Bearcat entrepreneurs pitch for $25K at 1819
New Venture Championship puts UC students on the big stage
Ten teams put their entrepreneurial ideas to the test for the New Venture Championship, an annual startup pitch competition organized by the UC Center for Entrepreneurship and held at the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub in the spring.
With up to $25,000 in prizes on the line, Bearcat students and alumni showed judges why their startup ventures deserved the earnings. Two teams took home the cash, while all participants gained insights and feedback from UC alumni founders, investors and business leaders.
Judging panel at the New Venture Championship. Photo/Kailyn Swarts
The 1819 Innovation Hub, at the center of the Cincinnati Innovation District, served as the ideal spot for the New Venture Championship, as many finalist teams already engage with 1819 resources including the Venture Lab and Ground Floor Makerspace.
“1819, with its startup tools and strong network of founders, was the right spot to hold the New Venture Championship,” says Josie Dalton, associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. “UC has tremendous entrepreneurial talent, and seeing it on display at 1819 speaks to the talent pipeline building on campus and across Cincinnati.”
Learn about the 10 innovative startups that pitched for $25,000 at the New Venture Championship and discover which lucky two took home the winnings.
Their time to shine
The New Venture Championship gave the following teams a massive opportunity to explain the value and promise of their startups while describing their entrepreneurial journeys:
- Founders: Nick Ginex (BS, computer science) and Drew Tendler
- Learn more: ContentCraze
- Member, Venture Lab NEXT summer 2026
A user-generated content platform that rapidly transforms detailed marketing briefs into high-performing creator campaigns. After brands upload their strategy, ContentCraze automatically develops structured scripts across marketing channels, assigns them and implements A/B tests to determine the best format.
- Founders: Vivian Comer (MS, business analytics), Varsha Govardhanam (MS, computer science) and Natalie Harvey (BA, finance and entrepreneurship)
- Member, Venture Lab NEXT summer 2026
A mobile platform that lets K-pop fans collect digital photocards and use them during competitive gameplay. Players can build decks, battle through player-versus-player matches and interact online in ways that are new to the physical K-pop collector market.
- Founders: Sean Gilmore (BA, entrepreneurship), Blake Henry (BA, entrepreneurship) and Nikolai Gertsman (BS, cybersecurity and information technology)
- Learn more: Focal
Mobile device management program that promotes worker safety by placing limits on the apps industrial facility workers can access during high-risk shifts. Employees tap their phones on a Focal device to start their shift, and the platform immediately activates a customized app-blocking session.
- Founder: Mustapha Nasomah (MS, information technology)
- Learn more: Haven
App that collects up-to-date happy hour deals from bars and restaurants across the U.S. and Canada, helping users find nearby food and drink specials in real time. Haven also has customized filters for types of cuisine or beverages and includes integration for trivia nights, live music and additional events.
- Founders: Divyesh Bommana (MS, computer science) and Ty Dominguez (BA, marketing alum)
- Learn more: Instant Quote
Platform that lets residential contractors easily build and send quotes on-site using voice, photos and job details. Instant Quote intends to shorten the sales cycle and improve close rates versus today’s slower, inconsistent and disconnected contractor quoting process.
- Founders: Isaiah Clifford (BA, finance alum) and Samarth Edlabadkar (BS, computer science)
- Learn more: Revl Technologies
- Member, Venture Lab Accelerator spring 2026
A consumer safety tool using predictive insights and risk mitigation techniques to reduce the likelihood of motor vehicle accidents. Revl is building an app that offers high-risk zone alerts, a dashboard copilot with a personalized risk assessment score and a risk mapping service.
- Founders: Srividya Bade-Vinod (BS, environmental studies) and Samarth Saxena (BS, cybersecurity engineering)
- Member, Venture Lab NEXT summer 2026
A magnetic sensor puck that attaches to legacy CNC machines to monitor vibration as a warning sign of bearing failure. Sentinel Patch serves as a “check-engine light” for potential manufacturing equipment breakdowns where expensive condition monitoring tools were previously required.
