Entrepreneurship

2023 Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition

November 17, 2023

Fast-Pitch Competition

The Fast-Pitch Competition showcases our passionate and talented student future founders across Columbia University, featuring pitches of their innovative, world-changing companies, with an ambition to scale across the healthcare industry. The day will include inspiring guest speakers who take on healthcare challenges in the entrepreneurship space every day, and will conclude with a networking reception. 

Address

722 W. 168th Street, 8th Floor Auditorium

Agenda

  • Fast-Pitch Competition: 10:00am-1:00pm
  • Networking Reception: 1:00-2:30pm

Submission Criteria

This competition is open to all Columbia University graduate and undergraduate students who have an idea for a startup solution that addresses public health and healthcare issues.

Submission Process

  • Submit a pitch video (3-minutes max.)
  • Qualifying submissions will receive notice that they are eligible to pitch their idea live and will receive a link to register via Eventbrite
  • Registered participants will receive mentorship by experts in the field
  • Participants will present their pitch deck to the judges at the Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition on November 17

Timeline

  • Applications open: Sept 14
  • Applications close: Oct 24
  • Applications reviewed: Oct 25-26
  • Participants notified: Oct 27
  • Mentor introduction: Oct 30
  • Fast Pitch Competition: Nov 17
Register here

  

November 17, 2023: Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition

On November 17th, HPM hosted its third annual fast-pitch competition, showcasing passionate and talented student founders across Columbia University. This year, we had thirteen teams competing from all over CU – Mailman, SIPA, Barnard, Engineering and the Institute of Human Nutrition! This special day included inspiring guest speakers who take on healthcare challenges in the venture capital and entrepreneurship space every day and concluded with a celebratory reception.

Congratulations to the winning team, Engineering PhD candidate, Haiqiu Yang, from OptiCardio. Cardiac ablation has less than 60% success rate and high recurrence rate as 50% to treat complex arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. This is due to the inadequate lesions that generated without knowing the extent of completeness. There is a clinical need for reliable, independent assessment of lesion quality during procedure. Opticardio is a near infrared spectroscopy and catheter used with the current electroanatomic mapping and radiofrequency ablation systems. By providing real-time monitoring of lesion formation during ablation energy delivery, ablation strategy can be adjusted and personalized to improve the success rate of termination and reduce the rate of recurrence. 
 

Thank you to Asha Saxena for your generous gift and to Rebecca Sale for spearheading entrepreneurship at Columbia Public Health. And a HUGE thank you to our judges, AJ Taylor, Besa Bauta and Joyce Shen. In addition to our fantastic judges, we are also so grateful for our incredible mentors, many who are HPM alum, who were assigned to a team and helped guide them as they prepared to pitch their idea live. This year’s mentors included Rocky Seftel, Dara Meath, Caroline Weinberg, Todd Richter, Asha Saxena, Tracy Ongena, Sam Nimah, Lily Jin, Lily Li, Steve Fleischner, Linda Nedell, Jeff Garwood, Julia Bardmesser, Hoyin Lip and Jason Friesan.

November 18, 2022: Columbia Healthcare Ventures Fast-Pitch Competition

On November 18th, HPM hosted its second fast-pitch competition of 2022, showcasing passionate and talented student founders across Columbia University. Ten teams pitched innovative ideas with ambition to solve pressing problems in healthcare, representing seven schools: Columbia Public Health, Columbia Engineering, Columbia Business School, Physicians & Surgeons, the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Barnard, and Teachers College. 
 
Congratulations to the winner, HPM EXEC student, Chris Chin, from Crosstalk Connections. The nonprofit seeks to ease the burden of support phone calls that are a core part of the recovery process in Alcoholics Anonymous. The system automatically connects someone in recovery with a supportive member of their recovery team. The startup’s founder, Chris Chin, said his idea was born out of his own discomfort with initiating these phone calls, a trait he shares with many young people. The $5,000 prize will fund the beta-testing of the technology. 
 
Thank you to Asha Saxena for your generous gift and to Rebecca Sale for making entrepreneurship a priority at Columbia Public Health. And a HUGE thank you to our judges, Maria Forero, Joe Habboushe and Les Funtleyder, and our fantastic mentors, AJ Taylor, Jason Friesen, Dana Le, Linda Nedell, Gati Dharani, Edison Sabala, Kevin Adams, Steve Fleischner, Jean-Ezra Yeung and Jeff Garwood. None of this would be possible without you! 

April 15, 2022: Healthcare Venture Day 

On April 15, 2022, HPM hosted its first ever pitch competition, showcasing passionate and talented student founders across Columbia University. All of the teams pitched innovative ideas with ambition to solve pressing problems in healthcare. 

Congratulations to the winners, Team IRLY @ Columbia Engineering, who’s idea is revolutionizing the ambulatory surgical recovery process by creating a point-of-care device for at home use that alerts recovering surgery patients of potential SSIs. Their device gives patients who are monitoring wounds, at home autonomy that no other infection detecting system has before. Thank you to Asha Saxena for your generous contribution! And a huge thank you to our judges, Lauren Driscoll, Roy Bejarano and Edison Sabala, and our fantastic mentors, AJ Taylor, Les Funtleyder, Dana Le, Linda Nedell and Gati Dharani .

None of this would be possible without you!