$187M and 10 pitches – Here's who you'll meet at Demo Day this Thursday
Demo Day is THIS THURSDAY! Meet a keynote speaker who exited for $187M and the best builders in the Michigan community!
V1’s demo day is on Thursday! Sign up before spots run out.
📅 Thursday, April 17th, 6:00 - 8:00 PM @ Blau Colloquium!
What kinds of builders, hackers, creators will you meet this Thursday?
Some people in Michigan are building dating apps; others are building AI agents; some others are building geological sensors – at V1 Demo Day, you’ll be able to see them all!
Introducing the first set of demos… 🥁
From developing MVPs to scaling projects, these students put themselves out there this semester — taking risks, embracing uncertainty, and having the courage to try. All for the opportunity to make something meaningful.
We’re so excited for you to hear from them on Thursday! Here’s who they are 🌟
Saket Pradhan is working on AgroQR, chemically-activated drone-scannable QR codes that make geological data cheaper.
Riya Dev and Luke Zhu are co-founders of dezu, a platform helping tax accountants K-1 file return forms.
Mikey Kim and Adi Singh are building AgentMail, an email provider for AI agents.
Jake Herman is building frnds of frnds, a dating app for mutual friends that he recently launched and got 7k downloads!
Mihir Arya and Arnav Shah created Quanta, a community-driven research paper platform with personalized recommendation feed.
Steven Lohan is making Roots, the first social media dedicated for families. 🏡
The second set of demos will drop later this week! Stay tuned as we will reveal the Product Studio projects made by students who have gone from idea to product in 8 weeks 🚀.
In addition, there are 10+ more teams tabling in as science-fair style expo where you can try out their product demos! From word games to DevOps tools, everything is there!
Excited? Pull up on Thursday! ✨
Introducing our Keynote speaker 🎙️
What’s it like spending 9 years of your life building a customer-engagement platform for restaurants?
More importantly, what’s it like selling that same platform for $187 million after nine years of hard work and restarting from scratch with a new startup?
Meet Mike Vichich. After graduating from Michigan State University, he worked in consulting for five years before diving into the 9-year long journey building Wisely, finally exiting for 9 figures.
And now he’s doing it all over again by building Pursuit, automating public-sector contracts. Why did he choose to found again after exiting? How is he approaching it differently as a second-time founder? How does one move from servicing restaurants to public-sector contractors?
Our special guests ⭐️
In addition to our pitchers and demoers, we will have some special reps from VCs, inves coming to Demo Day! Check them out 💫
Nick Arnett, a partner from the 1517 fund, a VC backing founders with $1k grants and $500K pre-seed rounds alike.
Zell Lurie Institute For Entrepreneurship, a University of Michigan-affiliated organization building leaders in entrepreneurship.
UpRound Ventures, Michigan’s premier student-run VC club.
Bullmont Capital, a student-run venture studio giving 10k checks to help young founders go from the dorm room to the board room.
Scouts from Soma Capital, an early stage venture fund investing in early stage software and technology.
We hope to see you at Demo Day Thursday!
Don’t forget — dinner’s on us :)
In case you missed It: YC is in town tomorrow!
Sign up and don’t miss their event TOMORROW!
We were at capacity! Thanks to the College of Engineering, Y Combinator are speaking in North Campus in addition to the Central Campus event and opened up more spots! Sign up now!
