Each year, an overabundance of sargassum seaweed blankets coastlines from Florida all the way to the Caribbean. While its natural presence in the ocean is actually beneficial to the ecosystem, sargassum becomes a problem when it accumulates on the shore, blocking sunlight from reaching coral reefs, disrupting marine ecosystems and ultimately rotting on the beach. 

Governments are spending millions of dollars annually just to remove this unwanted seaweed and send it to landfills—but where others see waste, Ecoplasticity sees opportunity. 

Founded by recent California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) masters of business administration graduate Mayela Fernandez and masters of polymers and coatings student Michelle Cullen, Ecoplasticity is a sustainability-driven startup transforming waste into a valuable resource. 

The two founders are using sargassum to create a compostable, anaerobically digestible coating for takeout containers. Their goal is to not only provide a biodegradable alternative to harmful plastics but to turn a global environmental crisis into a solution for a more sustainable future.

“We’re tackling two problems at once,” Fernandez said. “We’re addressing the environmental damage caused by sargassum and also creating a sustainable alternative to plastic food packaging.”

In late 2023, Fernandez reached out to the head of Cal Poly’s materials engineering department, hoping to find students eager to advance Ecoplasticity’s mission. That’s how she met Cullen—a fellow environmental advocate with a strong interest in the emerging field of seaweed-based innovation.

Fernandez, the startup’s CEO, leads business operations, marketing and investor relations, while Cullen, CTO, focuses on formulation and lab development. The duo has been working to further this company for over a year and a half. 

“Coming from different backgrounds, we can sometimes have clashing decisions on what we think is right,” said Cullen. “But because we trust each other and what we’re experts in, we’re able to collaborate and make the best decision going forward.” 

That passion for sustainability goes back to childhood for both founders. Fernandez recalls encouraging her own family to adopt eco-friendly habits—like when they visited San Luis Obispo with plastic water bottles and returned home with reusable ones. Cullen, meanwhile, grew up picking up litter along the shoreline every time she visited the beach. Today, that same dedication drives their work with Ecoplasticity. 

Their innovation starts with a waste stream most companies avoid. The sargassum used by Ecoplasticity is collected from beaches where it has already been harvested for disposal, allowing the team to repurpose a material that is typically headed for a landfill. Unlike kelp or other regulated seaweeds, sargassum is not farmed, making it an abundant and accessible raw material.

“No one wants this stuff,” Fernandez said. “It’s invasive, people want to get rid of it and it’s just going to landfills. We’re taking that waste and turning it into something useful.”

Ecoplasticity’s seaweed-based coating is designed to replace the plastic coating inside takeout containers. While many paper-based containers are marketed as compostable, their plastic coating prevents them from breaking down in most environments.

“Most ‘compostable’ plastics require very specific conditions to degrade and turn into a soil or nutrient, and many people don’t sort their waste properly,” Cullen said. “Its important that our product can degrade in a timely manner as opposed to current alternatives on the market that can take thousands of years to decompose.” 

Their journey as startup founders began long before the summer. Ecoplasticity started in the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Hatchery program, an on-campus  incubator where students from all colleges and majors come together to gain hands-on experience launching a company.

From there, they competed in the CIE Elevator Pitch Competition (EPC), a fast-paced, high-energy competition where students of all majors and skill levels have 90 seconds to pitch their innovative product, service or startup ideas for the chance to win up to $1,000. 

After the continued validation and support from these programs, Ecoplasticity was a finalist in the CIE Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas and prototypes to a panel of judges in hopes of winning thousands to fund their startup.

Each of those milestones prepared them to apply for the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. 

“Participating in EPC and iQ helped prepare us for the Accelerator because we are more confident in how we present our idea to potential investors or even just people who are interested in our product,” said Fernandez. 

Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“The Summer Accelerator helped us figure out how to shape the company from just an R&D project into an actual business,” Cullen said. “We’ve learned how to identify our weaknesses, focus our goals and get real guidance on entering the market.”

Over the course of the Accelerator, Ecoplasticity has made significant progress toward developing their first market-ready prototype. Their initial goal is to get their product in the hands of the consumers to get feedback and see if they are ready to go to market. They also hope to prepare for any potential FDA regulation issues and “do things right from the beginning,” according to Fernandez. 

Most recently, the team secured a $50,000 grant—bringing their total to $90,000 in non-dilutive funding raised to date.

Long term, Fernandez and Cullen envision Ecoplasticity expanding into other areas of food packaging, whether that is grocery store bags or other types of single-use plastics. 

“What excites me the most about our startup is its growth potential,” Cullen said. “Seaweed and algae-based materials are these cool new materials everyone is interested in, and we’re excited to be part of that wave with something that’s actually solving multiple problems.”

For Fernandez, her excitement goes beyond Ecoplasticity’s current product.

“Even outside of just this coating, I’m excited to see where else we can expand and help mitigate the plastic pollution that we see in the world every year getting worse and worse,” she said. 

Watch Ecoplasticity and our six other Accelerator startups pitch live at Demo Day here. 

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About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

When Micaela Moreira found an unopened pack of insulin vials in the backseat of Ethan Vosburg’s brother’s car, she didn’t think much of it at first, and asked if she should put them in the fridge. Vosburg told her to throw them away. 

The insulin had been sitting out too long. It might have been exposed to heat, and there was no way to know if it would still work. 

For Moreira, who was studying bioengineering and biotechnology at UC San Diego at the time, that moment was shocking. A life-sustaining drug could go bad, and there was absolutely no way to tell.

As part of their entrepreneurial senior project class at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), electrical engineering masters student Vosburg and business administration graduate Oliver Haas dove deep into the problem, conducting research and interviewing over 40 individuals living with diabetes. They consulted endocrinologists and clinicians, hearing story after story of people who had unknowingly used compromised insulin, resulting in blood sugar spikes, hospitalizations or worse.

The more they learned, the clearer it became: there was a widespread problem that had no clear solution.

This sparked the idea for Preserva Biotech, a startup on a mission to help insulin-dependent diabetics through developing a portable, handheld device that determines whether insulin is still effective. 

“Insulin is a hormone that your pancreas naturally produces to help your body regulate blood sugar. But, for people with diabetes, their pancreas doesn’t work properly to produce enough insulin, so they take outside sources of insulin to help them regulate their blood sugar, which is where we come in,” said CEO Haas. 

