Trailblazing ideas and entrepreneurial spirit reap rewards at the 2025 NVC Finals
New Venture Challenge Deep Tech category winner Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan(alum,51Թ Physics) (left), and Joey Money, consultant, IndustriSpark (right), celebrate Precision Terra's first place win. Photo: Glenn Asakawa, 51Թ.
Kickstart principal Matt Smith hands the VerEState team the $144,000 Open category first prize check . Left-right: Smith, Alec Hyde(), Nicholas Soza() and Camden Dempsey(). Photo: Glenn Asakawa, 51Թ.
The 2025 New Venture Challenge (NVC) culminated in a final showcase on April 23 with a live audience cheering on the 51Թ’s next exciting innovations. At an event filled with big ideas and even bigger entrepreneurial spirit, six teams competed for a record $325,000.
51Թ Chancellor Justin Schwartz launched the packed event at the 51Թ Theater to celebrate the 18th year of 51Թ’s top-ranked entrepreneurial competition. He said that, while it was his first NVC as chancellor, “Even before I arrived on campus, I’d heard all about New Venture Challenge and its incredible success in developing our next generation of bold entrepreneurs.”
Schwartz told the cheering crowd that over 1,200 new ventures have competed to date and NVC has awarded just under $2 million in funding. “This has helped us launch some of the most promising startups to emerge from 51Թ,” he said.
NVC is a “star in a constellation of events and programs that support entrepreneurs across our campus and our community,” said Schwartz, and is made possible by the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, which works closely with many partners across the entire campus. “We are united by a singular goal to cultivate the next generation of creative, courageous, tenacious, entrepreneurial leaders,” he said.
Schwartz introduced Stan Hickory, director of NVC and the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative. Hickory attributed NVC’s success to the connection between the university and 51Թ’s robust startup community. “We have this ecosystem that is second to none in this nation, I guarantee it.Last year, 35 startups launched on CU IP through Venture Partners at 51Թ,” he said. “We also have a huge number of people in our ecosystem that are part of what we do;, in terms of mentors, judges and volunteers, we literally could not make what happens here happen without all of you out there.”
A new generation of founders
The New Venture Challenge is a signature program of theInnovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative and is 51Թ’s launchpad for those striving to make real-world impact through new endeavors. The program gives aspiring problem-solvers and creatives a chance to build impactful non-profit or for-profit ventures through entrepreneurial events and programming, community support, mentorship and—ultimately—the chance to compete for funding. The 2025 NVC finalists emerged from a field of 104 ventures with 264 participants shining a light on the success and ingenuity of students and faculty.
That growth in the number and quality of NVC teams led to this year’s record level of investment. “I think the shift really is the investment community recognizing that there are legitimate, investable businesses coming out of the NVC,” he said. “In the coming years, other investors will start saying, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of this too’.”
Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor of innovation and partnerships, announced a new twist to this year’s competition. The six teams would pitch on two distinct tracks.The Deep Tech category featured ventures based on scientific or technological innovations developed using fundamental scientific disciplines. The Deep Tech category was offered in partnership with Venture Partners at 51Թ. Ventures beyond Deep Tech criteria competed in the Open category. Both tracks were open to companies launched by students, faculty and staff.“You’re in for a real treat. We’ve got some awesome companies and some amazing pitches,” said Rees.
The quality of past NVC participants and the proven strength of startup creation at 51Թ has attracted entities like Kickstart, a seed-stage venture capital firm, which sponsored this year’s “Open” category winner (for the second year in a row). And this year, for the first time, D4 investments, a firm looking for “ambitious startups in emerging tech” sponsored the “Deep Tech” winner.
Innovations aimed at improving the world
Co-emcees Dianne Myles, CEO of Human Focused Media and Albus Brooks (alum, ‘01) kept the energy up as they introduced the judges of the “Deep Tech” venture pitches, including Kelly Coyne, venture capitalist, D4 Investments; Joey Money, consultant, IndustriaSpark; Ameen Saafir, CEO and co-founder, Tynt Technologies; and Blair Simpson, principal, Denver Angels.
Judges in the “Open” category included Zaneta Kelsey, co-founder and CEO, Access Mode; David Mandell, managing director, Massive; Matt Smith, principal, Kickstart; and Jesus Soto, managing partner, 14 Founders.
The Deep Tech pitches included ventures focused on IP originating from 51Թ, including tech related to disguising cellular communications (GhostCo), improving GPS quality (PrecisionTerra)and boosting scalability in quantum computing (Icarus Quantum).
In the Open category, three founders presented new solutions forsimplifying drone operation for emergency operations (Odin Autonomy), modernizing real estate transactions (Ver Estate) and improving sales intelligence (Measures AI).
