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Judge Bulletin: June 2023
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Greetings from the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship!
We officially wrapped up competition season, ending with a fun and award-filled dinner celebration of this year's teams. Take a look back below as we recap the 2023 Dempsey journey: starting with a record-setting Screening Round, advancing through the Investment Round and Sweet Sixteen, and then ending with the Final Four! Check out two quick shout outs before reading the full recap of the Dempsey Startup Competition.
What's next for teams who participated in Dempsey, HIC, and EIC? We hope it's the Jones + Foster Accelerator, kicking off later this summer! Stay tuned for the July bulletin where we will introduce the accelerator teams and reveal the dates for the 2024 competitions!
Warmly,
Jessica Roberto, Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge manager
Lauren Brohawn, Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge manager
Yuko Oaku, Dempsey Startup Competition, Jones + Foster Accelerator manager
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Congratulations Graduates
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A special thank you to our amazing student staff assistants who have supported the Buerk Center and the competitions throughout their academic careers at UW. Introducing them now as UW alumni, Morgan Schiebel, Kira Dudsic, and Jake Rhyner all graduated this spring! We highly recommend them for any upcoming opportunities you have.
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Top Business Talent Available
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Foster MBA students offer a diverse set of experiences and talents that can make an immediate impact. This is a great opportunity to gain help with immediate project needs at your firm – think market research, data analytics, SWOT analysis, etc.. If you’re looking for talented, driven, collaborative candidates to fill short-term/contract roles, please reach out to Bronica Sam, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Colette Vogel, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with our Foster MBA Career Management team. They can connect you with our amazing MBA students and help with arranging initial conversations.
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Screening and Investment Rounds
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More than 200 judges selected 37 student teams to advance to the Investment Round from a record 117 submissions from 13 colleges across the Cascadia Corridor.
Learn more about the innovations these 37 teams brought to the Investment Round on May 4.
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220+ judges chose 16 student teams to advance to the Sweet 16 Round following a trade-show style Investment Round in Seattle Center's Exhibition Hall.
Learn more about the 2023 Sweet 16 teams showcasing innovations ranging from environmental, to healthcare, to consumer products.
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Judges awarded the $25,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize to team Cledge for its novel application of AI to democratize college advising. The team of UW computer science students created a platform that uses AI to help students find the best college fit without having to resort to hiring private advisors to help with admission.
Cledge also made history as the first team of students from the Lavin Entrepreneurship Program to win the multi-stage competition hosted by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in the Foster School of Business. Cledge previously made the Sweet 16 Round in the 2023 Dempsey Startup.
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Judges awarded the $15,000 BECU Second Place Prize to AMOR from UW. The team of mechanical engineering students developed a liver support system that helps liver failure patients increase their survivability in recovery, or while waiting for a transplant. Their device is also set up so any dialysis operator can use it with minimum training. AMOR previously won the $10,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation Second Place Prize in the 2023 Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge (HIC).
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The $10,000 WRF Capital Third Place Prize went to Simpl-E-Vac for designing a way to address the improvised nature of existing endoscopic vacuum therapy devices. The UW team of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and Master of Science in Entrepreneurship (MSE) students aim to help gastroenterologists treat leaks more reliably and effectively. Both Simpl-E-Vac and AMOR are student-created startups that came out of UW’s Engineering Innovation in Health (EIH) program.
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Team Waltz won the $7,500 Friends of the Dempsey Startup Fourth Place Prize with another innovative AI-based service. The UW team of Foster Evening MBA and computer science and engineering students created a way for media companies and content creators to easily translate and dub content into 100+ languages without losing emotion, intonation, or the voice of the speaker.
Waltz also won the $2,500 DLA Piper Best Idea with Global Reach Prize, which recognizes a venture that has aspirations for acquiring customers around the world.
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Additional Prizes Awarded to Dempsey Startup Investment Round Teams
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UW Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award
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The Buerk Center also awarded the second annual UW Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award to John Gabbert (Business Administration ’96), founder and CEO of Pitchbook Data.
Gabbert founded the company in 2007, and in 16 years, grew it to $650 million in sales with 3,000 employees.
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Pitchbook Data was acquired in 2017 and valued at $225 million. Pitchbook Data fosters a unique company culture that develops strong relationships and employee engagement while also building up the global private equity, venture capital, and M&A markets with data, technology, and services.
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