- Founders: Parker Badat (BA, accounting) and Mary Barone (BS, industrial design)
- Learn more: Shower Beer
A wall-mounted beer can holder specifically designed for use in the shower, a ritual done by 25% of men and 13% of women. Once the can holder has gained traction, Shower Beer plans to unveil its own line of beers to enjoy while in the shower.
- Founder: Pankaj Rajdeo (PhD, biomedical informatics)
- Learn more: ToppDiscover
A drug discovery copilot that validates and filters AI-generated drug hypotheses against real biological networks. By doing so, ToppDiscover helps to reveal which predictions are best grounded in science before a company spends millions on testing.
- Founders: Devansh Saxena (BS, mechanical engineering alum) and Gokul Reghunath (BS, business analytics alum)
- Learn more: Veiss
- Member, Venture Lab NEXT summer 2025
Strength training analytics app letting coaches track workout progress across multiple athletes in real time. Veiss includes auto-rep tracking, real-time analytics and live feedback powered by AI, replacing the manual tracking processes coaches use today via a fragmented set of tools.
The winners, revealed
Instant Quote winning at the New Venture Championship. Photo/Kailyn Swarts
Ten teams competed. Two stood above the rest. After impressing a panel of UC alumni and business leaders, the top ventures emerged at the New Venture Championship.
Instant Quote and ContentCraze made big impacts during this year’s event, walking away with $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. Both startups’ innovative technologies, realistic business models and thoughtfully developed prototypes impressed judges, leading to well-deserved wins.
ContentCraze winning at the New Venture Championship. Photo/Kailyn Swarts
Instant Quote earned $15,000 to continue developing its platform to streamline residential contractors’ quoting process. The startup plans to boost contractors’ close rates while also providing potential customers with immediate quotes, drastically boosting customer service.
ContentCraze secured $10,000 for its tool to seamlessly develop and test user-generated work. By automating production for short-form creator content, long briefs are replaced with on-brand, ready-to-go scripts.
Cincinnati’s space for entrepreneurs
The 1819 Innovation Hub acts as Cincinnati’s premier center for startup activity, and hosting pitch competitions like the New Venture Championship helps to cement its role.
View inside UC's 1819 Innovation Hub. Photo/Kailyn Swarts
The building holds the UC Venture Lab, a startup accelerator known for awarding the largest amount of nondilutive funding in the region. It also boasts the 12,000-square-foot Ground Floor Makerspace, which has specialized and hard-to-find equipment ideal for product prototyping.
The Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization lets university-affiliated founders, industry partners and entrepreneurs protect intellectual property and bring ideas to market. Combine these resources and it’s easy to see why startups cowork at 1819.
The 10 teams competing in the New Venture Championship reflect the strength of Cincinnati’s entrepreneurial momentum. And as the region's startup ecosystem continues to grow, 1819 remains the destination where founders come to build, launch and scale.
Frequently asked questions
Here are some frequently asked questions about the 1819 Innovation Hub, home to the New Venture Championship:
What is the 1819 Innovation Hub?
The 1819 Innovation Hub is the University of Cincinnati's crossroads for industry and academia, bringing startup founders, student entrepreneurs and leaders at major companies into one common space. It's a hub for Southwest Ohio's startup community and has become the center of innovation in Cincinnati.
What hackathons are hosted at the 1819 Innovation Hub?
1819 regularly plays host to hakathons and pitch competitions such as RevolutionUC, BearcatCTF, MakeUC and UC Startup Weekend.
How else can students get involved at 1819?
UC students can get involved at the 1819 Innovation Hub by signing up for the Venture Lab startup accelerator, checking out the tools in the Ground Floor Makerspace or gaming at the Esports Innovation Lab.
Featured image at top: Revl team presenting at the New Venture Championship. Photo/Kailyn Swarts
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