SAN LUIS OBISPO — More than 200 people gathered at Rod & Hammer Rock on Friday, Aug. 21, for the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) annual Demo Day, with an additional 200 viewers tuning in via YouTube Live to watch seven startups from the 2026 Summer Accelerator pitch their ventures.

The event was the culmination of the CIE’s 2026 Summer Accelerator program, an intensive program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into scalable businesses. Typically a 12-week program, the Accelerator was compressed to 10 weeks this year as Cal Poly transitioned to the semester calendar, with Demo Day taking place the Friday before fall classes began. Founders from each startup shared the progress they made throughout the summer with support from CIE mentors, staff and industry experts.

This was the first cohort of startups to operate from the CIE’s new HotHouse location in downtown San Luis Obispo. The HotHouse provides entrepreneurs and startups with collaborative workspace and access to the broader CIE community.

“It was fun getting to watch this group of young entrepreneurs step up to the challenge of building their businesses during an especially accelerated summer,” said CIE Academic Programs Director and Cal Poly professor of entrepreneurship Thomas Katona (pictured above).  “Tremendous work by all of them.”

The Summer Accelerator provides each startup with $10,000 in seed funding, mentorship from industry experts, entrepreneurial workshops and dedicated workspace in the HotHouse. Throughout the program, founders test their ideas, conduct customer discovery and work toward milestones that move their companies closer to market.

For Hopscotch founder (pictured above) and recent Cal Poly business administration graduate Lily Bryan (’26), one of the program’s greatest benefits was access to mentors and industry experts.

“The people that walk through the door and take their time to meet with the whole cohort and one-on-one and speak in front of the whole cohort is just so amazing,” Bryan said. “Regardless of the industry they’re coming from, they’re always able to apply their expertise to our situation.”

The 2026 cohort represented a range of industries and academic disciplines, from food and beverage innovation and education technology to aviation, water management and medical technology. The startups included:

— AquaX is a marketplace for agricultural water credits, enabling peer-to-peer transfers in basins regulated by California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. AquaX was created by William Stevens (Economics, ’25) of Los Angeles.

— Flyer Design Solutions is the creator of AviateVFR, a flight-planning app that automatically finds safe and legal general aviation routes, considering real-time airspace, terrain and weather, with displays that are clear and easy to use. Flyer Design Solutions was an iQ 2026 finalist and was created by brothers Chase and Weston Mitchell of Chico, California. Chase (Aerospace Engineering, ’26) is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Cal Poly, while Weston is a senior accounting student at Santa Clara University.

— Hopscotch is an AI-powered learning platform that models how each student learns by translating the learning process into their preferred approach, catering to a variety of ways to engage with the material. Hopscotch was created by Lily Bryan (Business Administration, ’26) of San Diego and Liam Hyde (Computer Science, ’24) of Seattle, who is pursuing a master’s degree in quantitative economics at Cal Poly.

— Nibble Foods is creating frozen cheesecake bites in a low-calorie, protein-packed format made with clean, organic and fair-trade ingredients. Nibble Foods was an iQ 2026 finalist and was created by Joshua Van Tassel (Agricultural Business ‘26) of Los Altos, California, and Alex Pope (Agricultural Business ‘26) of Pleasant Hill, California.

— PNOIA is developing a low-profile nasal pillow CPAP interface designed specifically for premature infants that improves therapeutic reliability, reduces clinical complications and simplifies care in the neonatal intensive care unit. PNOIA received the first-place award at iQ 2026 and was created by Josiah Waltner (Biomedical Engineering ‘26) of Bass Lake, California, and Aidan Geurts (Mechanical Engineering ‘26) of Seattle.

— Permi helps architects identify and resolve building code issues in their plan sets before submission, reducing costly revisions and delays in permitting and construction. Permi was an iQ 2026 finalist and was developed by computer engineering senior Soe Ko Ko Lin of Yangon, Myanmar; Wilson Yu (Computer Engineering ‘26) of Los Angeles; and Muska Said Hasan Mustafa (Software Engineering ‘26) of Irvine, California.

— Tango is creating a nonalcoholic, low-sugar sparkling electrolyte mocktail crafted with clean ingredients. Tango was created by agricultural business senior John Piro of San Jose and business administration senior Nathan Donovan of Long Beach, California.

A recording of the 2026 Demo Day presentations is available on YouTube below:

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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.