If insulin is exposed to too much heat or time outside refrigeration, it begins to degrade, causing it to be ineffective. Preserva’s device aims to detect that change, giving patients real-time assurance that their insulin is still safe to use. 

“Right now, there is no way to make an educated decision on whether insulin is safe to inject or not,” said CTO Vosburg. “They’re operating based on trust or guesswork, and that’s incredibly risky.”

That’s when they began working with Moreira. Her research experience at UC San Diego’s Ernst Lab, where she focused on protein engineering, purification and detection technologies, made her the perfect person to help design a solution that could identify denatured insulin. With her skills and desire to help people, she quickly became an essential part of the founding team.

“The UCSD Ernst Lab is a basic structural biology lab that I joined and they’ve been fundamental for me. They taught me everything that I know,” Moreira said. “They let me work on my experiments and learn from my mistakes. They’ve been super supportive and it’s been a great experience.”

Preserva Biotech first brought their idea to CIE’s Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas and prototypes to a panel of judges in hopes of winning thousands to fund their startup. 

The team took home the Biotech Innovation Award sponsored by Leslie and Brett Eldridge of $5,000, validating the urgent need for their solution and giving them the momentum to keep going.

That win led them to apply for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

Preserva’s device aims to analyze the structural integrity of insulin. Because insulin is a protein, its effectiveness depends on maintaining a specific shape. When exposed to heat, time or agitation, it can denature, changing its structure and losing its ability to regulate blood sugar. The team’s device uses non-destructive methods to analyze the conformation—or shape—of insulin. By measuring how much of the insulin retains its correct shape, the device provides users with valuable insight into the medication’s effectiveness, eliminating the need to guess or test compromised insulin on themselves.

Haas, who previously worked at the CIE as a student programs coordinator, had spent time supporting other student founders and learning the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. Now, he is on the other side, building a startup of his own.

“I would say it’s a completely different job—now I’m working for myself and on my own business,” Haas said. “When I was working at the CIE, it definitely prepared me to understand what goes into a pitch deck and what teams need to focus on throughout the summer to be ready for investment. It also gave me a good understanding of the resources available and how important it is for the Accelerator cohort to lean on each other and learn from one another.”

Vosburg emphasized the global potential of their technology, noting that while insulin degradation is a concern in the U.S., it poses an even greater risk in low-to middle-income countries with limited cold-chain infrastructure. The team hopes their device can help bridge that gap, offering a low-cost, accessible solution to improve diabetes care in underserved regions.

The team aims to finalize their prototype and begin seeking investment by the end of the summer, with plans to pursue FDA approval, secure intellectual property protections and move toward manufacturing by 2027.

“We want to reduce the stress and medical burnout that people with diabetes experience,” Haas said. “We want to eliminate that added worry people have about their insulin and be able to have more stress-free lives.” 

Watch Preserva Biotech and our six other Accelerator startups pitch live at Demo Day here. 

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About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

As a fifth grader, Alex Malone was in and out of the hospital. She had been diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus, and the toll of antibiotics, stress and a compromised immune system left her with long-term gut health issues—chronic problems she didn’t understand at the time, but would later shape her mission as an entrepreneur.

“I am one of the first people who understands that gut health can be super scary,” Malone said. “As a fifth grader, I was terrified of what was going on with my body and how it was related to so many symptoms.” 

Years later, she decided to turn that fear into a solution. Malone, agricultural business senior at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), is the CEO and co-founder of Vandra, a health and wellness startup that is redefining how people approach gut health through ice cream. With a base of kefir, their product provides prebiotic, probiotic and postbiotic benefits, turning a sweet indulgence into a gut-friendly treat. 

Malone developed the concept through a Cal Poly course that involved bringing dairy products to the market, where she was able to incorporate her passion for health into a tangible product. From there, she teamed up with Cal Poly business administration junior Wian Roothman and fellow ice cream enthusiast. 

“I got involved with Vandra because I was playing for the Cal Poly men’s tennis team, and hearing the idea of combining health with ice cream immediately caught my attention,” Roothman said. “I love ice cream, but I always avoided eating it because of its negative consequences. Hearing about this idea made me want to work to bring this thing to life.” 

Vandra was first pitched at Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas and prototypes to a panel of judges in hopes of winning thousands to fund their startup. 

Vandra, formerly Better Being Kefir, earned the third-place Bakir Begovic Innovation Award of $5,000 at iQ. 

“It was the first experience I had pitching my idea, and more than anything, it was an inspiration,” she said. “I realized I could actually do this; and being around other people at Cal Poly doing the same thing—that’s when I knew I needed to be part of a community that really inspires entrepreneurship.”

As CEO, Malone leads company strategy and direction, while Roothman focuses on product development, marketing and creative branding. They use their individual strengths to build something they believe fills a gap in their industry, as not just another health food brand, but a lifestyle company built on authenticity and impact. 

“We’re not just an ice cream company,” Roothman emphasized. “Our mission isn’t just to bring delicious ice cream to people. It’s to bring gut health to people through delicious ice cream.” 

Vandra’s focus on education is as important as the product itself. The team wants to reframe gut health as something everyone can understand and care about, regardless of background. 

“Gut health does seem kind of niche, but it is our goal to educate our consumers,” Roothman said. “A lot of people suffer from symptoms ranging from acne and fatigue to more serious conditions like IBS and leaky gut. We want people to know these can be connected, and that probiotics can help.”

They decided that ice cream was the best vehicle to deliver these health benefits for very intentional reasons—not only is it statistically one of the most popular desserts in America, but it also has a long shelf life and keeps the probiotics alive. 

Vandra’s ice cream is powered by kefir, a fermented dairy base known for its naturally occurring gut health benefits. With over 50 diverse strains of probiotics, built-in prebiotics and functional postbiotics, kefir delivers a “complete gut health package,” according to the team. It’s the same ingredient Malone used to heal her own gut as a child. 

To continue developing their business, Malone and Roothman decided to apply for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“I don’t think you can put into words what the mentors have provided for us,” Malone said. “We’re working with two incredible women who, with every meeting, show us new ways to improve our business, but also ourselves as entrepreneurs.”

Vandra is mentored by Jennifer Bushman, Executive Director of Fed By Blue and strategic consultant in sustainable business innovation; and Haley Pavone, CEO and founder of Pashion Footwear and creator of the world’s first convertible high heel.

