Eight Rice University student startups presented their ventures at the 2024 Summer Venture Studio Accelerator (SVS) Demo Day hosted by Rice’s Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) Sept. 17 in the Anderson Clarke Center. Lilie is the home for entrepreneurship education, exploration and acceleration for students, faculty and alumni from every discipline.
The immersive summer accelerator program is designed to propel Rice’s most innovative ventures forward by providing students with a unique blend of hands-on experience and learning opportunities. The three-month journey is dedicated to developing their ventures with mentorship from the expert team at Lilie.
“We’re your one-stop-shop for everything you need along the way,” said Lilie Executive Director Kyle Judah in his opening remarks. “Part of our mission is to help entrepreneurs achieve that initial momentum so that they can hit escape velocity. We do that through an integrated series of courses and co-curricular programs and resources for every step of the entrepreneurial journey. If you’re ideating, you can ideate with us. If you’re exploring and immersing, you can do that in our classes or in our programs. If you want to find co-founders, if you want to find mentors, we have those programs accessible and available for you.”
SVS covers everything for startups from identifying the target market to working through technical needs to perfecting pitches with the program’s Demo Day serving as not only practice for pitching in front of a large audience, but an opportunity to connect with potential investors. Each team in the accelerator also receives $15,000 in equity-free funding from Lilie.
“I’m extremely passionate about working with founders and doing whatever I can to help them grow and accelerate and eventually go out into the world and change it,” said Taylor Anne Adams, venture acceleration program manager at Lilie. “I want to continue to do whatever I can to make sure they recognize how important they are as individuals and how important their businesses are to building out things from Rice University and showing the world how incredible we are.”
Several of the teams in the SVS program have already had success securing funding through Lilie competitions or other venture programs and even capturing customers and sales. Docflow, by founders Benjamin Liu and Michael Mounajjed, which helps hospitals regain countless physician hours by streamlining residency shift scheduling, is the first Rice student startup to be accepted into Y Combinator, one of the top startup accelerators in the country.
Solidec, by founders Ryan DuChanois and Yang Xia, extracts molecules from water and air, then transforms them into pure chemicals and fuels without any carbon emissions. Coflux Purification, by founders Alec Ajnsztajn, Dana Vazquez and Jeremy Daum, commercializes a breakthrough technology that captures and destroys forever chemicals. Both have won several startup competitions previously and will office at the Rice Nexus in the Ion, Houston’s innovation hub powered by Rice. The two teams are also One Small Step Grant awardees and Innovation Fellows at Lilie.
- Levytation, by founders Jahnavi Mahajan and Henry Marks, is using data to help businesses make smarter operational decisions and save money.
- JewelVision, founded by Anekha Sokhal, makes it easier to buy jewelry online by building virtual fitting rooms for e-commerce using generative AI, starting with jewelry retailers.
- OnGuard, founded by Becky Jackson, connects businesses and individuals to commissioned law enforcement officers to book and manage security requests seamlessly.
- Roster, by founder Luke Stancil, makes recruiting the NCAA transfer portal 10 times faster, leveraging curated player data to give coaches full control over the recruiting process.
- Veloci, founded by Tyler Strothman, creates shoes that address the common pains impacting runners, empowering them to enjoy every stride.
Watch all eight pitches on Lilie’s YouTube channel. More information about entrepreneurship at Rice and the SVS is available at Lilie’s website.