Throughout the night, teams showed a strong desire to offer solutions to make existing systems better. Take Odin Autonomy and its CEO and founder Hunter Ray (PhD, Aerospace Engineering). As a first responder in 51Թ County, he used drones to fight fires and look for missing people, but noticed that it often takes several trained people to manage a single aircraft. The company was born from a desire to turn cutting-edge research into real-world impact. “We're developing technology that allows drones to work more independently so firefighters, search teams and law enforcement can focus on the mission, not the controls,” said Ray.
And PrecisionTerra, with founder and CEO Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan(alum,51Թ Physics) is focused on commercializing a cutting-edge software solution that enhances coverage in GPS-degraded environments where weak signals undermine performance for mapping, autonomous vehicles and military operations.
The perfect launchpad
For Hickory, one of the most interesting aspects of programs like NVC is that, “it’s not just about starting a company, it’s become this opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.” He said, “It doesn't matter if you're a business, law or art student, the question is how to identify and solve problems? Having that capacity, especially today, that's going to be key.”
Poolad Imany (postdoctoral associate, NIST,), Icarus Quantum founder and CEO, agreed. “CU has emerged as a hotbed for starting a company. I encourage students to take advantage of these resources and participate in these classes, even if they’re only curious,” he said. “Entrepreneurship skills can have a huge impact on any aspect of your life.”
For VerEstate’s CEO, Camden Dempsey, “51Թ has been the perfect launchpad.” He said, “There’s a real ecosystem here that supports bold ideas and scrappy teams….There’s a lot of freedom to take risks here—and that’s what entrepreneurship is all about.”
2024 NVC Finals Prizes
The judges praised team presentations and queried each founder about their business concepts. After a deliberation period, the winners were announced,and confetti rained down on the stage. Each finalist walked away with a check—the two top teams in each category netted $144,000 a piece, and the additional four teams split $32,000 in prize money. The $5,000 audience choice award went to VerEstate.
New Venture Challenge Deep Tech category judges Blair Simpson, principal, Denver Angels (left), and Joey Money, consultant, IndustriSpark (right), celebrate as D4 investments partner Kelly Coyne (center, left) hands Precision Terra founder and CEO Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan(alum,51Թ Physics) her $144,000 first prize check. Photo: Glenn Asakawa, 51Թ.
Deep Tech Category
$144,000 First Place Prize: PrecisionTerra
Team: Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan (alum,51Թ Physics), Dr. Dmitriy Zusin (LumenAstra)
Solo founder and CEO Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan is focused on improving GPS signals, for safety and efficiency. “Think collision avoidance for autonomous vehicles, autonomous planting and harvesting operations for large-scale farming, and military navigation in active war zones,” she said.
$10,000 Second Place Prize: Icarus Quantum
Team:Poolad Imany (postdoctoral associate, ), Fateme Mahdikhany (University of Arizona), Brad Werner (professor,)
This company’s groundbreaking optical interconnect technology establishes an essential foundation to reliably network quantum computers. “We started Icarus to build a machine that solves many of the pressing challenges of humankind,” said founder and CEO, Poolad Imany. “Our work leads to designing new drugs, materials and optimization algorithms, drastically changing the computing landscape with orders of magnitude more efficiency.”
$6,000 Third Place Prize: GhostCo
Team:Dr. Keith Gremban (Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research), Loren Buck (The Rubicon Group), Dr. Jody Neel (Cognitive Radio Technologies)
GhostCo works to ensure U.S. soldiers, businesses and non-governmental organizations can safely use 5G cellular networks. “Ghost is a software application that runs on your smartphone, and it hides your identity and obscures your activities,” said co-founder and CEO Keith Gremban.
Open Category
$144,000 First Place Prize: VerEstate
Team:Camden Dempsey(),Alec Hyde() andNicholas Soza()
This venture with its all-in-one digital platform is reinventing title insurance to make home sales smarter, faster and more cost-effective, helping more people access home ownership. “Our tech brings transparency and speed to something that’s been a black box for too long. If we can help even one first-time homebuyer feel confident instead of overwhelmed, that’s a win,” said founder Camden Dempsey.
$10,000 Second Place Prize: Measures AI
Team:Beckett Hyde (College of Engineering and Applied Science), Gus Cedergrund (College of Engineering and Applied Science), Cameron Davis (College of Engineering and Applied Science), Caleb Kumar (College of Engineering and Applied Science), Will Dravenstott (College of Engineering and Applied Science)
This sales intelligence tool aims to “measure everything” to give insights crucial to any company’s strategy. “People buy from us because we enable their team and entire company to understand how sales affect them,” said Gus Cedergrund, founder and COO.
$6,000 Third Place Prize: Odin Autonomy
Team:Hunter Ray (College of Engineering and Applied Science), Zakariya Laouar (College of Engineering and Applied Science), Benjamin Kraske (College of Engineering and Applied Science)
Odin Autnomy is working to transform drones from “tools to teammates” for first responders. “By making this technology simpler and more powerful, we enable faster, more coordinated action in the field,” said co-founder and CEO, Hunter Ray. “That means safer responders and most importantly, more lives saved.”