Beyond the resources and support, the founders say being surrounded by hard-working, like-minded teams in the Summer Accelerator has created an environment of inspiration and accountability. Roothman says it’s “not really competition,” but a healthy motivation to show up, stay late and push further. 

Looking ahead, Vandra plans to begin production with Cal Poly’s Dairy Products Technology Center this August and aims to be on retail shelves by 2026. The goal is to perfect the product’s formula and taste while scaling their company. 

“We want our product to feel nostalgic—like real ice cream—but also amaze people with how good something healthy can taste,” Malone said. “I think about the little girl I was, taking gut health supplements and feeling overwhelmed. If Vandra can provide a more enjoyable way to heal, that’s a huge win.”

Watch Vandra and our six other Accelerator startups pitch live at Demo Day here. 

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About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

Ninety percent of drink-spiking incidents go unreported, often because victims fear they won’t be taken seriously. With numbers like that, the real scope of the problem is hard to measure, but its impact is impossible to ignore.

Right now, the options for those trying to protect themselves from drink spiking are limited and either impractical or easily overlooked. For many young women, staying safe on a night out still means following outdated or cardinal rules, often sacrificing fashion for safety.

Addie Bounds and Kiara Robichaud are building something that challenges that narrative. Through their startup Elora, they’re developing wearable jewelry with built-in drug detection technology.

“We are attacking the epidemic of drink spiking by creating an option that allows women to be able to go out and enjoy their social experiences while feeling confident and not sacrificing their style for safety,” said Bounds, Elora’s CEO and recent California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) business administration graduate.

The idea for Elora was sparked in September of 2024, when Bounds realized just how many people in her life had experienced drink spiking, many of whom faced trauma that extended far beyond the initial incident.

“I had heard about all of these protective products but I had never seen any of them be used,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘how is there not a solution to help protect us against this thing that’s happening, empower us and create something that can set us free?’”

Bounds pitched the idea for Elora at Startup Launch Weekend, a Shark Tank-style competition hosted by Cal Poly Entrepreneurs that challenges students and community entrepreneurs to form a team and launch a startup in just 54 hours. Her team won first place and took home a $1,000 prize—an early validation that the idea had potential.

To take Elora further, Bounds knew she needed a partner with technical expertise. She reached out to her former beach volleyball teammate and casual statistics tutor, Robichaud, a Cal Poly biomedical engineering master’s student.

What started as a casual conversation between friends and teammates quickly turned into a co-founding partnership.

“Slowly, I pulled her in until she agreed to be part of the team, and is now the CTO of Elora,” said Bounds. “I’m so grateful for her, she’s such an amazing addition to what we’re doing here.”

Together, Bounds and Robichaud entered Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas and prototypes to a panel of judges in hopes of winning thousands to fund their startup.

Their experience at iQ helped them develop the storytelling skills necessary to pitch effectively to investors and the public, along with technical feedback from experts in the field. They quickly realized that iQ was just the beginning. 

The “natural next step,” according to the team, was applying to the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

With Bounds focused on business formation and customer development, and Robichaud leading research and product development, the two have formed a strong, cross-functional team.

“We really lean on each other’s strengths and trust that we know what we’re doing in our respective areas,” said Robichaud. “When we do have to make big decisions, we trust the other person is going to make the right decision in their own domain.”

They’re joined by Cal Poly business administration student Lindsay Williams, who originally worked with Bounds on her Startup Launch Weekend team. She is now the team’s “organizational busy bee,” according to Bounds. Elora has also brought on Nina St. John, Cal Poly computer engineering student, as a contractor to help build out the prototype this summer.

Elora’s first product will be a bracelet, available in both silver and gold, that not only detects substances but can also discreetly alert a user and their safety network in real time.

To use it, all someone has to do is take a droplet of their beverage, using a finger or straw, and place it on the bracelet’s detection zone. If a drink-spiking substance is present, the internal technology will notify the user and their network through whichever method they’ve chosen including vibration, phone call, text or app notification.

“Young women don’t want to put on a super cute outfit to go to the bar and then add on a scrunchie, or put five coasters in their back pocket, and they shouldn’t have to; it’s a refusal to conform to what society is providing us,” said Bounds. 

For Elora’s founders, the mission goes beyond individual safety. They want to create conversations, hold venues accountable, and make drink safety a normalized part of going out. A key part of their app development involves rating venues, like bars and clubs, based on reported drink-spiking incidents. The goal is to shift responsibility back onto these establishments and push for changes that make nightlife safer and more transparent for young women.

This push for venue accountability is gaining real-world momentum—California lawmakers recently passed Assembly Bill 2375, which requires bars and nightclubs to offer drink lids upon request and clearly display signage about the availability of drink-spiking test kits. The bill passed unanimously, highlighting legislative support for shifting responsibility away from potential victims and onto the establishments themselves.

“We hope to have a more transformative role in nightlife, college campuses, sororities, etc., beyond just protecting the individual,” said Robichaud. “We want to have a societal impact as well.” 

For Robichaud, the most exciting part of the startup is the challenge of solving a long-ignored problem using new technology. 

“It’s a complex problem to solve technologically, and I think it will be very fulfilling to get this piece of tech into the hands of people who really need it,” she said.

And for Bounds, the motivation is personal—and urgent.

“I find myself staring at all of these heavy stories and statistics and just know we have to solve this,” she said. “It’s not even a matter of how we do it, just the fact that we have to do it.”

Watch Elora and our six other Accelerator startups pitch live at Demo Day here.

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About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

It’s been over six months since the 2024 Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Summer Accelerator wrapped up. Throughout the 12-week program, Cal Poly students and recent grads dedicated their summer to building out their business ideas, gaining hands-on experience and turning early-stage startups into tangible ventures.

The program concluded with Demo Day, where each team took the stage to pitch their startup and share the progress they made over the summer.

Now, months later, the 2024 Accelerator teams have taken the momentum they built and channeled it into exciting new paths—whether that’s launching full-time startups, continuing their education or pursuing new opportunities in the entrepreneurial world.

Here’s a look at where each team is now:

ODIN 

Connor Heffler, CEO and co-founder of ODIN, first got involved with the CIE through Innovation Quest, a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their business ideas for the chance to win funding. 

ODIN, a startup developing sideline-ready headsets for fast and objective concussion assessments, took home the first-place prize and $15,000. That win launched the team into the Accelerator, where they spent 12 weeks building momentum and refining their vision.

Throughout the course of the Accelerator, Heffler and his team sharpened their focus. “We narrowed in on the problem and started really discovering what the customer’s true problems were in our space,” Heffler said. 

