Yale SOM Ventures Presents Snag Awards at Startup Yale 2022

Five companies founded by Yale School of Management students were among the winners of Startup Yale 2022, held April 28-30.

Startup Yale is the university’s largest entrepreneurship award. The annual event spans three days of venture pitches, celebrations and get-togethers Yale innovators, community leaders, investors and practitioners from a wide range of industries.

Finalist teams from both the for-profit and non-profit sectors presented their ventures to panels of experts, academics, entrepreneurs and investors. More than $135,000 in cash prizes were awarded during the virtual ceremonies.

Yale SOM winning teams include:

• frailty mythsWinner of the Yale Innovators Prize Grand Prize, the awards $15,000 to a startup that has the potential to make the greatest impact – financially, socially or otherwise.

  Frailty Myths is a diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy that harnesses the power of practice, community leadership and experiential learning to transform work culture and promote equity.

  “It’s an incredible honor to have won the Innovator award at Startup Yale,” said co-founder Georgia Faye Hirsty ’22. “It felt like a powerful culmination of all the work we have done within the Yale entrepreneurial community and a testament to the support, encouragement and brilliance of our mentors. I look forward to working full-time on Frailty Myths after graduation and will focus on scaling our impact and further advancing justice through practice.”

• The Educator Wellness Projectwinner of Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health or Education, which awards $25,000 to the best company trying to address health or education gaps in underserved populations.

  The Educator Wellness Project provides individualized wellness coaching, small group healing circles, and social-emotional learning resources to meet the mental health and well-being needs of educators.

  “We are so grateful to be the recipients of this year’s Thorne Prize. Our project sits at the intersection of education and mental health, and the award focuses on social innovation in either health or education, so this felt like a perfect match,” said founder Nicola Fleischer, 22. “We’ve had great feedback from by the jury and are also motivated to continue our growth in the coming year.”

• VivorCareAudience Choice Winner for the Rita Wilson Prize Fund to Support Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the awards up to $10,000 to the best student-led company focused on developing a technological solution to address a health inequality affecting the nation.

  VivorCare is the first virtual survivor clinic to provide targeted, whole-person care to survivors of a critical illness, beginning with cancer. Its founder is Hil Moss ’22

  As the Audience Choice winner, VivorCare received $500.

• Sweetgum LabsAudience Award Winner for Miller Prize Giving $25,000 for a student-led company working on innovative technical or technology-enabled solutions that have a definable go-to-market strategy.

  Sweetgum Labs is incentivizing users to adopt a low-carbon lifestyle through a “gamified” mobile application.

  “We are very grateful and excited about this award as it is very important to Sweetgum Labs as a Yale-based startup,” said co-founder Vera Wang ’22. “We look forward to continuing to use blockchain technology to help individuals in the community understand, record, visualize and tokenize their carbon footprint. We welcome everyone to make an ecological and social contribution with us!”

  As an Audience Choice winner, Sweetgum Labs received $500.

• pocket empireAudience Award Winner for the Manolo Sanchez Prize, the awards $25,000 to a for-profit or not-for-profit student-run startup with the potential to help improve the financial health of the financially disadvantaged.

  Pocketful is a native, community-powered stock trading and investing platform. It aims to democratize access to financial markets in India by making stock markets easy, safe and available in regional languages. It is aimed at first-time investors and novice/traders aged 18-30.

  As the Audience Choice winner, Pocketful received $500.

  “We are thrilled to have been a finalist for the Monolo Sanchez Prize and to have won the Audience Choice Award,” said Founder Sarvam Goel ’22. “It validates our mission to bring investment to every household in India and help people make better financial decisions. We are excited to launch our pilot and look forward to impacting millions of Indians!”