ARTIFEX co-founders (left to right): Anna Baytosh and Elijah Williams. Photo by Willa Westneat.

Elijah Williams and Anna Baytosh are reimagining the architectural process with their startup ARTIFEX. 

“The tools that architects use to draw existing buildings are very outdated and don’t represent the technological innovations that have happened in parallel sectors, such as construction, mining and trucking,” Williams said. “All different sorts of technology fields have progressed long past the tools that are used in architecture.”

Williams and Baytosh are introducing similar technology to the architecture sector through easy-to-use, direct workflow integration hardware.

Their first product, the AFX-10, “directly replaces the tools that [architects] already use, so there are no extra steps,” Baytosh said. “No technician needs to come in and teach them how to use it.”

Williams graduated from the Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) in 2020 with an undergraduate degree, then again in 2021 with his master’s degree. 

The idea for ARTIFEX originated during his master’s research. He analyzed the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) scanners, which use light in the form of a pulsed laser to collect measurements. ARTIFEX is now applying this technology to the architectural space, increasing its affordability and accessibility.

Williams took the idea for ARTIFEX to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Hatchery, an on-campus incubator that connects Cal Poly students with the resources needed for a startup to succeed, where he met Baytosh.

Baytosh graduated from Chico State in 2018 with a degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations. Following her graduation, she worked in New York at an investor relations firm before returning to California to earn her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Cal Poly. 

“I really love the process of creating a company by building a business model around passionately representing the solution to an industry-specific problem,” Baytosh said. 

She reached out to CIE Director of Student Innovation Programs, Jose Huitron, who connected her with Williams.

“Elijah needed a business context for his in-depth research, and I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, but didn’t have an idea to work with,” Baytosh said. 

ARTIFEX competed in Innovation Quest (iQ), an annual business plan and prototyping competition hosted by the CIE, in April of 2021. They won the second-place prize of $10,000.

Following their success at iQ, the team joined the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates turn their startup ideas into real, viable business ventures. 

ARTIFEX was one of nine startup teams, and the only remote team, accepted into the Summer Accelerator. 

The Summer Accelerator connects participating teams with mentors who share their expertise and experience. This mentorship is proving valuable to the ARTIFEX team, providing Williams and Baytosh with insight into both the startup industry and the architecture industry.

“The people who they pair us with are so experienced and share such a vast array of knowledge,” Baytosh said. “They were not only deeply involved in their respective industries, but were entrepreneurial within those sectors, which takes extra courage, collaboration and teamwork.”

ARTIFEX is also working with their mentors to prepare for Demo Day, the culmination of the Summer Accelerator program where the teams showcase what they have accomplished throughout the summer and pitch their startup plans. Their mentors are helping the ARTIFEX team fine-tune their business plan and pitch deck before Demo Day on September 14.

Working with their mentors is “good practice” for pitching to investors, according to Baytosh.

“These 13 weeks are just one big practice session for the real deal,” she said.

To keep up with ARTIFEX, visit artifex.tools  or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

TractorCloud co-founders Roxanne Miller (left) and Morgan Swanson (right).

Morgan Swanson and Roxanne Miller are helping farmers manage their equipment with greater ease and efficiency. Their startup TractorCloud is developing a hardware-software solution that will help operations managers monitor predictive maintenance of their vehicles. 

The idea for TractorCloud originated when Swanson, who will be graduating from Cal Poly in 2022 with a B.S. in computer engineering and an M.S. in computer science, learned that there was a widespread problem in the agricultural community, with farmers not knowing how to repair their own equipment.

“As an engineer, I thought there had to be a technological solution to this problem, and I worked really hard to find that solution,” said Swanson, TractorCloud’s CEO. “Eventually, I found a bunch of other problems that farmers were having with their equipment and I got really attached to the idea of helping farmers manage their equipment better.”

Swanson never expected to become involved in entrepreneurship prior to TractorCloud.

“I never wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he admitted. “It wasn’t until I realized that I would have to start a company in order to achieve my goals, that I realized I would have to learn these skills of entrepreneurship.”

Entrepreneurship was also an unexpected choice for Miller, who graduated from Cal Poly in 2021 with a B.S. in animal science and an M.S. in computer science. Her computer science education, however, taught her the value of product development, which prepared her for her current role as TractorCloud’s head of product.

