Meet Tsai CITY's Fall 2020 Launch Pad and Accelerator Cohorts

 

15 of these teams will spend the semester in Tsai CITY’s Accelerator, which is designed for teams with demonstrated traction and provides support through a $2000 grant, workshops, tailored mentoring, and more. 21 teams, meanwhile, make up Tsai CITY’s inaugural Launch Pad cohort. Launched this fall, the Launch Pad program offers a mix of synchronous and asynchronous content to early-stage teams, complemented by resources like mentoring, workshops, and community connections. Meet the teams.

 

Accelerator teams

 

At School Today

David Campbell (SOM), Geoff Jordan, Daljit Bhartt

At School Today is a parent-focused communication platform designed to improve the structure of learning in the home and to achieve better student outcomes. 

Aureline

Alley Liang (SOM), Amy Gong (SOM), Ming Li

Aureline is a “clean” beauty brand, with a focus on ingredients that are organic, food-grade, and non-GMO.

Dcyphr

Jeffrey Ma (YC), Aidan Neziri (YC), Ivan Chan (YC), Onyedikachi Uche (YC)

Decyphr aims to make academic research more accessible to everyone by creating and publishing distillations of research papers powered by human-in-the-loop AI solutions and a crowdsourced platform with a wiki UI.

EcoPackables

Shervin Dehmoubed (YC)

This eco-friendly packaging company offers compostable packaging solutions for companies to use in shipping.

Elevation Med Prep

Brendan Adkinson (MED)

Elevation Med Prep elevates medical school applicants from underrepresented, first-generation, and disadvantaged backgrounds by making admissions consulting accessible to everyone — regardless of their ability to pay.

Females for Finance

Anisha Arcot (YC), Grace Baghdadi (YC)

Females for Finance (F^3) is a non-profit organization that empowers high-achieving high school girls with a foundation in financial literacy, investment, and an introduction to the finance industry. 

K-Patch

Nataly Moreno-Martinez (YC), Sam Cabot (GSAS)

K-Patch is a non-invasive medical device that ensures more stable and safer bone fracture healing.

Kelewele

Rachel Laryea (GSAS)

Kelewele is a cultural lifestyle brand reimagining plantains in its commitment to connect the African diaspora through food, culture, and innovation.

Midnight Oil Collective

Frances Pollock (Music), Edwin Joseph (Music ’20), Danilo Gambini (Drama ’20)

The Midnight Oil Collective seeds and produces great works of art and scholarship by centering creators — financially, artistically, and in marketing and networking — as they develop their projects.

Naberly

Matteo Carrabba (YC), Rajat Doshi (YC)

This platform allows customers to search the inventory of all local stores to find the products they want and allows in-store customers to make deliveries to neighbors along their drive home, augmenting existing delivery options.

No Brainer

Linhang Ren (SOM), Vera (He) Wang (SOM), Michael (Minghao) Guan (SOM), Wilbur (Ziwei) Zhou (SOM)

No Brainer is a nonprofit fast-food chain restaurant (with only delivery, carry out and drive through options) offering a nutritious but scant menu at a competitively low price to empower local communities and create local employment opportunities.

Omose

Osariemen Ogbemudia (YC), Isoken Omoregbee (YC)

This skincare product is a love letter to brown skin.

PinKU Japanese Street Food

Xiaoteng Huang (SOM)

This team’s mission is to create the original chef-inspired, fine-casual national restaurant brand for authentic Japanese street food using the finest fish and ethnic ingredients for a cultural, entertaining, and educational experience. 

The Bandana Project

Conlin Bass (YSPH), Stephanie Vazquez (YSPH)

The Bandana Project is a simple yet innovative suicide prevention and mental health awareness movement.

Thinking Huts

Miriam Huerta (YC), Maggie Grout

Thinking Huts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit seeking to provide immediate support for jump-starting education in developing countries via 3D printed schools. 

 

Launch Pad teams

 

Anime Central

Nathan Wu (YC), Max Bu (YC)

This team’s vision is to create a complete, synergistic ecosystem for Japanese animation (“anime”) creators and viewers. 

Ascend Behavioral Health

Sofia Noori (MED resident), Anthony Xu (YC), Isobel Rosenthal (YC ’12)

This project seeks to create a better entry point for trauma survivors to understand their experiences and connect with evidence-based trauma-informed care.

