2023 McCloskey New Venture Competition Grand Prize Winner, Cynthia Mene '23, Cleva
The 23rd McCloskey New Venture Competition awarded close to $600,000 in cash and in-kind/pitch for investment prizes on Friday during a live-streamed in-person ceremony that culminated the event.
Cleva won the $50,000 McCloskey Grand Prize.
Patti Reinhardt, director of student engagement, competition and events at the IDEA Center, organizes the program, which started back in October with 150 teams. “The McCloskey New Venture Competition really highlights the efforts of the IDEA Center and the McCloskey program, as its participants utilize high caliber mentors, feedback driven judges and a process that takes participants from presentation and passion to sustainable business models. We saw at the finals, the breadth of ventures, a social media deflection app, life saving medical ventures, sports meetups locator/rater and a small ag farmer financial tool. In its over 20 years of existence, McCloskey provides the education and funding to help these ventures make a difference in the world, and that is and will always be a mission of the University of Notre Dame.”
Finalist teams presented a six-minute presentation and answered questions from the judges. The five finalists gave their presentations in-person. These final presentations were recorded and will be available to watch on the IDEA Center’s website.
Judges for the final round were Matt Byers, vice president and technology of Better World Books; Jackson Jhin, CEO and co-founder of Protégé; Ramal Taylor, CEO and CFO of Millenia Strategies; Ron Hopkinson, founder and CEO of HP Legacy Partners, LLC; and Michele Martin, managing director of Accenture.
Since the competition began in 2001 with 30 teams and $30,000 in awards, 2,344 teams with over 7,000 participants have been awarded more than $1.8 million in prizes and 3,400 judges and mentors have contributed.
To visit profiles or connect with winners, please visit Buzzit.ca and enter the event code ndideacenter!
Following is a listing of the awardees; descriptions appear below.
| Award | Description | Recipient 1 | Recipient 2 | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McCloskey Grand Prize | $50,000 cash award | Cleva | $50,000 cash | |
| Greatest Social Impact | $20,000 cash award | Bridging the Gap | $15,000 cash | |
| Schurz Best Female-Led Venture Award | $10,000 cash award | NeuroBell | $10,000 cash | |
| Lavrock Ventures Award for best graduate student venture | $10,000 cash award | SeekSmart | $10,000 cash | |
| EquiCorp Award for the best undergraduate venture | $10,000 cash award | Bike Basics | $10,000 cash | |
| Schurz Communications Innovation Award | $10,000 cash award | Sporx Therapeutics | $10,000 cash | |
| Startup SB/Elkhart for Best Community Venture Award | $10,000 cash award | Mimik Studio | $10,000 cash | |
| The Sutherland Family Award for Best Presentation | $5,000 cash award | Comma | $5,000 cash | |
| Wray/O’Brien Award for Best Minority-Led Venture | $5,000 cash award | Cleva | $5,000 cash | |
| First State Bank Banking Services Award | $3,000 cash prize, with an additional $2,000 in banking services | Mimik Studio | $3,000 cash, $2,000 services | |
| Palo Alto Software Best Undergraduate Pitch Deck | $1,500 cash prize | Smart Foods Company | $1,500 cash | |
| Palo Alto Software Best Graduate Pitch Deck | $1,500 cash prize | Minerva | $1,500 cash | |
| Vogel Family Startup Showcase Best Presentations | $1,000 cash award for first place and $500 for second place | Comma - $1,000 | Tangler Wrangler - $500 | $1,500 cash |
| IrishAngels Award | Opportunity to present to the IrishAngels; estimated value $25- $250K | NeuroBall | ||
| Angeles Investors | Pitch their idea with possible award of $100,000 | Byond | ||
| Elevate Ventures’ High Potential Startup Board | $20,000 opportunity to pitch to Elevate Ventures’ High Potential Startup Board - $20,000 community ideation fund | Kaitlin Spears (Mimic) | $20,000 | |
| Plug and Play Tech Center Awards | $50,000 in in-kind services (offered to 3 teams) | heARsight, Sporx Therapeutics, EYIT Startup Financing Initiative | $50,000 in-kind services | |
| Maria Bailey Family – Best Alumni Venture | $5,000 cash prize | XSEED Properties | $5,000 cash | |
| Patent Hacks | Greatest Social Impact Award and Best Community Venture awarded 6 month access. And the following teams will be awarded a 3 month Access to their platform. | Bridging the Gaps, Cleva, Enabler, Tangler Wrangler, Minerva | ||