“Through my computer science education, I realized that I really value being able to build something that I care about,” she said. “Being able to connect with customers and deliver them something that is going to change their lives ended up meaning a lot to me.”

The two co-founders recruited 2021 liberal arts and engineering studies graduate Takumi Arai and 2021 electrical engineering graduates Jin Huang and Kyle Kesler to develop their product.

The TractorCloud team is now working with the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) to further develop their startup. They were one of nine startup teams chosen to participate in the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

The Summer Accelerator exemplifies the Cal Poly ‘Learn by Doing’ motto, providing teams with practical experience and applicable knowledge of the startup process.

“It’s been amazing going to [Summer Accelerator] sessions and learning something, and then we’re applying it tomorrow,” Miller said. “That’s helping me learn and grow much faster than just reading a book.”

The TractorCloud team is finding value in the relationships they’ve formed through the Summer Accelerator. The program creates countless networking opportunities for the team and connects them with mentors who can help guide them through the obstacles inherent in the startup process.

“Being able to stand there every week, face to face with someone who’s done this before, is extremely valuable,” Swanson said. “There’s immeasurable value that you can get from the right people at the right time, and the CIE has been instrumental in forming those connections.”

Participating in the Summer Accelerator is not only helping TractorCloud develop as a startup, but helping each team member grow as an entrepreneur. The program allows the team to explore the ins and outs of the entrepreneurial world, and that exploration has cemented their passion for entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurship, for me, is the quickest path to causing big change in the world,” Swanson said. “I want to influence the future of what we do as humans, and entrepreneurship seems like one potential and really powerful way of doing that.”

To keep up with TractorCloud, visit tractorcloud.io, follow them on Instagram at @tractorcloud or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14. 

Intego Technology co-founders Samuel Andrews (left) and Alexandra Joelson (right). Photo by Willa Westneat.

Third year business administration major Alexandra Joelson and third year environmental management and protection major Samuel Andrews are on a mission to create the most durable and sustainable footwear on the market with their startup Intego Technology, formerly Intego Sports.

“Shoes don’t last as long as people really want them to, and the core problem is delamination, which is the separation of the upper and the sole of the shoe,” Joelson explained.

Intego Technology is looking to solve this issue with their patent-pending manufacturing process that will increase a shoe’s lifetime threefold.

The idea for Intego Technology originated when Joelson was in high school. Years of playing soccer showed her firsthand the quick deterioration of athletic footwear. 

Her initial solution to the problem was a product she called the Cleat Guard, a silicone-like mold that adhered to the bottom of a cleat to prevent the studs on the bottom from wearing down. Joelson pitched the idea for the Cleat Guard at the 2019 Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Elevator Pitch Competition, a fast-paced competition where students are given 90 seconds to pitch their innovation and startup ideas. She won the first place prize of $1,000.

“The judges asked me what I was going to do with the money [and suggested] I should start a company,” Joelson said. 

She acted on their advice and began forming a team. She recruited Andrews, and together, they took Intego Technology to Startup Marathon, a 54-hour long event hosted by the Cal Poly Entrepreneurs at which student innovators work through the weekend to develop a startup idea. The Intego team won the first place prize of $750 with an idea for shoes with interchangeable soles.

“I had no idea that I was going to be involved in entrepreneurship at all in college,” Andrews said. “Then I joined Alexandra’s team for Startup Marathon, and from there, we kept building and growing, and I really grew to love it and decided this was something I wanted to carry through.”

Intego Technology pivoted a number of times since Startup Marathon. The CIE Summer Accelerator program is helping the team navigate their most recent pivot, which will allow them to focus on licensing footwear technology as opposed to operating as a sporting goods company.

The CIE Summer Accelerator is an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses. The Intego team first applied to the program in 2020 under an earlier version of their startup idea, but was not accepted. They spent the following year working on and improving their business and reapplied in 2021.

“After pivots, focusing on our business model and ensuring that we developed our product and our technology, we knew that we had a more developed business,” Andrews said. “We really wanted to grow over the summer, so [the Summer Accelerator] was the perfect opportunity. We reapplied and we were accepted.”

The resources afforded by the Summer Accelerator are proving valuable to the growth of Intego Technology. The mentors that the Intego Technology team are meeting and the relationships formed through their involvement with the CIE are especially beneficial, according to Andrews.

“Some of the mentors that we’ve had access to through the CIE have been absolutely incredible and massively influential to our business,” he said. “Having them as a resource and having their advice has made our business process better overall.”

