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Eight teams brought their best game to Wednesday's Final Pitch Event and were met with tough questions from our panel of expert judges. Each team pitched their lemonade stand, offering convincing facts, impressive prototypes and a ton of charisma. The CUNY Advanced Science Research Center at CCNY Auditorium was packed with guests who, by the end, were on the edges of their seats with anticipation, wondering which teams would take home the grand prizes in each category.
Today, we are very proud to announce the winners of our 2015 Kaylie, Zahn, Zahn Social Innovation, and Standard Chartered Women Entrepreneurs' Prizes!
VivoZ Biolabs took home the $50,000 Kaylie Prize. VivoZ Biolabs LLC is a life sciences companion technology company. Their ultimate goal is to help oncologists to make better informed cancer treatment decisions using their preclinical drug screening systems. Zeynep Dereli-Korkut, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at CCNY; Joanne Lee, BS from CCNY, is a Prospective PhD student at Columbia University; and Dionne Dawkins, MS, is a CCNY alum.
HAST took home the $30,000 Zahn Social Innovation Prize. Their mission is to help families stay connected and achieve healthier lifestyles together using an interactive app, and they will use the prize money to get the app up and running! To HAST, staying connected is as simple as wearing a health tracking wristband. Their app will provide daily statistics on each member's health, and will connect across wearable devices. HAST is made up of four team members, all undergrad students at CCNY. Ni Yao and Xue Bin Zhao study computer science and Benny Tan and Bin Xu study electrical engineering.
Build on the Go, a mobile application that manages and tracks all the necessary steps to complete any size construction project, took home the $30,000 Zahn Prize. Build on the Go is the industry's first task manager that gives each worker the power to control, record and share his work on a mobile phone. Founder and CEO Shawn Augustine is a construction superintendent and recently earned his BA in Economics from CCNY. He will use this prize money to break into the first 5% of his multi-million dollar market.
Cubbies, an NYC-based cloth diaper company, won the $30,000 Standard Chartered Women Entrepreneurs' Prize. Cubbies is improving and simplifying consumers' diapering experience by introducing the first cloth diapers to expand with the growth of your child and use exclusively bamboo fabric. From their streamlined, informative, easy to use website, to their high quality, Millennial mommy-centric products, parents will feel confident and happy with their choice and investment in Cubbies. Carrie Evans, Founder and CEO, is a theatre student at CCNY and a mother of two. She's using her prize money to start manufacturing Cubbies diapers with a factory in Pennsylvania.
We're so excited to start working with these teams during the next phases of their lemonade stands! We'd like to thank everyone who supported our program, especially our panel of judges, including Irwin Zahn, Harvey Kaylie, Elaine Chin, Bert Brodsky, Howard Morgan, Karen Stone and Patrick Sullivan.
We also would like to announce our Audience Choice Award Winners, who were chosen by over 400 voters at Monday's Demo Day Expo. After carefully counting a record 1,615 ballots, here are our winners:
Kaylie: Sensiole disrupts the current wearables technology with a non-invasive insole that tracks fitness and health goals.
Zahn Social Innovation: PRO-sthetiKs, a competition finalist, is recreating and enhancing prosthetics to fit the needs of patients with both lower and upper amputations.
Zahn: Localtarian, a finalist for the Zahn prize, connects people and builds community through homemade meals.
Standard Chartered Women Entrepreneurs': Cubbies, a grand prize winner, is a NYC-based bamboo cloth diaper company.