Tech and Health Ventures Dazzle at 2024 Dempsey Startup Competition
Famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke may have enjoyed the 27th Dempsey Startup Competition at the University of Washington. Clarke famously said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic,” and that certainly holds true to the vision of many of the record 136 teams that competed this year. Judges awarded the $25,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize to BioLegacy for its patent-pending technology to preserve organs cryogenically and rewarm them electromagnetically. The team of students from Seattle University (mechanical engineering, finance and accounting, chemistry) and UW (mechanical engineering) aim to create a new market in the organ transplant sector, while also extending organ viability from 24 hours to years.
BioLegacy is the first venture since A-Alpha Bio in 2018 to win the grand prize in both the Dempsey Startup and the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge—which are each hosted by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in the Foster School of Business. The team also won the $2,500 Karr Tuttle Campbell Best Health & Wellness Impact Idea Prize, which recognizes a venture with significant potential to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases or disorders that impact human health.
Judges awarded the $15,000 BECU Second Place Prize to MoodRoom for its virtual, accessible, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) toolkit for young adults that combines a focus on mental health with game design. The team aims to address a huge problem nationally by offering up an app-based way for youth to manage mood and mental disorders, negative thought patterns, suicidal ideation, self-harm and substance abuse. MoodRoom developed their innovation by utilizing the talents of team members from UW (political science, electrical and computer engineering, visual communication design), Seattle University (M.S. in Finance), the University of California-San Diego (computer science), and New York University (computer science).
The $10,000 WRF Capital Third Place Prize went to Joy Bucket. The UW spin-out of MBA and M.S. in Computer Science students created an affordable, clinical grade wearable health technology for continuous monitoring of maternal and fetal health. By bringing together an AI and algorithmic approach, Joy Bucket hopes to empower pregnant mothers against rising maternal mortality and morbidity in the United States.
CivicImpact.ai won the $7,500 Friends of the Dempsey Startup Fourth Place Prize with an AI-based tool to transform the documents cities use in the public procurement process. The team of UW Foster Executive MBA’s aim to create a virtuous flywheel that creates more business opportunities, increases market competition, and improves the quality of goods and services delivered to all citizens.
CivicImpact.ai also won the $2,500 Saara Romu Community Impact Prize, which recognizes a venture that has a direct impact on the lives of women or other under served communities.
Additional Prizes Awarded to Dempsey Startup Investment Round Teams
Eight additional Best Idea and Big Picture prizes were awarded to teams who competed in the Investment Round (Top 37) on Thursday, May 2. Judges selected team SecondSite for the $5,000 Glympse Internet of Things (IoT) Prize for its innovative take on construction site risk management. The team of M.S. in Technology Innovation students from the Global Innovation Exchange offers total job-site reality capture and AI analysis so mistakes can be caught as they happen. This matches the prize framework to recognize a business venture that has incorporated new products or services that contribute to the IoT ecosystem and enables these objects to collect and exchange data to create new consumer experiences.
The $5,000 MìLà Social Impact Prize went to The Integrity Project representing UW Bothell (computer science and software engineering), Washington State University (data analytics), and the University of Washington (business administration). The cross-disciplinary non-profit venture utilizes AI and big data to enhance governance through political integrity analysis and political systems mapping, while empowering voters with actionable insights into candidate trustworthiness and integrity. The Social Impact Prize recognizes a venture that not only demonstrates the capacity to deliver financial performance, but also shows how it makes a positive contribution to society.
MìLà Co-Founder and President Jennifer Liao presented the award to The Integrity Project after delivering a keynote speech during the Awards Dinner. She was joined for a Q&A with Foster instructor and Tofinio Consulting Founder Val Trask. Liao shared with the room the importance of being open to pivoting in her life, her career (choosing entrepreneurship over medicine), and with her startup, by focusing on what is being done well and what is working.
Judges awarded AffordAid the $2,500 Smukowski Family Best Sustainable Business Prize, which goes to a venture that has incorporated best practices toward resource reduction while bolstering profitability and cost containment. The team of UW students created a non-profit initiative aimed at mitigating the financial strain of acquiring medical aid by offering refurbished, high-quality medical equipment at reduced prices. AffordAid was also one of the most cross-disciplinary teams in the competition, with students representing areas of study in industrial engineering, marketing, computer science, finance, mathematics, data science and human centered design and engineering.