The Summer Accelerator also creates an “immersive environment” that allows the Intego Technology team to surround themselves with “a bunch of like-minded individuals and entrepreneurs,” said Joelson. The fast-paced, collaborative environment fuels creativity and inspires hard work and innovation.

The Intego Technology team developed their technology, confirmed the manufacturability of their product and filed a utility patent. Now just a few months out from having their patent published, both Joelson and Andrews are looking forward to having a manufactured prototype to share with consumers.

“A great part of entrepreneurship is solving a problem and being able to make an impact,” Joelson said. “We’re trying to solve a big problem right now, and it’s fascinating to be able to talk to consumers and see how your solution can really impact their lives.”

To keep up with Intego Technology, visit www.integosports.com, follow them on Instagram @integosports or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

Zoetic Running co-founders Zeeshan Khan (left) and Ivet Avalos (right). Photo by Willa Westneat.

Recent mechanical engineering graduate Ivet Avalos and computer science master’s student Zeeshan Khan are helping runners move pain-free with their startup Zoetic Running.

“We’re trying to figure out how runners’ muscles are acting and reacting when they put pressure on their body [and] if there are any certain actions that cause pain or injury,” Khan explained. “Our solution will show [runners] how they can improve their form, improve their pain and run injury-free.”

The idea originated when Avalos and Khan took Experience Building a Startup, a Cal Poly senior project course in which business and engineering students spend three academic quarters building their own startup. Avalos and Khan, along with three other classmates, wanted to use the class as an opportunity to explore the pain points of runners.

“We interviewed a lot of runners and found how much of an issue injury was and how much [injured runners] hated being taken away from running,” Avalos said. “We started looking into the physiology and the causes of injury. We wanted to be able to provide people with a solution to minimize injuries.”

That solution came in the form of wearable injury-prevention technology.

The Zoetic Running team took their idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) in April of 2021. They applied to Innovation Quest (iQ), an annual business plan and innovation competition hosted by the CIE, but were not accepted.

“After we got rejected from Innovation Quest, we were super disheartened, but we couldn’t give up,” Khan said. “We still had to finish our senior project. But as we started making progress, our passion for the project increased.”

Then, the Zoetic Running team learned of the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates turn their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

“When we saw the application for the Accelerator program, it was just something that fit, and we were really excited,” Khan said.

He and Avalos applied to the program and were one of nine startup teams accepted.

The Summer Accelerator program connects participating startups with industry experts who provide mentorship and guidance. This mentorship is proving extremely valuable to the Zoetic Running team — as are the other teams involved in the program.

“Everything is a learning opportunity,” Khan said. “Sometimes you’re able to see how other people are working in their startups and learn what they’re doing right or what they’re doing wrong, then apply that same logic towards your startup.”

The Summer Accelerator also provides participating teams with a workspace in the CIE office known as the SLO HotHouse, located in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo. The HotHouse is filled with high energy throughout the summer, with startup teams using their provided office space to brainstorm, work and collaborate. 

The HotHouse, according to Avalos, is filled with “people who are really passionate and excited, so it’s a fun environment to be in.” 

Working out of the HotHouse also gives the Zoetic Running team easy access to CIE resources, which helps them grow their startup quickly and efficiently.

“We’re able to make mistakes in a confined space with the resources we need to move forward with our project,” Khan said. 

Zoetic Running is still in its early stages, working on research and development and interviewing prospective customers. Avalos and Khan are looking forward to developing their startup idea into a full-fledged business. Both are eager to create a viable product for consumers and help runners move pain-free.

“I’m really excited to get people using our products,” Avalos said. “I’m excited to see if [consumers] actually like what we came up with and how they interact [with our product]. I’m really excited to get to that stage.”

To keep up with Zoetic Running, follow them on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/zoeticruns or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

Kit & Sis co-founders (from left to right): Madeline Pollock, Kate Lally, Gabrielle Pollock. Photo by Willa Westneat.

Third-year Cal Poly business administration majors Madeline and Gabrielle Pollock and their childhood friend Kate Lally, a second year at Stonehill College, are inspiring creativity with their startup Kit & Sis, formerly AG Sisters.

Kit & Sis encourages young girls to explore their creativity through crafting with subscription craft boxes as well as both in-person and virtual summer camps. The summer camps, led by Madeline, Gabrielle and Kate, provide attendees with a three-day immersive experience centered around crafting doll accessories.