He credits the Accelerator not only with helping ODIN evolve, but also with helping him grow as a founder. Connecting with experienced entrepreneurs and executives through office hours and mentorship opportunities gave him invaluable insight. “I personally grew by talking to all the Entrepreneurs in Residence and seasoned entrepreneurs who had already done what we were doing,” he said. “That hands-on experience and guidance was huge.”

The Accelerator also shaped ODIN’s team dynamic and work ethic. “Our team was big on momentum,” Heffler said. “We would always celebrate the little successes, even if they were really small, to propel things forward.”

By the time Demo Day rolled around, Heffler felt ready—and excited—to showcase ODIN’s progress and share a mission that’s deeply personal to him as a former football player who has seen firsthand the impact of concussions. 

“Pitching in front of all of those people was unlike anything I’d ever done before, but I was just excited because it’s something I am extremely passionate about. It hits close to home for me,” he said. 

His pitch skills had significantly improved over the summer, which he credited to the consistent feedback he received. “Night and day difference,” Heffler said.

Since the Accelerator, ODIN has continued to make significant strides. The team completed their minimum viable product (MVP) within three months, filed a provisional patent, accumulated 8 letters of intent from high schools across the state and won the People’s Choice Award at the Pacific Coast Business Times Innovation Awards event.

Now part of the CIE Incubator, ODIN continues to grow with long-term support. “[The Incubator] feels like a continuation of the Accelerator, but you get a wider net of resources and specific advisors in your space,” Heffler said. 

MindSprout

MindSprout is on a mission to help individuals struggling with gambling addiction replace destructive habits with healthier ones. Through a gamified mobile app, the startup aims to provide daily accountability and accessible support right at users’ fingertips.

Before the Accelerator, MindSprout competed in Innovation Quest and took home second place and a $10,000 prize. 

“Competing in Innovation Quest really validated our vision that this problem is real and people are invested in it,” said founder Diana Koralski. That validation encouraged her to apply for the Accelerator, where MindSprout would continue to evolve.

“The Accelerator provided incredible mentorship,” Koralski said. “We got assigned two awesome mentors, Jonathan York and Antonio Sylvia. Jonathan really helped us put together a business plan and determine how we’re gonna grow beyond just having a good idea. Antonio was really good with the technical stuff and could tell us a lot more about how to grow an app, how to get it out there on the marketplace, and what a natural growth would look like.”

Alongside mentorship, Koralski appreciated the community aspect of the program. “The Accelerator was really beneficial to meet like-minded people and draw ideas from them and get feedback from them because you’re all trying to figure it out together.”

By Demo Day, Koralski had developed a refined pitch, shaped by the feedback she’d received throughout both Innovation Quest and the Accelerator. “I was really nervous doing it, but there was not a doubt in my mind that it was something I could or couldn’t do,” she said. “It was something that I was going to do, even scared, but it happened and it was so rewarding.”

Just after the Accelerator ended, Koralski took on full leadership of the company. After parting ways professionally with her original co-founder, she committed to carrying MindSprout forward on her own. 

Since Demo Day, MindSprout has continued to grow. The team ran its first beta test and received insightful feedback, which prompted a full redesign of the app’s core features. 

“We’re focusing on urge surfing,” Koralski said. “The game aims to replicate the dopamine spike of gambling in a safer environment without monetary loss and also offers immediate support alongside long-term behavior change through tools like habit tracking.”

She also shared that the app is now fully embracing gamification, moving beyond just including gamified elements. With a new team of interns, each working on different concepts, MindSprout is working to create a full mind-body gameplay experience that connects progress in the app with real-life personal development.

Koralski also recently connected with the founder of their primary competitor app, who has provided additional mentorship and guidance. 

Reflecting on the journey, Koralski says the Accelerator gave her the confidence and mindset she needed to keep moving forward. “The Accelerator prepared me to stay curious and keep asking questions without judgment,” she said. “Being in that supportive community made me realize that people want you to succeed.”

Skymark Systems 

Skymark Systems is tackling a critical issue in modern warfare: helping soldiers distinguish between friendly and enemy drones. The startup is developing a handheld device that uses advanced radio frequency technology and military-grade encryption to identify small and medium-sized drones in real time—a game-changing tool for frontline defense.

The idea for the company emerged from co-founders Oleksandr Gorpynich and Matan Kedar’s personal connections to the conflicts in their home countries. “We looked into the wars in both of our homes and discovered that soldiers often can’t identify drones,” Kedar explained. “We believed we could engineer something to fix this.”

When Skymark entered the Accelerator, the team was heavily focused on the technical side of their product. However, through the program, they learned to shift their perspective. “The Accelerator taught us how to focus on the business aspect of everything,” Gorpynich said. “At first, we were focused on building the technology itself. By the end, we were more focused on identifying a real market for it.”

That shift in mindset proved to be one of the biggest takeaways from the experience. “When trying out any idea, the first step should be to research your market and figure out if this is something that people actually need,” Gorpynich said.

The team also saw major improvements in their pitch delivery over the course of the Accelerator. By Demo Day, their confidence and clarity had grown, helping them communicate the value of their idea more effectively to a broader audience.

Since completing the Accelerator, Gorpynich has returned to Cal Poly to finish his undergraduate degree and resume his internship at Amazon. For his senior project, he’s diving deeper into drone technology, with the goal of gaining more hands-on experience to support a future return to Skymark Systems after graduation. 

“I found a professor I really like who does cybersecurity at Cal Poly, so I decided to do my senior project with him,” he said. “Right now, I want to improve my technical skills, and maybe after graduation, focus again on the business side.”

Although the team discovered that the commercial drone defense market isn’t quite there yet, they’re confident that it will be in the near future. “In the meantime, what we’re doing is coming up with a few potential problems, a few potential solutions, and exploring them as more of a tech-related senior project,” Gorpynich said. 

The impact of the Accelerator continues to shape his approach. “It taught me what to look out for when doing market research,” Gorpynich said. He’s even shared what he learned with his professional contacts in Ukraine, hoping to make a difference with the knowledge he’s gained.

SafePlate Technologies 

SafePlate Technologies is working to revolutionize contaminant detection in the food manufacturing industry by streamlining testing and data management with innovative biosensor technology. Their device uses electrochemical aptamer-based sensors (EABs) to identify food contaminants, essentially taking advantage of the unique shape of each contaminant and capturing them with synthetic DNA strands.

