through today’s political rhetoric, this nonpartisan platform is bringing the conversation back to the issues. Maria Yuan WG10 founded IssueVoter as a convenient way for everyday constituents to make their voices heard and hold elected representatives accountable. The nonprofit organization’s new iOS app — launched this summer — alerts users to legislation they care about, provides statements from proponents and opponents of those bills, and lets users share their opinions directly with lawmakers. The app also generates a scorecard for each user that tallies how often their representatives vote the way they’d prefer on specific issues.

Ideas

Turn Your Strategy Into Reality

Putting big business ideas into action can prove difficult. This MBA course offers critical lessons to help leaders get the job done.

Illustration of a woman doing a yoga pose on a giant sanitary pad.

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Pinkie

Pinkie aims to make puberty a little more comfortable. The menstrual-pad company was co-founded by Fiona Simmonds WG05 and Sana Clegg, both mothers of young girls. Pinkie pads are specifically sized for teens and tweens and aimed at making them feel confident and strong. Drawstring pouches allow for sharing with friends and discreet disposal, and the material is high-quality, with a toxin-free organic cotton top sheet. The company raised $1 million last year and is expanding to Target locations nationwide.

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Vurbalize

A new AI shopping assistant powered by ChatGPT

Conceptual illustration of a person shopping and holding hands with an iPad that is also shopping. — *(Illustration: Cristina Spanò)*

According to a 2022 NPR study, 62 percent of Americans use voice assistants regularly. So Sanju Pancholi WG12 used his technical background in conversational AI to create Vurbalize, a voice shopping assistant that’s like a personal shopper in your pocket.

Powered by proprietary technology integrated into ChatGPT, Vurbalize helps users browse products — from electronics to health supplements to wine and more — and get real-time answers to questions about pricing, comparisons, shipping, and returns. Part of Venture Lab’s VIP-X Fall 2022 cohort, Vurbalize is built to function with “any device, any language, any channel.”

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Start Me Up

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