“We’re teaching [young girls] to use their hands, get creative and make their own doll accessories while having a creative experience and being resourceful,” Madeline said.

Madeline, Gabrielle and Kate grew up playing with American Girl dolls, but it wasn’t until 2013, when they were packing away their dolls for storage, that they realized they had crafted most of their doll accessories themselves. The realization inspired them to found Kit & Sis and share their crafting expertise with young girls everywhere.

“I’m always blown away by the fact that we were three 13-year-old girls who thought, ‘Let’s make an American Girl doll summer camp’ [and] somehow figured out how to do it,” Madeline said. “It’s just so cool that we’re able to use our hands and our minds and create something to help others.”

Kit & Sis experienced significant growth in 2020 when, with the rise of COVID-19 and the implementation of nationwide shelter-in-place orders, parents turned to their virtual summer camp to keep their daughters entertained during the quarantine. This unanticipated growth inspired the Kit Sis to take their idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

The CIE and the Summer Accelerator program provides the Kit & Sis team with valuable resources that are helping them grow their startup. The expert mentorship from CIE staff and industry professionals have been especially helpful, said Gabrielle.

“We love the entrepreneurial opportunities here,” she said. “There’s so much freedom to go where we want to go with our company and so much fantastic support… The most helpful resources have been all of the amazing speakers that have come in. We’ve learned so much from them.”

The Summer Accelerator has not only helped the Kit & Sis founders develop their business, but has helped them to grow as entrepreneurs, independent from their startup.

“Sometimes I struggle with making decisions and I want someone to tell me what to do,” Kate said. “To be in an environment where people aren’t necessarily telling us what to do, but guiding us, is helping me learn how to [make decisions] myself,” Kate said.

The Summer Accelerator has provided the Kit & Sis team with practical lessons in developing a startup, as well as emphasized the value of entrepreneurship.

“The power of entrepreneurship is your ability to create something out of nothing, and I think that’s really powerful,” Gabrielle said. “It’s going to stick with me the rest of my life, knowing I have the power to change things for myself.”

The Kit & Sis team intends to continue growing their business, even after the Summer Accelerator comes to a close. The lessons learned through the program will help them to expand their impact efficiently and effectively.

“We are dreamers and we have so many ideas of ways to grow our business,” Madeline said. “I’m excited about bringing these dreams to life and helping inspire more girls to be creative [and] seeing what the three of us can do together.”

Working and growing together, as a team, is important to the Kit & Sis team. 

“I think a lot of people talk about how business relationships shouldn’t be personal and you [need to] keep your space,” Gabrielle said. “It’s the opposite for us. If I wasn’t so close to [Madeline and Kate], we wouldn’t be here.”

The Kit & Sis founders rely on each other for support when navigating difficulties in entrepreneurship. Their close relationship, they attested, is integral to their success as a startup.

“One thing that motivates us to keep going when we hit a roadblock or an obstacle is each other,” Kate said. “We discuss problems together and make decisions as a team. Working as a team is really important to our dynamic as a business.”

Gabrielle echoed similar sentiments.

“Obviously the Kit & Sis means so much to me as a company, but [Madeline and Kate] mean even more,” Gabrielle said. “When we face obstacles in our company, we all have the same values in what this means to us and we’re going to help each other no matter what.”

To keep up with Kit & Sis, visit kitandsis.com, follow them on Instagram @kitandsis.official or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

OdinXR co-founders (left to right): Ali Mohammad, Tessa Luzuriaga, Michaela Whitcomb-Weston. Photo by Willa Westneat.

When fourth year electrical engineering major Tessa Luzuriaga was approached by a Cal Poly professor struggling to teach his labs in a virtual format, she set out to create a new and more effective method of online learning. 

Together with sixth year computer engineering major Ali Mohammad, sixth year graphic design transfer Michaela Whitcomb-Weston and fourth year electrical engineering major Ruben Curiel, Luzuriaga founded OdinXR, an educational virtual reality company developing a virtual sandbox for science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) students and professors.

“We’re focusing on creating a sandbox experience in which professors can teach a lab however they want,” Luzuriaga said. “Students can go into this lab and conduct any experiment that they need to because we’ve created the digital twins, we’ve created the equipment and we’ve given them a space to do so.”

OdinXR will provide STEM students with hands-on learning opportunities that most online classes lack.

