This semester, Professors Rodney Lake and Bill Collier are co-teaching a venture capital (VC) class. As a part of the curriculum, students are required to submit their team startup idea to the first round of the GW New Venture Competition (NVC).
The NVC “provides every GW student, faculty, staff, and alumni with a real-world educational experience in developing, testing, and launching their own startups, business, and social ventures. The competition has three tracks: New Ventures, Technology Ventures, and Social Ventures.”
Back in February, 40 students across eight teams from our VC class entered the first round of NVC, and seven teams made it to the top 100.
We are now pleased to announce that three teams from our class earned a place in the top 36 ventures!
We are proud of all of the hard work and dedication that all of the teams put into their startup creation and development. Additionally, we are especially proud and excited for the following teams that are making their way to the NVC semi finals:
Evelet
Evelet is developing an app to leverage blockchain technology and utilize existing financial institutions to disrupt the currency exchange market. Evelet will democratize exchange rates for international travelers by allowing them to convert, send, receive, and spend money cheaply, instantly, and safely in different currencies.
Team members: Austin Lai (GWSB ’22), Josh Luberda (GWSB ’22), Yue Fang (GWSB ’22), Vicki Deng (GWSB ’22), Lisia Hwang (GWSB ’23).
InvesTreble
InvesTreble connects music lovers who use streaming platforms and intellectual property rights owners. An AI-powered platform automatically invests listeners’ money into a fraction of music royalty shares of their favorite songs, providing music fans with an accessible profit-making opportunity.
Team members: Darya Vavilava (GWSB ’22), Jinny Hyejin Ryu (GWSB ’22), Katherine Turkiewicz (CCAS ’22), Lingyun Yang (CCAS ’22), Roxana Kaplan (GWSB ’24).
Narrative
Narrative is a peer-to-peer story non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace that enables individuals and organizations to mint audible historical moments, events, and ideas while monetizing them on the blockchain. Despite different backgrounds team members all share a common interest in how blockchain and cryptocurrency is changing the art industry.
Team members: Trevor Doucet (GWSB ’22), Ruixin Huang (GWSB ’22), Luke Stephen (GWSB ’22), Olivia Wilcox (GWSB ’22), Chelsea Sutch (GWSB ‘22).
Stay tuned for the top 12 announcement, and let’s see who wins on April 14, 2022!
Best,
GW Investment Institute