| Pre-Accelerator Award | $5,000 cash prize | Maet | $5,000 cash | |
| Marmon Holdings Most Innovative Award | $5,000 cash prize | Smart Foods Company | $5,000 cash | |
| C-Prize, Best Idea in Climate, Conservation and Clean Energy | $5,000 cash prize | Smart Foods Company | $5,000 cash prize | |
| Better World Books, Greatest Social Impact | $20,000 cash prize | Bridging the Gap | $20,000 cash prize | |
| TrademarkED | Offering our McCloskey teams an in-kind donation to use their platform– free of charge | All teams |
High School Awards
| Award | Description | Recipient 1 | Recipient 2 | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garatoni Family Awards - First Place | $2,500 cash award | ArtVision | $2,500 | |
| Garatoni Family Awards - Second Place | $1,500 cash award | Back in the Bend | $1,500 | |
| Garatoni Family Awards - Third Place | $500 cash award | Phone Panel Plus | $500 | |
| Teach Me 3D: Best Female Led High School Team | $500 cash award | ArtVision | $500 |
Summaries of Teams That Won Awards
Bike Basics
Team Leader: Sofia Dolan
Contact Email: sofiadolan@gmail.com
Team Members: Ann Dolan, Jim Dolan
Whether you are caught in the rain, on a dark street or in a potentially dangerous situation, Bike Basics has you covered. The product that can make travel on a bicycle safer is what will be presented for this competition. A “travel size” survival kit that can help you in basically any unwanted situation, whether it be rain, night, or shine. The best part is that it is a product that can easily be hidden under your bicycle seat. This product is convenient to buy, and to always have with you. It includes red pepper spray, weather protection bags, a mini pocket knife, a flashlight, and a bike tire pump bonus gift.
Bridging the Gap for Women - Level Up with the Entrepreneur Residency
Team Leader: Cindy Cohen (Community)
Contact Email: cindycohenRN@yahoo.com
Team Members: Sonya Smith (Community), Rachel Meredith (Community), Mary Lou Stevens (Community), Kelly Endler ‘26, Mary Briamonte ‘26, Addi Greenbaum ‘25
In Saint Joseph County women of color are not viewed as “real” business owners. This is a result of community perceptions, gender bias and lack of support causing delays in access in business development. Aspiring and struggling women entrepreneurs of color in St. Joseph County need a way to build a successful business but lack access to resources, connections, and mentorship opportunities. We know this because 37% of businesses in Indiana are women-owned and in Saint Joseph County only 11%. This is due to community perceptions, female bias towards all women, more often, women of color. I have the solution to this problem in Saint Joseph County.
Byond
Team Leader: Jim Bolt ‘99
Contact Email: jamesrbolt@outlook.com
Team Members: Mauricio Saettone ‘26
Byond is “Your trusted, end of life, shopping site.” Byond is a free site that allows consumers to research and compare funeral home products, services, and prices anytime, anywhere. Byond provides consumers with an informed, positive experience. Byond also partners with funeral homes by providing omnichannel marketing support and qualified leads with clear ROI
Cleva
Team Leader: Cynthia Mene ‘23
Contact Email: cmene@nd.edu
Team Members: Blessing Mene (No Affiliation)
Meet Sammy, a chicken farmer and retailer looking to grow her farm and make money. Unfortunately, Sammy can't because she has a hard time running her business and getting a loan from the bank at the same time. It takes her 6-12 months to get a loan. In Nigeria, more than 1 million farm owners lack access to loans to grow their businesses. The funding gap is about $9.6 billion (PwC). We have developed a simple solution called Cleva. Cleva helps farm owners like Sammy keep proper records of their farm production and financial records in one place so that she can use her data to apply for a loan and get approved within 24 hours instead of waiting 12 months. Cleva is unique because it is a fintech and single-source-of-truth platform that not only helps Sammy digitalize her business and analyzes her data for improved productivity. Cleva acts as a truthful data platform that banks can rely on to originate loans for hard-to-reach farm owners like Sammy. Our vision is to directly impact 500,000 small-scale farms by 2035 and impact 100 million lives indirectly in Africa. Instead of doing nothing to change the lives of African farms. Wouldn't you rather bank on us and support us?