“We were inspired by the Cal Poly ‘Learn by Doing’ mantra,” Whitcomb-Weston said. “Virtual learning today is very theory-based. We want to give students the opportunity to work with their hands and understand the practicality and application behind the theory.”

OdinXR was one of nine startup teams accepted into the 2021 Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

The Summer Accelerator is helping the OdinXR team navigate the startup process, providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to build a successful business. 

“When we looked into this program, it was made up of professors and other students and people local to San Luis Obispo,” Mohammad said. “It was a lot easier to trust them, and that was really nice because when we were first starting up, there were a lot of things we didn’t know.”

The resources afforded through the Summer Accelerator have proven valuable to the OdinXR team, the funding helping them to further develop their technology and the workshops helping them to develop their business model. The mentors and guest speakers, however, have proven most valuable, according to Luzuriaga.

“The community we build here, that networking is superb,” she said. “It’s so nice to hear from other people and have the insight of successful entrepreneurs who had a lot of failures before they had that one home-run. Seeing that in front of you and meeting those people is so much better than just hearing about their story online.”

While the Summer Accelerator is centered around entrepreneurship, the program offers participants a chance to grow not only as entrepreneurs, but as professionals. The lessons that Whitcomb-Weston has learned through the program feel relevant to a number of disciplines outside of business and entrepreneurship, she said.

“I don’t necessarily know if entrepreneurship is for me in the future,” Whitcomb-Weston admitted. “But I know that everything I’m learning here, these are skills that are going to help me no matter what, not just in entrepreneurship.”

Their introduction to the intricacies of entrepreneurship has also helped the OdinXR team to gain confidence as entrepreneurs.

“The opposite of fear is competency,” Mohammad said. “Once you have the skills, there’s very little reason to be afraid anymore.”

OdinXR helped Luzuriaga find a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation, and she encourages others with that passion to act on it.

“You’ll never accomplish anything by staying in your own head,” Luzuriaga said. “Start making noise. Be as loud as you can and just do it.”

To keep up with OdinXR, check out www.odinxr.com, follow them on Instagram at @odin.xr or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

For Mom co-founders Camila Monchini (left) and Christina Grigorian (right). Photo by Willa Westneat.

Biomedical engineering master’s student Camila Monchini and 2020 biomedical engineering master’s graduate Christina Grigorian are working to improve the postpartum experience for mothers everywhere with For Mom Care. 

“Moms, postpartum, are not getting sufficient care from their doctors,” Monchini explained. “We’re trying to step in, fill that gap and provide them with the medical support that they need.”

The startup was inspired by a maternal health class taught by Sara Della Ripa, a lecturer in the Cal Poly Biomedical Engineering Department and a biomedical engineer in the FemTech industry.

“The topic of women’s health — specifically maternal health — really resonated with us,” Monchini said.

Monchini and Grigorian learned through Della Ripa’s class that despite growing innovation in the FemTech space, there are very few companies focused on maternal health and postpartum care. They founded For Mom with the intention of bridging that gap.

The pair brought their idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Elevator Pitch Competition (EPC), a fast-paced competition where students are given 90 seconds to pitch their startup and innovation ideas, in November of 2020. For Mom was selected as one of the competition’s 10 finalists, but did not win the $1,000 first place prize.

Following the EPC, Monchini and Grigorian applied for Innovation Quest (iQ), an annual business plan and innovation competition also hosted by the CIE. They were not accepted, but their passion for the project encouraged the pair to pursue For Mom despite the loss.

“You should have a passion for what you’re doing because there will be times when you fail and you hear the word no,” Monchini said. “We’ve heard the word no so many times and yet we’re still here, doing our best and moving forward.”

Grigorian graduated from Cal Poly in December of 2020, and with Monchini set to graduate in December of 2021, the pair decided to apply to the CIE Summer Accelerator program as their “last hurrah with Cal Poly,” said Grigorian.

The Summer Accelerator is an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses. For Mom was one of the nine teams accepted into the 2021 program. Their acceptance, according to Grigorian, “was literally like a dream come true.”

The resources afforded through the Summer Accelerator program have proven extremely valuable to the For Mom team, not only in the development of their startup, but in their own professional growth.

“I think [the Summer Accelerator] has helped us understand ourselves better as people and helped us identify our strengths and what we can bring to the table,” Monchini said. “Having all of these different mentors, who are very successful entrepreneurs, be there to guide and encourage us is really good for our development as professionals.”