The $2,500 eBay Best Marketplace Idea Prize was awarded to LiveUp from UW. The team of computer engineering, marketing, finance, computer science students created an all-in-one platform for students to easily navigate affording housing options. The Best Marketplace Idea Prize targets teams that create a commerce or payments platform for communities of buyers, sellers or businesses.
Happy Pop took home the $2,500 Thatcher & Shannon Davis Best Consumer Product Idea Prize, which goes to a team that offers a compelling new consumer product in a well-defined market. The team of computer science and business information systems students created homemade, non-GMO Indian-inspired snacks for “guilt-free snacking.”
The $2,500 Perkins Coie Best Innovation and Technology Prize was awarded to BioSyft from UW. The venture combines deep learning technology with the tracking of animal movements to develop models for neuropsychiatric and behavioral diseases such as Alzheimer’s. BioSyft features Ph.D. students in pharmacology and neuroscience, as well as a Foster MBA.
Judges awarded Greener Pastures the $2,500 DLA Piper Best Idea with Global Reach Prize, which is targeted at a venture that has aspirations for acquiring customers around the world. The team of UW Technology Management MBA and biology students has developed a regenerative agricultural solution that aims to revolutionize the way seeds are planted for optimal growth, while allowing farmers to increase crop yields and decrease inputs.
Orbi won the $2,500 Voyager Capital Best Business to Business Idea Prize, which recognizes a venture that offers an innovative B2B product or platform. The team of UW computer science students created an AI software engineer that helps teams go from development tasks to solutions in minutes, while curbing technical debt, streamlining development, and boosting productivity.
Agtech Entrepreneur and UW Alumnus Honored at 2024 Dempsey Startup
The Buerk Center also awarded the third annual UW Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Paul Mikesell (B.S., Computer Science, ’96), Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. The AI-powered farming solution company offers the “LaserWeeder”—which detects and eliminates weeds with lasers—saving farmers money and reducing the need for chemical herbicides.
Carbon Robotics was just recognized on the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 list as one of the fastest growing and most innovative private companies transforming industries through technology. Mikesell founded the company in 2018 and has raised more than $85 million to date, including a recent investment by the venture capital arm of NVIDIA.
Addressing the entrepreneurs in the room, Mikesell shared his advice about fundraising by noting that the potential of a company shouldn’t hinge purely on whether it receives venture capital. He told founders to stick with their vision even through difficult times.
Mikesell is a proud alumnus of the University of Washington and Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, where he was recognized in 2023 with an Alumni Impact Award.
This year’s award was presented by the first-ever winner, Amber Ratcliffe (MBA ’03), who won the business plan competition in 2003 with a biotech company that she co-founded, NanoString Technologies. The UW Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award was created to recognize UW alumni that have worked hard to create, innovate, and contribute in a meaningful way to the Seattle entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship wishes to thank all 29 sponsors who helped make this year’s competition possible, as well as UW alum Neal Dempsey. Beginning in 2019, his generous support allowed the competition to expand eligibility for student teams in Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and British Columbia, stimulating more student-created startups than ever before. The 2024 Dempsey Startup Competition set a high-water mark with students representing 21 different colleges and universities around the region.
Including this year, more than 6,480 students on over 2,323 teams have competed in the competition since it began in 1998. In the past 27 years, 243 teams have earned prize money totaling just under $2 million dollars. Overall, the Buerk Center has awarded more than $5 million dollars to students since 1998 through multiple competitions and the Jones + Foster Accelerator.
Complete List of 2024 Dempsey Startup Prize Winners
$25,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize – BioLegacy
$15,000 BECU Second Place Prize – MoodRoom
$10,000 WRF Capital Third Place Prize – Joy Bucket
$7,500 Friends of the Dempsey Startup Fourth Place Prize – CivicImpact.ai
$5,000 Glympse Internet of Things (IoT) Big Picture Prize – SecondSite
$5,000 MìLà Social Impact Big Picture Prize – The Integrity Project
$2,500 eBay Best Marketplace Idea Prize – LiveUp
$2,500 Perkins Coie Best Innovation/Technology Idea Prize – BioSyft
$2,500 Thatcher & Shannon Davis Best Consumer Product Idea Prize – Happy Pop
$2,500 Saara Romu Community Impact Prize – CivicImpact.ai
$2,500 David & Patty Helberg Smukowski Best Sustainable Business Idea Prize – AffordAid
$2,500 Voyager Capital Best Business to Business Idea Prize – Orbi
$2,500 DLA Piper Best Idea with Global Reach Prize – Greener Pastures
$2,500 Karr Tuttle Campbell Best Health & Wellness Impact Prize – BioLegacy