Comma
Team Leader: Eydis LimaCian Fogarty ESTEEM ‘23
Contact Email: cfogart2@nd.edu
Team Members: Nathalia Dunlap ESTEEM ‘23, Nieshaal Thambipllay ESTEEM ‘23, Duncan Wilgress-Pipe ESTEEM ‘23, Patrick Hennessey ESTEEM ‘23
Comma is a business tackling the worldwide issue of social media addiction through a new innovative app and technology. Comma’s mission is to provide actionable, customizable, and valuable alternatives to scrolling on social media. Comma recognizes when a person is scrolling for too long, which triggers a push notification from the app. Displayed on the notification are specific options to move the user away from social media to a more valuable experience (i.e. an informative podcast or a reminder that you wanted to go for a walk today). The primary targets for this app will be parents with young children, young professionals, and businesses looking to provide their remote workers with more value. We aim to impact the lives of the 330 million people in the world with social media addiction through a unique solution never seen before on the market. Follow our journey through thestartupstory.substack.com. organize or provide the training.
Enabler
Team Leader: Moitshepi Chalashika (Mandela Fellow)
Contact Email: moitshepi.chalashika@gmail.com
Team Members: Amy An ‘26, Thato Sedirwa (No Affiliation), Titose Chembezi (Mandela Fellow)
We are a team of financial and investment professionals with a combined corporate and advisory experience of more than 25 years and are passionate about solving growth and sustainability problems facing Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). We combine our technical expertise with creative thinking to create solutions for business challenges. We take a supportive and long-term approach and can proudly declare that we are a sustainable economic development partner assisting businesses to survive, grow, and create jobs. We provide the following services: Technical support– we help you organize your business and put the right structures and systems in place to improve operational efficiency. Advisory – We provide strategic and financial advisory to support and enhance your growth and investment attraction prospects. Fundraising – We identify funding needs and help fundraise and/or provide the funding needed to grow your company. Training – We identify your training needs and help organize or provide the training.
EYIT Startup Financing Initiative (ESFI)
Team Leader: Tushabe Ronard (Mandela Fellow)
Contact Email: rtushabe10@gmail.com
EYIT STARTUP FINANCING INITIATIVE (ESFI) is a financial technology company that enables micro and small enterprises to use a mobile application called AccountantApp to keep financial records and use them to access funding to grow their businesses. In Uganda, 4,500,000 micro and small enterprises start every year, but 74% of them face the challenge of limited access to funding such as grants, micro-loans and equity investment which limits their growth. This has been attributed to poor record keeping where they lack proven track of financial records to show to business funders to access funding. The micro and small enterprises that try to keep records use manual methods such as writing in books and such records are subject to damage in case of water, or fire and are also prone to errors. EYIT STARTUP FINANCING INITIATIVE (ESFI) addresses the challenge of poor financial records by providing these micro and small enterprises with AccountantApp to keep records such as inventory, incomes, assets, creditors, debtors and expenses. They also use AccountantApp to generate financial reports such as profit/loss statements and balance sheets.
Maet
Team Leader: Fouad El Zoghbi ‘22
Contact Email: fouad@maet.io
Team Members: Kekoa Wong ‘22, Toni Akintola ‘26
Maet is an athletic competition marketplace powered by video game-like ratings for real sports. Athletes of all levels can play pickup and join monetized competitions to develop their ratings, and can even host their own tournaments to make money.
