Over 500+ came for our midweek “Rising Tides: The Ripple Effect of Grit” at the Parma Payne Goodall SDSU Alumni Center. We started the day with Expo booths, featuring local startups, student-led organizations and startup resources available for founders. We also had Mentor Magic led by Techstars San Diego powered by SDSU for a full hour of mentorship with Techstars industry experts. Programming later had talks focused on team success, the power of NIL, and entrepreneurship. The keynote talks were given by Kevin Gelfand, CEO and Co-Founder, Shake Smart, and Maya Madsen, Founder & CEO, Maya’s Cookies. Both talks were inspirational and talked about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, how they built their products, and success from ground zero to what it is today.
Thank you to our speakers and presenters for the day:
- Daniel Huss, Founder, gravityAI
- J.R. Tolver, Pre-Game Analyst for SDSU FootballPre-Game Analyst for SDSU Football iHeartMedia
- Chase Fisher, CEO & Founder, Blenders Eyewear
- Brenden Hill, NIL Coordinator, San Diego State University
- Angie Athayde, Founder, Meticulous Management
- Jack Powers, Correspondent, We Believe Network
- Maya Madsen, Founder & CEO, Maya’s Cookies.
- Kevin Gelfand, CEO and Co-Founder, Shake Smart
Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch Competition
We held our first signature pitch competition of the year, the Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch Competition, featuring student entrepreneurs from San Diego State University, UC San Diego, University of San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego Miramar College, and San Diego College of Continuing Education. This event showcased the freshest ideas and boldest innovations from the brightest college minds. With a panel of expert judges, these students brought their A-game. Huge shout out to all our participants, and congratulations to Blake Togerson, Co-Founder & CEO of Get Buzzed Inc. from PLNU for taking 1st place and Kyle L. Kimmel, Ph.D., MBA, President, Scaled Solutions Technologies (SST) for placing 2nd.
Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch Competitors:
- Ying Asano, Founder, Spicily
- Siddhant Bhardwaj, CTO, MyGrow
- Valorus Cromwell, Founder, BohoLeo
- Sinan Gölhan, CEO, GolTech
- Kyle L. Kimmel, Ph.D., MBA, President, Scaled Solutions Technologies (SST)
- Elisabeth Lee, Brand Strategist, Kuvri
- Brennan Martin, Co-Founder, JuniorJobHunt
- Blake Togerson, Co-Founder & CEO, Get Buzzed Inc.
- Yi Wang, Founder, Checkit Analytics
- Dennis White (D.J) White, Co-Founder & CEO, Cytodyme
Huge thank you to our prize sponsors, Downtown Works and SDSU Bookstore, for the prizes!