Their involvement with the CIE also allows the For Mom team to connect with other Cal Poly students working to build their own businesses. 

“The other CIE companies are such big inspirations,” Grigorian said. “De Oro Devices is definitely a big inspiration to us in terms of seeing what can be done through the CIE.”

De Oro Devices is a startup founded by 2019 biomedical engineering graduate Sidney Collin. The startup engineered the NexStride, a device created by Collin herself that helps people with Parkinson’s Disease overcome freezing of gait. De Oro Devices participated in a number of CIE programs, including the 2018 Summer Accelerator.

“Seeing some of our peers that we had classes with, like Sidney Collin for example — seeing that she’s a CEO of her own company is such an inspiration,” Monchini said. “Being a woman-led company, that’s huge. We want to follow in their footsteps.”

The CIE is helping Monchini and Grigorian do just that.

“We really want to get our idea out to women and we really want to help them,” Grigorian said. “The CIE is like a channel to accelerate us forward so that we can help all these women.”

Their dedication to the mission of improving maternal and postpartum care motivates the For Mom team to work hard, regardless of the obstacles they face.

“The people that are going to be using our product are moms,” Monchini said. “To hear the stories of how they struggled and of how some of their health issues were completely ignored really fuels us because we know we’re making this space better.”

Monchini and Grigorian are reimagining the maternal health industry and working to make their dreams of accessible, holistic postpartum care into a reality.

“What it means to be an entrepreneur is somebody that is able to defy the odds, believe in themselves more than anyone else and see the vision at the end of the tunnel,” Monchini said. “Most successful companies are built off of a dream, and to be those people that are able to see the dream before it happens is incredible.”

To keep up with For Mom, follow them on Instagram at @formomcare or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

FEARLESS Fitness Kids co-founders (from left to right): Emily O’Neal, Sara Glaser (front), Clayton Pelz (back), Madison Lewandowski. Photo by Willa Westneat.

FEARLESS Fitness Kids, a startup founded by Sara Glaser, Madison Lewandowski, Emily O’Neal and Clayton Pelz, is working to keep children active with immersive video games that require players to work out as they play.

“We all saw that kids were becoming increasingly sedentary and inactive and we noticed that sitting around on the couch playing video games was becoming the new norm,” Pelz said. “We wondered why video games had to lead to such an unhealthy lifestyle.”

The four co-founders felt that they had a “unique skill-set” between the four of them that made them “the perfect team to solve this problem,” said O’Neal.

O’Neal graduated from Cal Poly in 2021 with a degree in computer science and a concentration in interactive entertainment. Prior to her graduation, she worked on a number of virtual reality and motion tracking projects through the Cal Poly Mixed Reality Lab. 

“I created a choreography piece using motion tracking, and that’s actually how Sara recruited me for this team,” O’Neal explained. “I was already working with and really excited about this technology and felt like it could be perfectly applied to this problem.”

Glaser also graduated from Cal Poly in 2021, but with a degree in business administration and a minor in dance.

Glaser grew up as a dancer, which led to a long-held interest in health and fitness. During her freshman year at Cal Poly, she became further immersed in the fitness world, becoming a certified personal trainer and yoga instructor.

“I really felt a passion for fitness and wanted to utilize that,” Glaser said. “That’s something I bring to the team because we are trying to keep kids healthy… Also, as a business major, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about business development. Business in general is something I’m passionate about and that I really enjoy doing.”

Lewandowski, a business administration senior, said that her passion for FEARLESS Fitness comes from “making kids happy.” She’s worked with children for over seven years, working as a gymnastics coach, dance teacher and party entertainer. 

She also has a YouTube channel where she has “been able to inspire kids” with lifestyle and DIY videos. Her channel has almost 200,000 subscribers and has attracted over 20 million views.

Pelz, a biomedical engineering junior, was initially interested in exploring the intersection between exercise and video games.

“I’ve always liked sports [and] I’ve also been very interested in game development for a long time,” he said. “The opportunity to pull those two interests together is really exciting.”

The FEARLESS Fitness team has been working to build their startup since 2019, when Glaser, Lewandowski and Pelz met at the Cal Poly Entrepreneurs Startup Marathon, a 54-hour long event at which student innovators work through the weekend to develop a startup idea. 