Mimik Studio
Team Leader: Caitlin Sears (Community)
Contact Email: c.sears@en-focus.org
Team Members: Marcia Pereira de Andrade (Community), John Templeton PhD, Dillon Bangasser ‘23, Chris Fakhimi ‘24
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a complex field at the intersection of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence. Currently, its implications and uses are vast. A seemingly obvious application of NLP is in speech-language pathology, but there is a paucity of representation in clinical practice. A survey of established Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) revealed no such application is currently being used. A summary of those surveyed found 50% of SLPs spontaneously named software as their preferred data collection method, but only 2% use software in their clinical practice. There are a variety of software options to transcribe speech to text and to produce models - verbally and in writing - of a target word, but there is no user-friendly technology to transcribe speech, particularly when speech errors are likely phonetically. As such, Mimik Studio is in the development of an application for SLPs to transcribe audio into a phonetic transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Minerva
Team Leader: Katie Smith ‘24
Contact Email: ksmith17@nd.edu
Team Members: Elaine Zarzana ‘08, Patti Smith
Minerva is an app that empowers women to be free from chronic pain using a science-based curriculum. An estimated 70 percent of people living with chronic pain are women, yet there is no app for chronic pain specifically designed for women. The Minerva app uses short video modules and a supportive community to train women in pain interventions and promote lasting healing.
NeuroBell
Team Leader: Alison O’Shea ‘15
Contact Email: alison.oshea@mtu.ie
Team Members: Sophie Cairns ESTEEM ‘23, Mark O'Sullivan (No Affiliation)
NeuroBell is a pre-spinout team leveraging technology developed by our founders during their Ph.D. research at University College Cork in Ireland. In neonatal healthcare, every second counts. Seizures happen more in the neonatal period than at any other time and significantly impact patient outcomes. Timely diagnosis is essential, but it currently requires complex EEG monitoring equipment and specialist staff, which are not readily available in most hospitals. NeuroBell is developing a patent-pending, pocket-sized and wireless medical device that facilitates nurse-led EEG monitoring with automated neonatal seizure detection and alerts without needing complex equipment and specialist staff.
SeekSmart
Team Leader: Sean Conahan ‘23
Contact Email: sconahan@nd.edu
SeekSmart develops technological solutions to enhance the safety of workings dogs and their handlers as they operate at the forefront of danger. SeekSmart products prioritize handler safety and insight to facilitate mission success.
Smart Foods
Team Leader: Filip Kubicki ‘24
Contact Email: fkubicki@nd.edu
Team Members: Gustavo Aniceto ‘24
Smart Foods solves the problem of food deserts, defined as communities lacking access to fresh groceries within close proximity to their homes. Smart Foods brings new life to rural communities which previously could only purchase food in a dollar store or had to drive dozens of miles to the closest fresh grocery store. Our solution is sustainable, faces low risk, and has low marketing costs.
SpoRx Therapeutics Inc.
Team Leader: Laura Hession ESTEEM ‘23
Contact Email:rmatthe2@nd.edu
Team Members: Robbie Matthews ESTEEM ‘23
Clostridiodes difficile (C. diff) is a bacterium that causes life-threatening diarrhea and is classified by the CDC as an immediate public health threat. C. diff infections often occur due to antibiotic treatments, which can disrupt the bacterial environment of the gut. C. diff also produces dormant spores that can reactivate infection months to years after the initial infection. Each year in the US alone there are an estimated 500,000 cases of CDI, and roughly 13,000-30,000 of those cases result in death. 25 percent of patients treated with current antibiotics have a recurrence of infection. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have invented a novel, first-in-class spore inhibitor to tackle life-threatening C. diff infections exhibiting potent anti-C. diff activity in vitro and in vivo. The compound is effective against C. diff at the logarithmic vegetative and stationary growth phases, targeting cell-wall biosynthesis. This is the birth of SpoRx.
Tangler Wrangler
Team Leader: David Lyke ESTEEM '23
Contact Email: dlyke@nd.edu
Team Members: Lauren Barrera Reny ESTEEM ’23
The Tangler Wrangler is a one-piece plastic cord wrap designed to make storing and transporting an electric vehicle’s mobile charging cord easy, safe, and convenient! It is sized specifically for heavy-duty charging cables and features built-in storage to protect the plugs and an S-shaped slot that allows both ends of the cord to be unwound independently.
XSEED Properties
Team Leader: Grady Schmidt (Alumni)
Contact Email: gradyschmidt@gmail.com
Team Members: Andres Alvarez ‘25
XSEED Properties is an early-stage idea for a for-profit real estate investment company that makes monthly investments on behalf of low-income tenants into a diversified fund. The firm's goal is to create better outcomes for tenants by helping them escape the cycle of poverty.