Budding Entrepreneurs Pitch Ideas in 60 Seconds or Less
Students and alumni compete in Fast Pitch, an annual campus-wide competition to kick-start their entrepreneurial journey.
Bobolink AI, Nicole Pochinki (Graduate Student, Teachers College 2024)
BeatTheNudge, Tapasi Brahma (Engineering 2023)
Vijay Krishnan, Co-Founder and CEO of Verde Finance (Fast Pitch Judge)
Surgonomic Solutions, Arvind Nandakumar (Engineering 2023, GRAD 2ND PLACE WINNER)
Iku Bio, Sterling Hooten (General Studies 2023, GRAD 1ST PLACE WINNER)
Polly, Sharicka Zutshi (Engineering 2024)
MabLab, Vienna Sparks (Barnard) and Skye Lam (Harvard), UNDERGRAD 1ST PLACE WINNER
Revive-A-Rhythm, Lauren Bazay (Engineering 2024, AUDIENCE CHOICE WINNER)
Judges, left to right: Patrick Blute, director of Sustainability and ESG at Transfix; Hugh Thomas, assoc. director IDE; Vijay Krishnan, co-founder and CEO of Verde Finance
Filos, Mehdi Bouassami (Engineering 2024)
OptiTime, Harry Kabodha and Ayman Khaleq (Engineering 2024)
Tycoonland, John Smith (General Studies 2024)
Students and alumni from across Columbia University came together Nov. 15 at Davis Auditorium to compete in the Fast Pitch Competition, the first of many contests hosted by Columbia Engineering Entrepreneurship.
Similar to the popular reality television show Shark Tank, teams of Columbia entrepreneurs are given 60 seconds to sell their business ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win up to $5,000 in prize funding. Beyond their ideas, teams are judged by the appeal, conciseness, and completeness of their pitches, so contestants must utilize different skills to properly pitch their ideas.
This year, Fast Pitch had the largest applicant pool since its inception, with 35 of the 56 teams competing in the live event.
Congratulations to this year’s winners:
Undergraduate Winners
1st place
MabLab: Detecting deadly lacing agents in recreational drugs
Vienna Sparks, BC’26; Skye Lam (Harvard)
2nd place
Surgitech: AI for surgery error prevention
Anuva Banwasi, SEAS’24
3rd place
Bulletin: One-stop shop for everything happening on Columbia's campus
Lucy Chen, CC'23; Ariel Chai Nurieli, GS’25; Rotem Weiss, GS’24
Graduate Winners
1st place
Iku Bio: Manufacture bioproducts using electronics
Hooten Sterling, GS'23
2nd place Tie
Surgonomic Solutions: Intuitive, Ergonomic Surgical Instruments
Arvind Nandakumar, SEAS’23
2nd Place Tie
RoachThatWaste: Use cockroaches to process mixed organic waste
Yuheng Chen, CBS'25
Audience Choice Award
Revive-A-Rhythm: Device that makes CPR easier to perform
Columbia Engineering seniors Lauren Bazay, Ijeoma G Obi, Carol Xu, Erica Bonheur, Elizabeth Angelina Caso, and Hadeel Sajidah Abdul-Rehman