After Startup Marathon, they took their idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Hatchery, an on-campus resource for Cal Poly students seeking the opportunity to build their own company. They also participated in a number of CIE-sponsored competitions, but rarely placed in the top slots.

“There were a lot of losses for us,” Glaser said. “There were a lot of competitions we didn’t win. While that was hard for us, we used that to help us persevere, move forward and learn from our mistakes.”

Then in April of 2021, they brought their idea to the CIE’s annual business plan and prototyping competition, Innovation Quest (iQ). FEARLESS Fitness won first place, and the team was awarded $15,000 in prize money.

“We won Innovation Quest, and in that moment, we were like, ‘Okay, we’re really onto something,’” Glaser said. “‘People believe in us. We need to make this happen.’”

Winning iQ inspired the FEARLESS Fitness team to apply to the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses. They were one of the nine teams accepted into the program.

The Summer Accelerator will provide the FEARLESS Fitness team with a comprehensive understanding of the startup process through workshops and mentorship. The lessons learned in the program, said Pelz, “feel so applicable in real life.”

FEARLESS Fitness released a beta-test version of their game in February of 2021. 

“It’s already been so cool to see the reactions to something we’ve built together,” O’Neal said. “It’s so cool seeing kids use our product and I’m really looking forward to seeing the impact that we have.”

Pelz issued similar sentiments, stating, “Our biggest revenue is smiles.”

To keep up with FEARLESS Fitness Kids, visit fearlessfitnesskids.com, follow them on Instagram at @fearlessfitnesskids or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

Slolar co-founders (from left to right): Russell Caletena, Yash Desai, Paul Romano, Fernando Estevez. Photo by Willa Westneat.

Four Cal Poly engineers are working to empower residential solar panel owners to take action and accelerate their return on investment with Slolar, a startup founded by electrical engineering graduate Russell Caletena, mechanical engineering graduate Paul Romano, computer engineering graduate Fernando Estevez and computer engineering fifth year Yash Desai. The Slolar team is developing technology that will provide solar panel owners with predictive data analytics pertaining to their solar panel performance.

“Solar panel owners have absolutely no idea the amount of [money] that they’re losing out on each year,” Desai said. “We hope to bridge that gap so that they get the most out of their panels, and also do good for the planet.”

The idea for Slolar originated in September of 2020, when the co-founders met through Experience Building a Startup, a three-quarter senior project course in which business and engineering students can practice problem-solution skills, customer development, prototyping and user testing by building their own business. 

The interdisciplinary nature of the course appealed to the Slolar co-founders, who wanted to expand their education beyond the technical skills taught in their engineering courses.

“The reason why I wanted to pursue business and entrepreneurship is because of Cal Poly’s strong programming,” Caletena said. “I realized, as an engineer, I wanted to broaden my scope and develop some soft skills with respect to developing a business — what it means to take a product to market and everything that happens behind the scenes.”

Cal Poly’s Experience Building a Startup course provided the Slolar team with the unique opportunity to explore the crossover between entrepreneurship and engineering.

“As a mechanical engineering student, I really wanted to bridge the gap between engineering and business… and the entrepreneurship senior project was a great way to do that while still focusing on engineering,” Romano said.

Course professors Dan Weeks and Tom Katona encouraged the co-founders to pursue Slolar as not only a senior project, but as a potential startup endeavor.

In April of 2021, the Slolar team brought their idea to Innovation Quest (iQ), an annual business plan and prototyping competition hosted by the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). Although they did not place, the Slolar team did not let the loss discourage them. 

They applied to the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses. They were one of the nine teams accepted to the program. 

The Summer Accelerator program provides the Slolar team with opportunities to gain practical experience that helps the team of engineers better understand the processes behind entrepreneurship.

“There’s so much support for the entire startup realm,” Desai said. “You don’t normally see that anywhere else. I mean, this is truly the best extension of Learn by Doing, where you actually are getting the support outside of the classroom needed to apply what you’ve learned inside and take it outside.”

The Summer Accelerator provides the Slolar team with an in-depth view into the startup process, but with a team composed entirely of engineers, their process differs from that of a classic entrepreneur. 

“We’re very systematic in our approach towards everything — I think a little more than average because of our engineering backgrounds,” Desai said.

Their engineering backgrounds also influence the way in which the Slolar team approaches problems in entrepreneurship.