The team behind SafePlate began working together during a senior project led by Dr. Thomas Katona, the CIE Academic Programs Director. With a shared passion for improving food safety, the four founders immediately clicked and began developing their solution.

After competing in Innovation Quest, the team decided to apply for the Accelerator. “The Accelerator gave us a better chance to spend more time on the business side and actually flush things out,” said Dann. “We also had to change the technology.”

Working alongside other student founders added another layer of support. “Getting to talk to the other teams and help each other out was one of the best parts,” Dann said.

For Dann, the biggest lesson was the reality check that startups are tough—progress isn’t always fast, and success isn’t guaranteed. “The work will always be hard and it requires a lot of drive,” he said. However, Demo Day reminded the team how far they had come. 

“Even though I was a bit nervous, I was just excited to share everything we’ve been working on. It was a great experience and we got in touch with great people.”

He credits the Accelerator for helping refine their pitch from something that “sounded like a school project” to one that represented a “legit startup.” “I’m super grateful for all the CIE and SBDC programs we’ve been in. They helped us go from a senior project to being a legitimate business, and they put us in a really good place after only three months,” he said.

Since the Accelerator, SafePlate has made significant strides: their technology is functional and moving into the next phase of testing, where they’ve been able to assess key factors like reusability, longevity and sensitivity. They’ve also spoken with representatives from two of the largest food safety companies in the industry, who expressed openness to potential funding or future acquisition. SafePlate recently secured $40,000 in a friends and family round and has officially formed an advisory board to support their continued growth.

Now part of the Incubator program, the team is continuing to build on the momentum from the Accelerator. “The Accelerator set the expectation for the number of hours we’d work and how many different things we’d be doing at once,” said Dann. “It showed how time-consuming it can be, but also how flexible and fun it is to work with people you like on something no one’s ever done before.”

GreenSight Technologies

GreenSight Technologies is tackling the growing issue of electronic waste by promoting a circular economy for used electronics. Their AI-powered platform helps refurbishers and resellers identify, evaluate, and resell devices more efficiently, keeping electronics out of landfills and making technology more accessible to all.

The idea for GreenSight Tech was born in the entrepreneurial senior project class, led by Dr. Thomas Katona. While exploring potential focus areas, the team discovered the staggering scale of electronic waste and set out to develop a tech-forward solution. 

Up until the Summer Accelerator, GreenSight Tech was still structured like a school project, but the Accelerator helped them make the leap to a legitimate business. “It propelled us forward with our product development,” Daniels said. “It also connected us with incredible resources and introduced us to advisors and like-minded entrepreneurs. That helped us shift out of the school mindset and into a space where we could really thrive.”

One of their biggest challenges was explaining the niche problem they were solving, as not everyone is familiar with what happens to old electronics. “It took us the whole summer to figure out how to explain what these companies do and the problem they’re facing,” Daniels said. “But by the end of the program, we could explain it clearly enough that our pitch actually made sense.”

That clarity came just in time for Demo Day. “It was an incredible platform for us,” Daniels said. “Pitching was thrilling. It was hard to fit all we’d done into a few minutes, but it was the perfect way to wrap up a really fun and productive summer.”

Since the Accelerator, GreenSight Tech has incorporated as a company, completed the final version of their mobile app, and is preparing for beta testing in April with four electronics recycling and refurbishment companies. The app enables technicians to snap a photo of a device, automatically identify it and receive a value estimate—helping them decide whether to recycle or resell. The team also raised initial funding and is preparing to scale the platform across more companies in the industry.

Reflecting on his Accelerator experience, Daniels said it gave him essential insight into what it takes to run a startup. “You just have to throw yourself out there and do it,” he said. “If you’re thinking about doing something like the Accelerator, you’ll never know if it’s the right fit—but you have to be willing to take that risk to find out. I was on the fence at first, but I followed my gut, and I don’t regret it at all.”

ONGAWA 

For Lucas Li, ONGAWA is more than just a startup — it’s a passion project rooted in his love for music, gaming and anime.

“I am a gamer, a musician and an anime lover, so I wanted to create something that I would really enjoy working on,” said Li, a recent computer science master’s graduate from Cal Poly.

Li is the founder and CEO of ONGAWA, a gaming software startup that fuses rhythm-based gameplay with role-playing elements. Beyond offering a one-of-a-kind gaming experience, ONGAWA supports independent musicians by showcasing and monetizing their work through the platform.

Li first pitched ONGAWA publicly at the CIE’s Elevator Pitch Competition in Fall 2023. The experience, he said, helped him learn how to speak about his product in a way that resonated beyond the technical details.

“Since the Elevator Pitch was my first exposure to business, I learned to convey my idea in simple terms and quickly capture people’s interest,” Li said. That experience encouraged him to apply for the Accelerator.

“Before the summer, we were just thinking about product development as a programmer, as a coder, and that’s it,” Li said. “During the Accelerator, we started to think more about the business perspective, like customer development, product market fit, and all of those sorts of things.”

Throughout the Accelerator, the ONGAWA team learned how to tailor their message for broader audiences and gained a better understanding of their market. Li said Demo Day was one of the most memorable experiences of the summer.

“Demo Day felt like an actual conversation,” he said. “I was looking at what’s happening on the audience’s face, trying to read through their impression and decide how I want to say my next sentence.”

Since the Accelerator, ONGAWA has continued to make strong progress. The team, which has grown to 15–20 members, is now running quarterly play tests to gather feedback and improve the product. Each play test involves 15 to 25 participants and focuses on a specific aspect of the game’s design or functionality. They’ve also collaborated with KCPR, Cal Poly’s student-run radio station, and have begun integrating a variety of new music genres into the game. In addition to building new environments and characters, they’ve significantly expanded their game assets—setting the stage for continued growth.

Everest Medical 

Shoulder dystocia occurs when a baby’s shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone during delivery, often resulting in serious complications such as clavicle fractures or nerve damage. Everest Medical is developing a handheld device designed to assist in these situations. The device gently wraps around the baby’s upper body, helping safely guide the infant out while working with the mother’s anatomy.

The startup joined the Accelerator in hopes of building their business. “Going into the Accelerator, we had an idea of what we thought a business could be, but we mainly had a solution to the problem and none of the structure to create a business around it,” Eissmann said. “As the Accelerator progressed, our team and concept developed and we really understood that outside of having an idea, there are all these other structures you need to put in place to develop a business.”