Drona.tech

Sneha Sivakumar (YC), Amita Gondi, Rutvik Rau , Anuj Unadkt

Drona.tech aims to democratize the learning experience in the Indian classroom by leveraging technology. 

Fresh out the Box

Carrie Law (SOM)

This ingredient-and-recipe meal kit delivery service is focused on authentic East-Asian cuisine. Traditional ingredients and recipes (including native language translation) will be included, along with a short background on the cultural significance of the dish.

Gent skincare

Alex Holm (SOM)

Gent Skincare aims to create a direct-to-consumer cosmetics and skincare brand for men, helping de-stigmatize men's cosmetics, address men’s mental health and body image anxieties, and tap into an entirely new market.

Hyer

Jack Shaw (GSAS), Matt Barrett, Aiden Jawed-Rogers, Joe Bird 

Hyer aims to make life-coaching accessible and available to the masses through a subscription service.

Inscribo

Michael Lee (YC), Elizabeth Lee

Inscribo is creating an educational platform that connects aspiring high school and college students with high-achieving college students, with the goals of equalizing educational resources and fostering meaningful mentoring relationships.

Job Hash

Jason Wu (YC)

Job Hash is a web app for applying to jobs and organizing job applications.

Keadom

Jean Carlos Garcia (SOM), Keerthana Kumar (SOM), Michelle Xuemeng Wu (SOM)

Keadom is a platform that allows restaurant managers to analyze data from different sources and make critical decisions using natural language, resulting in actionable data in a much shorter amount of time.

Olida

Zeynep Yekeler (SOM), Berna Yekeler

This bundle of products, centered around olive oil, will be sold directly to the consumers online.

ONE Golf

William Morris (SOM)

ONE Golf is a premium men’s golf apparel company that designs, develops, and sells performance polos, offering quality and innovative style that represents the modern golfer.

Pediatric friendly home-based biofeedback device for pelvic floor dysfunction

Victor Uko (SOM), Ayotunde Uko (SOM ’17)

This team is working to design an innovative home based, pediatric friendly, biofeedback device that provides pelvic floor physical therapy to children and young adults with pelvic floor dysfunction.

PFGlucose

Rohan Ahluwalia (YC)

This team is developing a non-invasive glucose monitor.

Prime College Counseling 

Syimyk Kyshtoobaev (YC), Beknur Nurlanbek

Prime College Counseling aims to start a US college counseling service in the Central Asian region, designed for 11th grade students who have aspirations of studying in the US. 

STEMbase.org

Paola Figueroa-Delgado (GSAS), Egbert Castro (GSAS), Taryn Olivas (GSAS), Lymarie Díaz-Díaz 

STEMbase.org is a free digital platform and community that connects trainees with opportunities in STEM. 

Tech Transitions Bridge

Diego Angel (YSE)

Tech Transitions Bridge deploys climate tech projects in a vertically integrated platform by linking companies’ or governments’ sustainability needs and goals with emerging tech solutions, experts, and all the pieces of the puzzle for turning pilots to novel project financing.

The ModDisplay

Joel Binu (YC), Ethan Kwok (YC), Austin Zhu (YC)

The ModDisplay is a touchscreen panel display system that consists of multiple displays interacting with each other to seamlessly create a larger display with any size, shape, and orientation, allowing for a range of custom displays.

The Simple Nest

Sheila Grandio (SOM), Juan Andres Turner 

The Simple Nest is a one-stop on-line platform that provides parents with everything they need to surround their babies with a natural, plastic-free, chemical-free lifestyle: products, professional services, and information. 

The Student Network

Alexandra Jones (YC)

The Student Network will be an online/mobile application platform to connect high school students with current college students in order to provide a first-hand look at a university through current undergrads’ experience.

Village

Yousef Aly (SOM)

Village is a digitization of the money-circle concept, creating interest-free loans and accountable savings methods for immigrant and lower socio-economic status groups. Village securitizes the monetary exchange while leveraging the power of open banking to help users build credit.

Will for Wellness 

Joseph Kollo (SOM)

Will for Wellness aims to increase colon cancer awareness in African American communities.