Liam Redmond, Neuroscience & Entrepreneurship '25| DESI

Describe your company: Desi is a student exclusive rideshare platform connecting student riders to student drivers. We recruit verified, vetted, and interviewed college students as personalized drivers for peers. Rides are safe, reliable, and affordable without surge pricing.

Why did you apply to Race To Revenue? What are you hoping to get out of this experience? I applied to R2R to have the flexibility to work on Desi full-time over the summer and raise funding to launch on multiple campuses in September. I hope to progress with the company and get to know my fellow student founders in the cohort, as student founders are usually very motivated individuals with lots in common.

When is a time you failed forward? A great example of failing forward was when we applied Desi to the Apple App Store and attempted to launch on a strict timeline. We were initially denied, which set us back on our timeline; however, this denial allowed us to test our product better and launch a completely functioning version of Desi on the app store.

Where were you born? What is an interesting fact about your hometown? I was born in 2002 and grew up in Burlington, Vermont - home of the infamous Ben & Jerry!

Would you rather go back in time or be transported to the future? I would rather be transported to the future. I am always amazed looking back to see how much our world has progressed, so I'd be curious to go forward and see society from where it is today.

Who is the fictional character you have the most in common with, and why? I would say Lightning McQueen, as I can sometimes be too ambitious and confident. However, I consider myself very outgoing, kind, and highly motivated.

Fun fact about you: I randomly met my co-founder, Zach Brown, in the South Dining Hall stir fry line to found the company!

Lastly, what do you want to learn more about, relating to business development in general or your own company/venture specifically? Hoping to learn about the scaling process and the corresponding timelines of raising various funding rounds. We are currently raising a funding round for Desi, so I'm especially interested to have additional knowledge of fundraising past the pre-seed and seed stages of a company.