Katherine Olives
To our Zahn community: we hope that all of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy during this trying time. Here at the Zahn Center, we have been lucky enough to continue our programming online. The 2020 Cohort was about halfway through their competition when CCNY went into a distance learning model, and theyve continued to meet with staff, mentors, and complete weekly bootcamp workshops. Although in a different manner, weve managed to provide the same educational content. However, our MakerLab has been closed since mid-March. Students, especially those working on hardware devices, have not had access to prototyping equipment since then. In light of this, we have decided its in the best interest of our students that we postpone Demo Day & Final Pitch. We will now hold those events–complete with giveaways of our $150K grand prizes–in the early Fall. In the meantime, we held an internal “Virtual Pitch Off” for our teams to compete for smaller cash prizes. The pitch off took place last Thursday, and we're pleased to announce the winners:
Winners of the Zahn Social Impact Prize:
The $3,000 first place prize went to Earthly Beings, skincare that brings physical and emotional relief to those with minor to severe skin conditions. The $1,000 second place prize went to Blue G, a startup that offers strategies to reduce ocean debris that allows communities and globally conscious customers to combat the global plastic crisis.
Winners of the Standard Chartered Women+Tech4NYC Prize:
The $3,000 first place prize went to The Bella Zoia Project, which offers impact advertising for small to mid size nonprofit organizations. The $1,000 second place prize went to Parkbreezy, a community-based parking app.
Winner of the Zahn Technology Prize:
The $3,000 first place prize went to Dype, a peer-to-peer streetwear marketplace where buyers can get crowdsourced authentication. The $1,000 second place prize went to Staff to Go, an app that saves restaurateurs time and money by connecting them with staff using a simplistic matchmaking process.
Winner of the Kaylie Hardware Prize:
The $3,000 first place prize went to Trias, a pre-diagnostic tool for those with high cholesterol. The $1,000 second place prize went to IASSER, a device that makes the roads safer by combining cutting edge biosensor technology with the automobile industry.
These startups, along with others, will continue to work on their MVPs and business plans throughout the summer. We are planning more virtual programming for the summer–an Incubator 2.0 if you will–to keep our teams on track for a Fall Demo Day. Stay tuned for more information about how you can get involved.
Thank you again for your continued support of our students and our programming, and stay tuned for more information about the Summer & Fall.