2018 Brown Venture Prize Finalists
Welcome to the first annual Brown Venture Prize, a friendly competition showcasing Brown’s most advanced ventures. The 2018 top 8 finalists were carefully selected by an esteemed group of experienced Brown Alumni entrepreneurs. Learn more about the top 3 winners, the other finalists, and the judges below. You can also watch the pitches from that night.
PENTA – 1st Place Winner ($25,000)
Penta provides low cost, high-quality prosthetic care for low-income amputees in Vietnam
and other developing countries through innovative and sustainable solutions.
Trang Duong
trang_duong@brown.edu
Victor Wang
CLOUD AGRONOMICS – 2nd Place Winner ($15,000)
Cloud Agronomics is automating disease identification in orchards and providing farmers precise, actionable data
about the location of the infection and probable spread vector.
Jack Roswell
jack_roswell@brown.edu
Julian Vallyeason
julian_vallyeason@brown.edu
Alex Zhuk
oleksiy_zhuk@brown.edu
TEXTUP – 3rd Place Winner ($10,000)
TextUp is a software tool for social workers that creates cost savings, as well as builds capacity, saves time
and improves professional quality of life.
Michelle Petersen
michelle_petersen@brown.edu
Eric Bai
eric_bai@brown.edu
Hanna Oh
SUBLY
Subly is a subletting marketplace for landlords, tenants, and subletters to find sublets and negotiate terms, simply and legally.
Samanee Mahbub
samanee_mahbub@brown.edu
Sahil Prasad
sahil_prasad@brown.edu
Connor Lightsey
connor_lightsey@brown.edu
Trushitha Narla
trushitha_narla@brown.edu
Benjamin Perez
benjamin_perez@brown.edu
Andrei Voicu
andrei_radu_voicu_moldoveanu@brown.edu
IVIDERE
iVidere is an intelligent visual prosthesis for people with visual impairment.
We hope iVidere will empower users to increase their independence.
Morgan Talbot
morgan_talbot@brown.edu
Raghu Nimmagadda
kaushik_nimmagadda@brown.edu
Peter Hahn
peter_hahn@brown.edu
HELIOTROPE
Heliotrope Energy is using artificial intelligence to optimize and lower the cost of renewable energy production.
Edward C. Williams
edward_c_williams@brown.edu
Stephen Brawner
stephen_brawner@brown.edu
RELIABRA
ReliaBra features backless and strapless “sticky bras” with removable and replaceable adhesives
—bras that women can truly stick with!
Roja Garimella
roja_garimella@brown.edu
Rose Mangiarotti
rose_mangiarotti@brown.edu
ACTION AUCTIONS
Action Auctions is a web app that uses game theory to make philanthropy fun!
Anand Lalwani
anand_lalwani@brown.edu
Xuefei Yang
xuefei_yang@brown.edu
Aaron Mayer
aaron_mayer@brown.edu
Oscar Newman
oscar_newman@brown.edu
2018 JUDGES
A huge thank-you to our judges for their time, energy, and support of the 2018 Brown Venture Prize!
Luke Sherwin '12
Co-Founder of Casper
Neil Parikh '11
Co-Founder of Casper
Jessica Kim '00
Venture Partner at Praxis / Founder
Steph Korey '09
Co-Founder of Away
Heidi Messer '92
Co-Founder of Collective-I
Scott Norton '08
Co-Founder of Sir Kensington’s
Brad Weinberg '03, MD '11
Co-Founder of Blueprint Health