Demo Day celebrates student innovation

After seven weeks of intense devel­op­ment and prepa­ra­tion, the young entre­pre­neurs behind 16 student-​​created star­tups pre­sented their ven­tures to the North­eastern com­mu­nity at the Husky Startup Challenge’s Demo Day on Monday night in the Curry Stu­dent Center ballroom.

Pre­sented by the North­eastern Entre­pre­neurs Club, the Husky Startup Chal­lenge is a busi­ness devel­op­ment com­pe­ti­tion aimed at helping North­eastern stu­dents and alumni turn their ideas into ven­tures through a series of boot camps, work­shops, and net­working events cul­mi­nating in Demo Day. Here are some take­aways from the event:

Facts and figures

Stu­dents pre­sented more than 50 startup ideas at the start of the Husky Startup Chal­lenge ear­lier this semester. About 400 people checked out the 16 ven­tures Monday night, and atten­dees had the chance to pick their favorite.

That des­ig­na­tion went to ASAMOAH’s, a food truck that serves Afro­cen­tric cui­sine. Atten­dees enjoyed free sam­ples of the rice and meat options that ASAMOAH’s plans to serve.

Top prize and $2,000 went to Senci, a web­site that con­nects prospec­tive col­lege stu­dents with enrollees through overnight visits. “Sharing economy is really taking off right now,” said Senci founder Elliot Mustoe, DMSB’18, pointing to com­pa­nies like Uber and Airbnb.

Second place and $1,250 went to Tabé, an e-​​platform for young pro­fes­sional foodies and chefs to con­nect via dinner events. Third place and $750 went to CoClo, which will auto­mat­i­cally update your phone’s con­tact list if you change phone numbers.

A fluid process

Some Demo Day pre­sen­ta­tions looked a little unlike the ideas that the entrepreneurs-​​in-​​training pitched at the start of the Husky Startup Chal­lenge. The program’s guest speakers and boot camps helped them rec­og­nize oppor­tu­ni­ties to make adjust­ments or pivot in a new direc­tion in order to boost the via­bility of their ventures.

A prime example is Smar­tRack, a self-​​contained bike rack for col­lege stu­dents to better secure their bikes. Co-​​founders Gen Ohta, E’17, and Mike Wagen­heim, AMD’17, who both ride their bikes to campus, orig­i­nally planned to create a better bike lock. But after going through the Chal­lenge process, they shifted their focus and now look to offer a rack in which users can store their bike for free for 24-​​hour hours at a time.

“We wanted to do some­thing that would dis­rupt the bike lock,” Wagen­heim explained.

“Going through the Chal­lenge was really cool. I learned a lot about pitching and iden­ti­fying a need in the market.”

Chow down

Food was a pop­ular theme at this year’s Demo Day. The stu­dent ven­tures in this field ranged from con­necting foodies to offering unique dining options to helping users find restau­rants and organic foods.

Nidhey Pan, DMSB’18, saw a need for high quality and afford­able Indian cui­sine in the Boston area and cre­ated a food truck called Pan – Chaat Box. The restau­rant on wheels will serve Indian savories and appe­tizers with ingre­di­ents directly from India.

“I like the mobility a food truck offers,” Pan said as he served sam­ples at Demo Day. “It makes it easier to reach the target audi­ence. And there is not a single Indian food truck in all of Boston.”

Online tools

Many of the ven­tures aim to use tech­nology to help make the users’ lives a little easier. For example, Wuway helps users looking to plan spon­ta­neous cul­tural or recre­ational adven­tures with others nearby. SizeMe, for its part, is soft­ware geared toward online shop­pers who want to know whether the clothing they buy online will fit them.