Rice University and the University of Houston hosted their first joint demo day, featuring a dozen startups working on everything from water purification to a thinking club to improve a golfer’s putting to a social video-conferencing network just for college students.
The program was the first time both Houston universities worked together in nurturing their student entrepreneurs. Initially, the plan was simply to hold a joint pitch day, says Hesam Panahi, the founder of the RedLabs accelerator at the University of Houston and an Xconomist. (OwlSpark is the Rice counterpart.) “It became obvious that we could collaborate in other ways before the event,” he says. “We were really impressed with how much the community stepped up through feedback during pitch practices, community events, and field trips.”
Joining the programs as part of the Bayou Startup Showcase—Houston is called the “Bayou City”—meant that the same cohort of overly scheduled entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other mentors did not have to choose to help one or the other, he added.
The entrepreneurs were a mix of undergraduate and graduate students. Some have worked on their startups for years while others only conceived of their ideas a few months ago.
Five of the 12 have already been featured as part of Xconomy’s “startup summer school” series, such as Zodist, Luminostics, and RaptorBird Robotics. We also met Data is Beautiful Solutions, which rechristened its BioWheel product to Easel, and ProsthetiTech, which is now known as Prosus Health.
Here is the rest of the entrepreneurial lineup:
—Wavve: This U of H startup has developed what it says is a nanomaterial dubbed “filtering beads” that removes bacteria, metals, and chemicals from water better than traditional commercial filters. The startup competed in the Rice University Business Plan Competition this past April and completed the I-Corps program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. CEO Julia Lonnegren says they are seeking additional grants to do more testing and hope to partner with large filter manufacturers like Brita, Unilever, and Culligan.
—Thermal Nomad: There just aren’t enough microwaves. That’s the opening statement put forward by student entrepreneurs at Thermal Nomad at Houston. This startup says it has developed a self-heating thermos in which liquid and semi-solid foods can be heated in two minutes and at 180 degrees. The entrepreneurs are targeting athletes who compete in daylong competitions and require frequent eating.
—Nexus Software: This startup is creating a “few-to-few” social network through its photo-sharing app called Corners. The app attempts to find a customized middle-ground between one-on-one communication and sites like Twitter and Facebook which connect users to a large, open-ended group of people. Nexus
