Launch Pad

 Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinliast & InstaHub founder Michael Wong, W'19

Elevator Pitch, from Michael: “Our vision is to simply simplify automation with snap-on solutions, to help …

Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & Chipper founder Haley Russell, WG'18

Elevator Pitch, from Haley: “Chipper Pet is an environmentally conscious pet food company that enables pet …

Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & Avisi founder Rui Jing Jiang, W'18

Elevator Pitch, from Rui Jing: “Avisi is a medical devices company that's working on a product called VisiPla…

Republic is, in founder Ken Nguyen's words: "an investment platform that allows everyone, not just millionaires, every day people, irrespective of your income of net worth, to actually invest in priv…

As an analyst at a big Wall Street bank, Wharton Executive MBA grad Jack Kokko spent a lot of time digging through information, and he vividly remembers the feeling of “fearing that you're missing so…

Karl Ulrich does a great job of summarizing what Kabbage, founded by Kathryn Petralia, does, after several minutes of intense conversation around APRs and credit lines: “I can get a reasonable amount…

When it comes to finding patterns in huge quantities of data, computers are way better than the human brain--at least once they're properly trained. (This is the hard part.)

Zebra Medical Vision is t…

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for March is VEERAH, founded by Stacey Chang, WG'12.

Elevator pitch, from Stacey: “Veerah is inspired by women, made for warriors. We are a mission-driven lux…

How do you go about convincing factories to work with your startup--especially if you're trying to make a luxury shoe entirely vegan, without sacrificing quality craftsmanship or comfort?

Stacey Chan…

After 20 years as what she calls a "sick care entrepreneur," Ashley Dombkowski wanted to truly become a health care entrepreneur. She’s now Co-founder and CEO of SpoonfulOne, a startup that is trying…

Finding a new place to live is stressful, but VeryApt—founded by two Wharton MBA alumni, Scott Bierbryer and Ashrit Kamireddi, both WG’14—aims to reduce that stress by restoring trust in the apartmen…

Fig Loans is super cool for a bunch of reasons:

1)They’re in the payday loans business, but they’re helping people rebuild their credit;

2)The founders are Wharton alumni who met and founded the comp…

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for February is Rockets of Awesome, founded by Rachel Blumenthal.

Elevator pitch: “Rockets of Awesome is a personal shopping service and vertical apparel bra…

Karl Ulrich has given a LOT of thought to how to come up with a great company name, but his conversation with Rockets of Awesome founder Rachel Blumenthal has made him revise his naming rules.

Listen…

In the words of Sally Poblete, WG'00, Wellthie founder: “Wellthie is a marketplace and sales optimization platform so that small businesses can find the best fit insurance for them across the United …

You need to deck out a new home--you need Snowe. Founder Andres Modak, WG'12, G'12, has sourced luxury essentials and priced them way below fancy department stores.

Here's his elevator pitch: "Snowe …

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for January is The One Health Company, founded by Penn and Wharton alum Benjamin Lewis.

Here’s Ben's elevator pitch: “The One Health Company is changing the …

Here’s founder Ben Lewis' elevator pitch: “The One Health Company is changing the way that animal testing is done. We’re totally turning it on its head, from something that hurts animals to something…

Possibly the worst part of healthcare is the sheer incomprehensibility of the bill. Is it right? Is it wrong? With all those codes, and back and forth with the insurance company, who can tell?

As it …

If you can lead soldiers into battle, you can cold call 140 investors.

Neuroflow founder Chris Molero, WG’17, is a veteran, and he’s seen the effects of PTSD. As he reminds us, “20 veterans a day com…