Alumni VentureCat is a new initiative hosted by the university that aims to feature and support innovative early-stage ventures founded by Northwestern University alumni by providing access and exposure to critical connections and resources. In its inaugural year, five finalists were chosen to pitch live and in-person for the chance to win $100,000 at the Finals Public Showcase on Friday, July 19, 2024, at Northwestern’s academic space in San Francisco, CA.
Congratulations to Sophia Wennstedt, co-founder and CEO at Blip Energy, for winning the Finals Grand Prize - ultimately taking home $100,000 at the Public Showcase. Blip Energy's grid-edge smart home battery gives modern households lower electric bills and backup power, while equipping grid operators a powerful battery network to stabilize the grid and reduce their operating costs. Blip launched out of a NUvention: Energy class through the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
This year, we welcomed Mike Raab, Executive Director of The Garage at Northwestern, to the VentureCat stage as the event emcee. The esteemed judging panel included John Cowgill ‘14, Partner at Costanoa Ventures; Kristin McDonnell ‘85, Founder and Managing Partner at Menlo Group; and Dinesh Moorjani ‘98, Founder and Managing Partner at Time Zero Capital.
Eric Perreault, Vice President for Research, kicked off the Showcase with a few remarks. Then, the event quickly transitioned into the finalists’ pitches! Each contender received 5 minutes to pitch, and then answered questions from the judges for another 10 minutes.
While we were busy watching the pitches live, we were also thrilled to welcome a virtual audience to join us via livestream. You can watch the entire Alumni VentureCat 2024 Public Showcase Livestream recording below.
Sophia Wennstedt, co-founder and CEO at Blip Energy, took the stage first. $1.3T will be spent by the year 2030 as the cost of electricity continues to increase and reliability of the energy grid decreases. Blip Energy's grid-edge smart home battery gives modern households lower electric bills and backup power, while equipping grid operators a powerful battery network to stabilize the grid and reduce their operating costs.
Sophia received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and MSDI from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern in 2022.
Sruti Bharat, founder and CEO at Campground Systems, was next in line to pitch. Campground Systems is a purpose-built CRM and hub for program leaders. Because most CRM systems are built for sales, program managers are forced to use 7-12 tools to do simple workflows - like running applications, sending communications, and organizing events. Campground focuses on impact - and reporting on it!
Sruti received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2019.
Then, Summer Delaney, founder and CEO at CollabWORK, had her chance to impress the audience. CollabWORK is the first community-powered hiring platform connecting companies to the "Hidden Job Market" - niche newsletters like the Morning Brew, Slack communities, Discord servers, etc. - to automate recruitment marketing at scale. Notably, companies spent nearly $3B on recruitment marketing platforms in 2023, but only 2% of cold applications resulted in an interview. Conversely, 80% of CollabWORK’s job postings result in candidate interviews.
Summer received her BS from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2015.
Prarthana Gupta, co-founder and CEO at OrdrSmart, was next up on the docket. OrdrSmart bridges the gap between a CRM & ERP - one sample at a time. Approximately $60B in product samples is spent yearly by manufacturers across the US, however, less than 10% of these samples actually result in a purchase order. OrdrSmart helps manufacturers increase revenue, decrease costs, and reduce product sampling failure points.
Prarthana received a BA from Northwestern University’s School of Communication in 2016 and her MS in Integrated Marketing Communication from Medill in 2018.
Last but certainly not least, Jake Gutstein, co-founder and CEO of Zest, closed out the event. Zest is building Duolingo for cooking. Each module on the platform teaches users the basics of cooking through bite-sized instructions, while guiding them through a recipe. The app gives users the confidence to experiment with their own cooking style - saving users hundreds of dollars a month in food ordering/delivery costs.
Jake Gutstein received a BS from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering in 2020.
While the judges deliberated, the audience was invited to enjoy a networking reception. It wasn’t long before the crowd learned who would be taking home the $100,000 Grand Prize. The anticipation was palpable - the audience excited to hear how the judges decided.
Finally, it was announced that Sophia Wennstedt of Blip Energy would be going home as the first-ever Alumni VentureCat Grand Prize Winner! They are planning to use the funds to unlock their pipeline of LOI’s through demonstration projects and make key hires to impact the top-of-funnel lead generation.
We’re honored to have hosted such a fabulous event and look forward to the impact that all of the Finalists will make in the Bay Area and beyond.
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Special thanks to the Northwestern University Leadership Circle members for their philanthropic support and Alumni Relations & Development for networking with the Bay Area community. We’d also like to extend our thanks as well to the Kellogg Entrepreneurial and Venture Capital club leadership team for their role in helping to review the applications.
Carly is a passionate community builder serving as The Garage's Marketing Manager. She is overjoyed to work with students at The Garage, helping them realize their potential in creative communication and social strategy.
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