Throughout the summer, Eissmann found herself not only learning business fundamentals, but also growing personally even while facing physical challenges. “Having a broken foot at the same time was interesting too,” she said. “It was a little bit of exposure therapy for building confidence despite anything that’s going on, and still moving forward.”

From improving her public speaking to learning how to communicate her startup’s mission, Eissmann said the Accelerator helped her gain a new sense of confidence and professionalism.

“The pitch practice helped my public speaking skills and now I feel really confident anytime I have to go up and do some sort of presentation,” she said. “The Accelerator really improved my professionalism as well as my confidence in my abilities and in myself.”

The experience also pushed her out of her comfort zone. “The Accelerator really embodies being willing to learn and being willing to not know everything, because that’s when you find the best opportunity for improvement,” she said.

Since Demo Day, Eissmann and her team have continued building their business. The startup has competed in several pitch competitions, advancing to the semifinals or finals, and completed its first round of validation testing—proving the mechanics of the device and confirming its viability. Everest Medical also conducted ergonomic evaluations with two different OB-GYNs to get feedback on how the device could be improved for real-world use.

In addition, the team won the Tom Leben’s Patent Award through the Accelerator and has been working closely with Leben to prepare their materials to file a provisional patent. They’ve officially incorporated as a company and are actively seeking funding to help bring their device to market.

“I would not be able to run a business without the Accelerator,” Eissmann said. “The amount of information we learned in just those 12 weeks is more practical than a lot of what I had learned through my entire education.”

Eissmann is currently finishing her master’s degree in engineering management and recently completed her master’s project. In April, Everest Medical will join the Incubator program, where Eissmann hopes to keep the progress going.

“I’m really excited to start the Incubator because it’ll really help launch us forward which is what we need in terms of funding, specifically,” she said.

For Eissmann, the Accelerator not only gave her the tools to build a business; it taught her how to understand the world of innovation, intellectual property and entrepreneurship in a deeply practical way.

“Without the Accelerator, I would not have the understanding of patent law that I do now,” she said. “That’s a really valuable skill in my field because that’s where a lot of innovation lies.”

NeuroCom 

NeuroCom is creating a wearable tactile interface designed to improve communication and situational awareness for first responders and military personnel. The device operates through sensory substitution, a technique that enhances one sense by replacing or augmenting it with another. In this case, NeuroCom’s product uses tactile and haptic feedback to convey location information—making it the first of its kind in this specialized field.

NeuroCom’s product is designed for use by military personnel, law enforcement officers, and firefighters, helping them better understand their surroundings even when traditional visual or auditory cues aren’t sufficient.

Solo-founder Alex Rosenbaum has participated in multiple events at the CIE, from the Biomedical Make-a-Thon (where he won twice) and the iQ competition to the Accelerator program.

Rosenbaum found the Accelerator to be transformative for his startup, especially in refining his approach to targeting the right customers. “The Accelerator helped us gain clarity about who we need to sell to, as opposed to just who the product is going to be used by,” he said. “We were pushed to talk to more of the stakeholders, not just the end users, which is especially important when you’re selling to the state or government.”

Rosenbaum’s journey to Demo Day also marked a significant shift in how he pitches his business. “The main shift between my first pitch and Demo Day is that it was less of an engineering presentation and more of a business pitch, so there was a lot less focus on the technical aspects and more of creating a story around the product and the vision for what the company will become.”

Since completing the Accelerator, Rosenbaum has expanded his team, bringing on software engineers and looking to recruit computer engineers and electrical engineers. This expansion comes as he gathers more feedback from industry stakeholders about where NeuroCom’s product will be most impactful. “We’ve doubled or tripled the amount of people we’ve talked to with relevant experience in the space,” Rosenbaum said. “We’re forming a better picture of how our product fits into the strategic vision of search and rescue, fire, and military.”

Rosenbaum has also attended several key conferences, including the Joint Interagency Field Exchange Program, and is working on setting up product tests with various armed forces teams and offices. This ongoing feedback is crucial as Rosenbaum is currently in the phase of testing the market and refining the product across different industries.

“The Accelerator helped me run my business when it comes to the long-term vision and planning through milestones instead of planning to milestones,” Rosenbaum said. With his product gaining traction and industry interest, Rosenbaum is now looking to expand his team further. “We’re looking for talented electrical engineers, computer engineers, mechanical engineers and firmware engineers to join the team.”

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A chance meeting of two young immigrants fueled not only a lifelong friendship, but a deep-rooted entrepreneurial spirit. 

Oleksandr Gorpynich and Matan Kedar immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine and Israel, respectively, as 10-year-olds. They met in middle school and bonded over their shared backgrounds and passion for science and technology. 

As they began exploring the world of innovation together, they discovered a challenge that both of their home countries faced: drone identification on the battlefield. This realization led to the creation of Skymark Systems. 

Skymark Systems is developing a handheld device that helps soldiers determine whether a drone is friendly or foe. By using advanced radio frequency technology and military-grade encryption, their device can accurately identify small and medium-sized drones in real time, addressing a critical need in modern warfare. 

The idea for their startup was born out of Gorpynich and Kedar’s personal experiences and deep understanding of the conflicts in their home countries. 

“We looked into the wars in both of our homes and discovered that soldiers often can’t identify drones. We believed we could engineer something to fix this,” Kedar explained. 

Gorpynich and Kedar’s unique backgrounds have proven invaluable to their startup’s development, they said. 

“We’re already talking to soldiers on the ground through our connections about the prototype. Ultimately, this will tell us if the tool is useful,” Gorpynich said. 

Their internal connections have played a significant role in Skymark’s progress, but equally critical is the wide variety of skills each team member brings to the table. 

Kedar, a computer engineering junior at San Jose State University, serves as the CEO of Skymark Systems. Before this, he spent a year and a half working in embedded systems for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

Gorpynich, a computer science junior at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), is the CTO of Skymark Systems and brings over a year of experience as a software engineer for Amazon. 

Joining Gorpynich and Kedar is Vasanth Pugalenthi, a computer science junior at Cal Poly who works as Skymark’s Business Lead.

Pugalenthi has founded several apps, worked as a software developer on various projects and is currently a generative artificial intelligence (AI) intern for Ryght. 

“I decided to join Skymark because I believe in the team and their vision. They are committed to making this happen,” Pugalenthi said. “It ensures that they aren’t going to give up; to me, the team is more important than the idea.” 

