Demo Day in review!
Congrats on wrapping up the year! Check out V1's Demo Day speakers, pitches, and prizes -- and keep reading to see how to scale your own projects this summer 🚀
V1’s 5th Demo Day was held in mid-April, where our Product Studio cohort and Build Blue participants presented what they’ve been working on all semester! We also heard from awesome speakers, ranging from student engineers to a founder of an Ann Arbor based startup to a venture capitalist. A huge shout out to Contrary and Ross Business + Tech for helping organize this builder showcase.
The speakers 🎪
We’re excited for Brandon Schram, managing partner at 640 Oxford, an early-stage venture capital fund, to support the V1 community this fall.
Guest speaker Tom Brady, founder and CTO of SkySpecs, discussed how his company contributes to asset maintenance by providing insights for data-driven decisions, emphasizing the importance of consumer feedback in product development.
Founding engineers & graduating UMich students Bright and Edison also demoed the recent cloud-based overhaul of Shade, a platform for creative professionals to manage terabytes of visual assets and enhance their artistic workflows.
The demos 🛠️
Demo Day highlighted V1’s Product Studio Cohort and Build Blue hackathon members. Each of these builders spent the past semester taking their idea from 0 to 1. We heard from a ton of impressive projects, from a social productivity app that enables friends to bet on tasks to a voice recognition healthcare service that assists nurses in documenting patient notes and uploading them to their database.
The winners! 🏆
Our first place winner is FOMO, a platform for creating, managing, and discovering events at college.
In second place is Scholarly, which provides integrated explanations and an advanced recommendation system for research papers.
Our third place winner is Dawg, which transforms program data into automated analytics, clear reports, and gamified rewards for players, coaches, and staff.
Congrats to all of our Demo Day participants! Interested in learning more? 👇
Upcoming opportunities 👀
Check out these opportunities to scale your projects this summer!
✅ Slope, a venture by On Deck, is committed to accelerating ambitious early-stage projects through its no-strings-attached grants ranging from $1K to $5K. If you’re unable to fund your project independently, this is grant is for you! Click here for more info. Interested? Apply now!
🚀 Maximize: Catalyst Business Accelerator is a 12-week program designed to transform high-growth technology ideas or MVPs into investable businesses through a customized, hands-on curriculum. The accelerator provides a blend of workshops, peer roundtables, and one-on-one coaching. Applications are due May 17th!
🛠️ buildspace is a 6-week build sprint designed to help you develop your personal projects. With weekly lectures and talks, you’ll have access to resources to help you scale your project, get feedback, and iterate with others. Apply here for season 5!
A final note…
V1’s community events are organized by an amazing crew of students, who handle everything from logistics, mentorship, sponsorships, marketing, and more.
Here’s who they are.
Interested in working with our community? Passionate about our mission? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out at team@v1michigan.com to learn more!