2024 Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition

November 22, 2024

Fast-Pitch Competition

The Fast-Pitch Competition showcases our passionate and talented student future founders across Columbia University, featuring pitches of their innovative, world-changing companies, with an ambition to scale across the healthcare industry. The day will include inspiring guest speakers who take on healthcare challenges in the entrepreneurship space every day, and will conclude with a networking reception. 

November 22, 2024: Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition
 

🚀 The 2024 Fast-Pitch Competition brought together 25 passionate student teams from across Columbia University to pitch ideas aimed at transforming and scaling innovation in healthcare and public health. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Asha Saxena for her generosity in making this event possible. A special thanks to our incredible judges, Jon Gordon, Andrea Nye, and Rajiv Singh, for evaluating the pitches and sharing their expertise.

👏A huge thank you to our mentors. Your invaluable guidance has left a lasting impact on the teams, shaping their ideas and helping them shine. Special thanks to: Rocky Seftel, Dara Meath, Todd B. Richter, Tracy Ongena, Lily Jin, Steve Fleischner, Linda Nedell, Jeffrey Garwood, Julia Bardmesser, Bob Galvin, Nisha Dholakia, Jessica Pan, Christopher Lee, Aneri Barvalia, Nandita Kotwani, Edison Sabala, Rachel Ravens, David Howard, Evan Tsun, Stacey Matlen, Carol Huffman, Jean-Ezra Yeung, Chris Chin, Andrea Marx, Warren Sturt, AJ Taylor, Ema Vidak Friedman, Ari J. Markenson, and Kamayini Kaul.

🌟Spotlight on the Winners

First Place: ToothDoc, Zoe Mattana, DDS (Columbia Business School Candidate, Columbia Dental DDS ’18). A digital platform transforming the dental industry by streamlining referrals, reducing inefficiencies, and improving provider communication.

Second Place: SafeSip, Alan Ma and Akshay Manglik (Columbia University Computer Science and Mathematics Candidates). An app utilizing smartwatch data and cutting-edge algorithms to promote safer alcohol consumption, improving public safety and health outcomes.

Third Place: Sober Sync, Kevin Ith (MSW/MPH Candidate). A platform connecting individuals in recovery to foster supportive, judgment-free communities at social events.

🏅Inspiration in Innovation Award

Thank you, Lily Jin, for your mentorship and generous support to create this award!

Recipient: Marin Langlieb (VP&S Medical Student)

Applying Dressing: A platform empowering individuals with disabilities to modify clothing, paving the way for adaptive fashion solutions that are both stylish and functional.

This year’s competition showcased ideas from students across graduate and undergraduate programs, representing the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, Columbia Engineering, Columbia School of Social Work, Columbia University School of Nursing, and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Congratulations to all the participants for their incredible innovation and drive to create a better future in healthcare! 💡

November 17, 2023: Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition

On November 17th, HPM hosted its third annual fast-pitch competition, showcasing passionate and talented student founders across Columbia University. This year, we had thirteen teams competing from all over CU – Mailman, SIPA, Barnard, Engineering and the Institute of Human Nutrition! This special day included inspiring guest speakers who take on healthcare challenges in the venture capital and entrepreneurship space every day and concluded with a celebratory reception.

Congratulations to the winning team, Engineering PhD candidate, Haiqiu Yang, from OptiCardio. Cardiac ablation has less than 60% success rate and high recurrence rate as 50% to treat complex arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. This is due to the inadequate lesions that generated without knowing the extent of completeness. There is a clinical need for reliable, independent assessment of lesion quality during procedure. Opticardio is a near infrared spectroscopy and catheter used with the current electroanatomic mapping and radiofrequency ablation systems. By providing real-time monitoring of lesion formation during ablation energy delivery, ablation strategy can be adjusted and personalized to improve the success rate of termination and reduce the rate of recurrence. 
 

Thank you to Asha Saxena for your generous gift and to Rebecca Sale for spearheading entrepreneurship at Columbia Public Health. And a HUGE thank you to our judges, AJ Taylor, Besa Bauta and Joyce Shen. In addition to our fantastic judges, we are also so grateful for our incredible mentors, many who are HPM alum, who were assigned to a team and helped guide them as they prepared to pitch their idea live. This year’s mentors included Rocky Seftel, Dara Meath, Caroline Weinberg, Todd Richter, Asha Saxena, Tracy Ongena, Sam Nimah, Lily Jin, Lily Li, Steve Fleischner, Linda Nedell, Jeff Garwood, Julia Bardmesser, Hoyin Lip and Jason Friesan.

November 18, 2022: Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition

On November 18th, HPM hosted its second fast-pitch competition of 2022, showcasing passionate and talented student founders across Columbia University. Ten teams pitched innovative ideas with ambition to solve pressing problems in healthcare, representing seven schools: Columbia Public Health, Columbia Engineering, Columbia Business School, Physicians & Surgeons, the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Barnard, and Teachers College. 
 
Congratulations to the winner, HPM EXEC student, Chris Chin, from Crosstalk Connections. The nonprofit seeks to ease the burden of support phone calls that are a core part of the recovery process in Alcoholics Anonymous. The system automatically connects someone in recovery with a supportive member of their recovery team. The startup’s founder, Chris Chin, said his idea was born out of his own discomfort with initiating these phone calls, a trait he shares with many young people. The $5,000 prize will fund the beta-testing of the technology. 
 
Thank you to Asha Saxena for your generous gift and to Rebecca Sale for making entrepreneurship a priority at Columbia Public Health. And a HUGE thank you to our judges, Maria Forero, Joe Habboushe and Les Funtleyder, and our fantastic mentors, AJ Taylor, Jason Friesen, Dana Le, Linda Nedell, Gati Dharani, Edison Sabala, Kevin Adams, Steve Fleischner, Jean-Ezra Yeung and Jeff Garwood. None of this would be possible without you! 

April 15, 2022: Healthcare Venture Day 

On April 15, 2022, HPM hosted its first ever pitch competition, showcasing passionate and talented student founders across Columbia University. All of the teams pitched innovative ideas with ambition to solve pressing problems in healthcare. 

Congratulations to the winners, Team IRLY @ Columbia Engineering, who’s idea is revolutionizing the ambulatory surgical recovery process by creating a point-of-care device for at home use that alerts recovering surgery patients of potential SSIs. Their device gives patients who are monitoring wounds, at home autonomy that no other infection detecting system has before. Thank you to Asha Saxena for your generous contribution! And a huge thank you to our judges, Lauren Driscoll, Roy Bejarano and Edison Sabala, and our fantastic mentors, AJ Taylor, Les Funtleyder, Dana Le, Linda Nedell and Gati Dharani .

None of this would be possible without you!