Elevator Pitch, from Michael: “Our vision is to simply simplify automation with snap-on solutions, to help automate energy savings. Our product is a motion-sensing device that goes on top of a light switch, and it mechanically flips the switch for you. So imagine a mini-robot on top of a light switch. You do not have to pull anything out of the wall or hire an electrician to re-wire any systems.”

Startup Challenge Special: Karl Ulrich talks with InstaHub founder Michael Wong, W'19

Elevator Pitch, from Federika: “Collecto is an online luxury retailer that offers an unparalleled gifting experience, and we do so by focusing on three things. The first is a unique product curation. The second is a specialized gift presentation. And the third is a high-touch customer service.”

Startup Challenge Special: Karl Ulrich talks to Collecto founder Federika Longinotti-Buitoni, WG'18

Elevator Pitch, from Shanel: “MD Ally is a non-emergency 911 navigation solution that ensures the appropriate use of emergency resources by providing non-emergency callers with immediate access to medical guidance, transportation services, and then also scheduling into more appropriate sites of care.”

Startup Challenge Special: Karl Ulrich talks with MD Ally founder Shanel Fields, WG'19

Elevator Pitch, from Philip: “SpectrumScores was founded as a way to empower LGBTQ patients to take care of their own health care by offering an intuitive ranking and review system for health care providers across disciplines, on the basis of their LGBT competence. By providing all of this information and leveraging the collective experience of the community, we hope to be able to connect these patients to the best providers to meet their unique needs.”

Startup Challenge Special: Karl Ulrich talks with SpectrumScores founder Philip Williams, C'15, M'20

Elevator Pitch, from Seth: “What Welligence does is we gather the richest dataset of upstream oil and gas data, we think, in the world--particularly in Latin America. And we build our own proprietary models to forecast well-by-well production, which is then combined into these pretty clean data tools for our clients to use and make better decisions.”

Startup Challenge Special: Karl Ulrich talks with Welligence founder Seth Neel, GRW'20

Summer Crenshaw explains Tilr: "Tilr is a mobile first technology that matches people’s skills to company job requirements to automate the recruitment process. So really we’re in the business of eliminating discrimination and closing the skill gap through our technology."

One example she uses: a person who has been a restaurant server and a customer service representative has all the skills for a job as a bank teller--and that's the job Tilr matched her to. And the success rate is terrific. According to Summer, 60-70% of the people placed by Tilr are offered full time, permanent roles at the companies.

Matching Skills To Jobs: Karl Ulrich talks with Tilr founder Summer Crenshaw

Listen now for the sheer amusement of hearing Wharton Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Karl Ulrich spend 10 minutes eating bugs: chocolate covered crickets, chile-lime crickets, and coconut brittle bugitos, which Karl describes as, "like peanut brittle, but it's larvae brittle."

Don Bugito, founded by Monica Martinez, sells edible insects as a healthy, sustainable snack food. They're high in protein, Omega-3, fiber, and are extremely water-efficient to grow. The whole interview is a fascinating dive into Monica's unexpected entrepreneurial journey, and by the end, you'll want to snack some larvae brittle as well.

Delicious, Healthy, Sustainable Bugs: Karl Ulrich talks with Don Bugito founder Monica Martinez

Anki originated a decade ago as a group of Ph.D. students who spent their weekends brainstorming and collaborating. "Every Saturday we'd get together and we would just work the entire day," Mark says. Their first product: a toy car. "We've built a very viable business that started out with a kind of autonomous toy cars, shrunk down to slot car sizes."



The fascinating thing is that Anki didn't stop here. Mark and his team understood this successful product as a stepping stone. Their strategy: "Let's go into a segment where we can have a huge impact today and build an increasingly sophisticated robotics platform with an increasingly sophisticated stack of technologies to take on harder and harder challenges in consumer robotics."

LaunchPad Cozmo 071818

Glow is an ambitious enterprise that uniquely applies the power of data science to health. Our personal health tracking products illuminate health through data, and empower people with new information about their bodies.

Though we live in a time when people track everything from diet and weight to the number of steps taken each day, it remains taboo to talk openly about some of the most critical phases of development: menstruation, sex, fertility, pregnancy, parenthood, and beyond.

Here's Mike's elevator pitch: "We are the largest mobile platform for women's health."

Bringing Fertility Into The Future

Meet entrepreneurs and learn the secrets to their startup success on Launch Pad, brought to you by Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship and hosted by Karl Ulrich, Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Wharton School, Rob Coneybeer, Co-founder & Managing Director of Shasta Ventures, and more.

Launch Pad was originally broadcast on SiriusXM Channel 132, Business Radio Powered by The Wharton School. 

Launch Pad from The Wharton School is not associated with Blackstone LaunchPad.

Launch Pad, from Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship

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