The team recognized that they needed more resources to bring Skymark to life, which led them to apply for the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Summer Accelerator program, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. 

Participants receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“We realized we desperately needed the resources to get a working prototype that we can ship to people,” Gorpynich said. “I talked to a few previous participants who also encouraged us to apply.” 

According to the U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Michael Pruden, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been mistakenly shooting down nearly half of their own drones — a problem that Skymark aims to solve with their innovative technology.  

“There are currently some existing solutions to the problem we are tackling, but none of them, at least how we look at it, look as good as ours,” Kedar explained. “We have patent-pending status on both of our devices, and we believe what makes us special is the device, the solution and our team.”

Skymark is set to begin testing their product in Ukraine. Eventually, they hope to make their device universal and integrable for potential sale to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). 

From their shared history of immigration to their collaboration as startup founders, Gorpynich and Kedar are using their skills to address a critical issue close to home. 

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

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Technology is at the forefront of our society, driving continuous progress and innovation. However, this rapid advancement has led to a growing problem: electronic waste. As devices become obsolete at an alarming rate, the question of what happens to them after their use becomes increasingly urgent. 

A group of four California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) students is developing a solution to tackle this issue. 

Their startup, GreenSight Tech, is dedicated to promoting a circular economy for electronics. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)-driven automation, they aim to help electronic refurbishers and resellers efficiently process, redistribute and remarket used devices — keeping them out of landfills and making technology accessible to all. 

The startup began in the entrepreneurial senior project class led by the Center for Innovation and Entreprenurship’s (CIE) Academic Programs Director, Dr. Thomas Katona. When researching what they wanted to focus on, they discovered how electronic waste is a massive problem that is growing rapidly. 

“The rate at which electronics are being produced is outpacing the rate at which they’re being responsibly recycled by five times in the last ten years. We immediately knew we wanted to see if there was something that could be done about it,” CTO Diego Curiel (computer engineering, ‘24) explained. 

The team behind GreenSight is a diverse group of technical experts who share a passion for environmental sustainability. 

Jake Daniels (general engineering, ‘24) is the CEO of GreenSight, and spearheads customer development while working closely with potential early adopters. 

As CTO, Curiel assists Daniels with customer development and oversees the generative AI and computer vision workflows. 

Chris Lawson (computer science, ‘24) serves as the team’s Engineering Lead, designing the system architecture for their products while leading a group of four software engineer interns. 

Mackenzie Kettwig (computer engineering, ‘24) is the newest member of the team and is GreenSight’s Product Manager, bridging the gap between the engineering and business sides of the startup. 

Coming out of senior project, the team decided to participate in the CIE’s Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas to a panel of judges in the hopes of winning funding for their startups. 

iQ gave them valuable experience in pitching their ideas which led them to apply for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. 

Participants receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“The support that the Accelerator offers has been crucial in taking our business to the next level,” said Daniels. 

For Curiel, his Accelerator experience can be best described with one word — fun!

“It’s a lot of work and it’s tiring, but it’s really exciting. We are creating something that is meaningful and valuable. Being able to wake up every day and know that I’m going to spend my time putting energy into something that will bring good into the world makes me really happy,” Curiel said.

GreenSight’s innovation lies in its use of artificial intelligence to revolutionize how electronic devices are processed after they’ve been discarded. 

“None of our competitors, or really anyone in this space, is using AI to solve their problems,” Lawson explained. “They’re using old systems that could be working faster and processing more devices to keep them out of landfills with the technology we’re bringing to the market.” 

As the startup works towards delivering an early version of their software products to initial customers, their long-term vision is to actively reshape the electronics industry by reducing the number of devices that end up in landfills and promote sustainability, said Daniels. 

GreenSight’s camaraderie fuels their collective drive to tackle the pressing issue of electronic waste and sets a new standard for how technology and AI can be used to create a better, more sustainable future. 

“We are the team to solve this problem because we all really care about the environment. It’s part of the passion for our project and it’s what keeps us coming to work everyday,” Kettwig said. 

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

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In the world of startups where collaboration and teamwork often take center stage, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) mechanical engineer Alex Rosenbaum stands as a solo entrepreneur. As the sole founder of NeuroCom, Rosenbaum is not only developing a wearable device but is also mastering the multifaceted role that comes with running a startup by himself. 

NeuroCom is developing a wearable tactile interface device designed to enhance communication and situational awareness for military personnel, law enforcement officers and firefighters. 

His startup came to fruition after learning about the field of sensory substitution, the process of substituting or augmenting one sense by replacing it with stimulation from another sense. 

“I wanted to find applications for this technology in ways that can help people,” Rosenbaum explained. 

NeuroCom stands out in its field as the only product that uses tactile and haptic sense to communicate location information. 

As a mechanical engineering student, Rosenbaum didn’t initially envision himself as an entrepreneur. His journey began unexpectedly when he participated in the Cal Poly Biomedical Make-a-Thon, which opened him up to the world of startup opportunities on campus, he recalled. 

Sponsored by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), the Biomedical Make-a-Thon provides students with the opportunity to work in teams of 4-6 designers and commercializers to research, develop, design and present a solution to a medical problem in a fast-paced, three-day event. 

Rosenbaum participated in this event twice and won both times for his unique and innovative ideas. These ranged from a biometric scanning device for fast, non-contact readings of blood pressure, glucose and heart rates to an ear-mounted device that detects fainting in people with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). 

This experience built a strong foundation for his entrepreneurial journey and led him to apply for the CIE’s Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas to a panel of judges in the hopes of winning funding for their startups. 

After pitching two different startup ideas at iQ, one of which being NeuroCom, Rosenbaum decided to take the next steps to turn his concept into a real business through the CIE Summer Accelerator.

The Accelerator is an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. 

Participants receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“I was inspired to apply for the Summer Accelerator because I wanted to take my business to the next level, from initial prototype to nailing down and validating my target market,” Rosenbaum explained. 

Despite the obstacles that solopreneurs face without having a full team to rely on, Rosenbaum has made significant strides in advancing NeuroCom with the support of the CIE. 

“Because I’m a mechanical engineer, transitioning into the business side of a startup has been challenging. It wouldn’t be possible without all the resources from the Hatchery and CIE that you can access before you’re in the Accelerator program and without taking any classes at all,” he said. 