“All of us are engineers, so we love the idea of problem-solving,” Estevez said. “We like to break down these complex problems that we might face on the daily, break them into smaller, little pieces and tackle them head on. It’s just what we’ve been taught.”

To keep up with Slolar, visit beacons.page/slolar, follow them on Instagram at @slolar.co or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

In 2019, Ryan Murtaugh and Nathan Brickman, now graduates of biology and agricultural communications respectively, set out to tackle a problem in the mental health industry: it’s outdated communication tactics. What began then as a class project has now developed, through several CIE programs, into incubator company Bridge.

Q: At its core, Bridge is a software platform designed for mental health professionals to communicate more efficiently. Why create this?

Ryan Murtaugh: Right now, mental health professionals are utilizing all kinds of different software, even Facebook, to do things pretty inefficiently. Our collaboration software will strengthen the mental health industry’s infrastructure, enabling professionals to connect with each other, refer clients and grow their practices on a modern platform that’s designed for them.

Q: How did this idea come about?

RM: Nathan and I met in John Townsend’s “Intro to Entrepreneurship” class where we decided to look at the mental health industry, figure out what problems existed in that space and utilize technologies to mitigate some of those problems. Everyone has been personally affected by mental health in some capacity, so we felt that it was really fitting to look at that space.

Q: So, you devised this new business concept for class. Then what? 

RM: After the class, we joined the Hatchery, then applied for the 2019 accelerator — and didn’t get in! That was actually great for us, though. Rather than going into the accelerator with a half-baked idea, we were able to really dive deep into the industry’s problems in a HotHouse MedTech program that summer.

Q: Then you reapplied to the HotHouse Accelerator in 2020?

RM: Yes! We got into the accelerator the next summer. When we first came into the program we had some more hypotheses to test and unfinished development, but by the end of it we had a software with mental healthcare professionals using it daily. The program really gave us the time and resources to strategize and develop the software.

Q: When it comes to resources, accelerator teams are given $10,000 in funding. How did that help Bridge?

RM: The $10,000 was so helpful. Software sometimes seems as though it isn’t that costly, but it can add up. The money helped with simple things like keeping our servers running or paying for APIs, but it also allowed us to really test things and get crucial data points that helped us move forward a lot faster.

Q: What does it mean for students like yourself to have CIE resources? 

RM: It’s incredible. The CIE is the best thing you could possibly have as an entrepreneurial student because you have access to this network of people who have done it before and are happy to guide you. Thinking back to freshman me, I always knew I wanted to go into entrepreneurship and start my own venture. Just knowing that CIE resources were on campus really motivated me to go for it.

Q: It’s hard to imagine students not having a resource like that to support them.

RM: Exactly. It’s such a huge endeavor to even try entrepreneurship in general. Without experienced people to help you through it, it must be exponentially harder.

Q: And you can’t learn everything on YouTube, right?

RM: Nope. And I tried, trust me! I know it’s cliche, but it’s so true about Learn by Doing at Cal Poly. I’ve learned more in the past two years working on Bridge than I have my whole life, in almost every regard — personal development, professional development, business knowledge. Everything.

Q: That’s huge. So, what about the challenges of entrepreneurship? I imagine it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Bridge team.

RM: The CIE makes it really clear that pivots and iterations are extremely common and there’s no point in fearing the inevitable. For us, there wasn’t a whole lot of pivoting, but rather more understanding of the true complexity of the mental health market. While we’re still on the path of focusing on private practices first, our product roadmap has evolved to include strategic developments for other entities to make Bridge a fully integrated, collaborative experience.

Q: Did COVID-19 change anything?

RM: COVID-19 has been really interesting. With mental healthcare, it’s been fascinating. The switch to telehealth set a new precedent that many mental health professionals do not need to be in a certain place to do their work. And the methods practitioners were using before were so outdated, like sending letters or using a Rolodex to call your colleagues. It’s crazy. Of course, COVID-19 isn’t good, but for Bridge, it’s really been a push in the right direction and kind of forced this industry to adopt new technologies.

Q: Now that you’ve graduated from the accelerator, what’s next for Bridge?

RM: Well, we just moved into the HotHouse Incubator which has already been extremely helpful in getting our advisory board together and working toward incorporation. Right now, we’re doing closed beta testing and are working to hit about 300 to 600 practitioners [on Bridge] by December. Then, by June of 2021, we hope to have around 10,000 users and start really turning on the revenue streams. At this point, it’s just total focus and execution on that pathway.