The Hatchery is an on-campus startup incubator that provides student entrepreneurs with the resources to launch a business idea. 

Not only has he utilized the resources that the CIE offers, but the community within the Accelerator cohort. “It’s been so important to talk to other people in the Accelerator program and bounce my ideas off them,” said Rosenbaum. He explained that as a solo founder, having other entrepreneurs around has been essential to his experience. 

Rosenbaum recently began working with contractor and Cal Poly alumnus Colin Brown (economics, ‘23) to delegate certain tasks, allowing him to focus on his priorities and ensure the business is headed in the right direction, he said. 

Rosenbaum’s ambition with NeuroCom extends beyond developing a wearable device, but contributes to a future where technology enhances human capabilities. His pursuit of this goal showcases the potential of solopreneurs in shaping the future.

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

# # #

Recent California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) business entrepreneurship graduate Austin Hatfield witnessed his longtime best friend fall into a video game addiction. When it escalated to gambling, the situation worsened, and their friendship couldn’t survive the fallout. 

Experiencing this loss ignited a passionate drive in Hatfield to create a solution to the pervasive issue of addiction, leading to the birth of MindSprout. 

MindSprout is a startup focused on helping gambling addicts replace their destructive habits with healthier ones through a gamified approach that incorporates cognitive behavioral therapy. Their app aims to provide daily accountability and resources at users’ fingertips. 

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), cognitive behavioral therapy is a psychological treatment proven effective for various issues including depression, anxiety and substance abuse through self-help strategies. It is often as effective, or more effective, than other therapies or medications. 

Hatfield, MindSprout’s co-founder and CPO, teamed up with recent Cal Poly computer science and business entrepreneurship graduate Diana Koralski, who now leads the company as CEO. Their partnership began in January when Hatfield approached Koralski with the startup idea.

Koralski and Hatfield met through the Hatchery, an on-campus startup incubator that provides student entrepreneurs with the resources to launch a business idea. 

What was supposed to be a brief meeting between Koralski and Hatfield turned into a two-hour conversation. Their collaboration was further solidified during Camp PolyHacks where they worked seamlessly together.

Camp PolyHacks is a three-day event where Cal Poly students work in teams to ideate, design, pitch and market their solution to a problem facing the San Luis Obispo community. 

Shortly after Camp PolyHacks, MindSprout competed in the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas to a panel of judges in the hopes of winning funding for their startups. 

The startup received the second place award of $10,000. “Competing in Innovation Quest really validated our vision that this problem is real and people are invested in it,” said Koralski. 

Encouraged by the financial support and validation of iQ, they applied for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. 

Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

MindSprout is initially targeting gambling addiction but plans to expand its scope to address other addictions and mental health challenges, such as anxiety and depression.

This startup stands out in the mental health market by breaking the stigma surrounding therapy.

“What makes us unique is that we won’t look, feel or function like a traditional mental health or therapy app. It’ll be something that just fits into your hand and fits into your life,” Hatfield explained. 

MindSprout’s innovative approach, combining cognitive behavioral therapy with a gamified user experience, aims to revolutionize addiction treatment by making it accessible, engaging and supportive, ultimately helping individuals reclaim their lives from addiction. 

“Through the Summer Accelerator, my customer development research has really connected me to the problem and makes me more passionate about solving it. That’s why I come here and do this every day,” said Koralski. 

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

# # #

In the startup world, it’s widely accepted that passion is a key ingredient for success. Some mentors may ask young entrepreneurs to dig deep and find the passion that drives their work. 

For recent computer science master’s graduate from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) Lucas Li, this question doesn’t require much introspection. His startup, ONGAWA, is a direct manifestation of his greatest passions. 

ONGAWA is breaking new ground in the gaming world by creating a fusion game that combines rhythm gaming with role-playing elements. Not only does ONGAWA offer a unique gaming experience, it also supports indie musicians by showcasing and monetizing their work. 

“I am a gamer, a musician and an anime enthusiast, so I wanted to create something that I would really enjoy working on,” Li explained. 

His journey began when he teamed up with Brett Hickman, a recent Cal Poly computer science graduate, and the CTO of ONGAWA. Having already collaborated on several gaming projects in the past, their shared passions led to the development of their startup. 

“We both love gaming and we both love music, so we decided to merge the two and create ONGAWA,” Hickman shared. 

In the fall of 2023, Li pitched this startup at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Elevator Pitch Competition where students of any major can pitch their innovative product, service and startup ideas in 90 seconds for the chance to win cash prizes. 

“As a computer science major, I was accustomed to describing the full technical side of things, often overlooking the business perspective such as the demand for a product,” Li said. “Since the Elevator Pitch was my first exposure to business, I learned to convey my idea in simple terms and quickly capture people’s interest.” 

Li explained that the Elevator Pitch Competition validated his startup idea and encouraged him to apply for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator program, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. 

Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

Li recognized the team’s strength in coding and programming skills, but the need for work on the business development side of ONGAWA. He hopes to further learn and develop this aspect of his startup from the Accelerator’s resources and mentorship, he said. 

As co-founder and CEO, Li is responsible for hiring, project management and maintaining the overall vision of the game. He also helps manage communication between various internal teams such as game development and web development. 

As co-founder and CTO, Hickman leads a team of four in game development by hosting workshops throughout the week to help build the foundation of the game. 

Joining Li and Hickman are senior business administration students at Cal Poly, Jeremy Tai and Pedro Talavera. 

Tai acts as the company’s Business Lead and focuses on customer development. 

Talavera is ONGAWA’s Marketing Lead, focusing on the social media marketing aspect of the startup and connecting with potential music and art collaborators.

In the next three months, the team hopes to have a fully built Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the game as well as a fully functional website. They are also planning to work with gamers to gather feedback on the demo and interview musicians and graphic artists to enhance the game’s visuals. 

Looking ahead, ONGAWA’s vision includes releasing a prototype of the game by the end of the Accelerator program. In the next five years, they want to create a polished and immersive role-playing experience.

What sets ONGAWA apart is best described by CEO Li. “ONGAWA is a merge between a traditional rhythm game and RPG elements, which is a big market. We also support indie musicians by collaborating with them and paying per stream,” Li stated. 

By integrating indie music, ONGAWA not only provides a platform for emerging artists but also enriches the gaming experience with original soundtracks and design.

ONGAWA is making a significant impact in the gaming industry, offering a fresh and engaging way to experience music, art and gameplay. 

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.  

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