Launch Pad

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for December is Harper Wilde, founded by Jenna Kerner and Jane Fisher, both WG'17.

Harper Wilde “takes the BS out of bra shopping.” Jane and Jenna “decided t…

All right, men: imagine that every time you wanted to buy a pair of boxers, you had to spend three hours searching through hundreds of options and pay $50 or even $70?

This is the hook that finally g…

If what you need is a diamond, head over to RareCarat.com immediately.

If what you need is some insight into founding and growing the Kayak for diamonds, listen to this fascinating conversation betwe…

What happens when two women with amazing tech skills and experience have kids? They create Winnie, a companion app for modern parents.

Sara Mauskopf and Anne Halsall, founders of Winnie, have some se…

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for November is Allbirds, founded by Joey Zwillinger, WG'10.

Elevator Pitch: “We set out to make the most comfortable shoe in the world. What we did to do tha…

Karl's wearing Allbirds right now.

Partly for the look--no logos, just a stylish wool sneaker--partly because they really are, as Time magazine called the, The Most Comfortable Shoe In The World, and …

Fertility care is expensive—and the experience itself is far from wonderful. Enter Carrot, which works with employers of any size to offer egg freezing and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) as a workplace…

Lunch for under $6. That’s what MealPal promises.

Here’s how it works: you place an order online, anytime between 5:00 pm the night before and 9:30 am that morning, and you get to choose from lots of…

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for October is Zipline, founded by Keenan Wyrobek.

Elevator Pitch: “We deliver essential medical products using drones, small robotic aircrafts, in the harde…

A test drive that comes to you. A car loan you can close on your mobile device. Wouldn’t it be amazing if buying a car could be this easy? With Shift, it is.

Here’s founder George Arison’s elevator p…

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for August is Flyr, founded by Alex Mans.

Elevator Pitch: “What we do at Flyr is we are really good at predicting what the price and availability of specific…

Elevator Pitch: “What we do at Flyr is we are really good at predicting what the price and availability of specifically airline tickets will be in the future, and we use that knowledge to either allo…

Andy Rachleff, W'80 isn’t your ordinary VC.

After founding Benchmark, which has among the highest returns in the entire venture industry, he retired. Then he came out of retirement to found Wealthfro…

If you’re a cloud storage geek, then do we have a treat for you!

This interview with Wasabi founder David Friend goes deep into the weeds of how and why they’re offering, in David’s words “exactly th…

What’s in your tampon? Bet you don’t know—unless, of course, you already use Lola, in which case the answer is 100% organic cotton.

Lola founder Alex Friedman, WG’11 got fired up when she realized th…

“About 90% of bike-related deaths were associated with people that were not wearing a helmet,” explains AnneeLondon founder Rachel Benyola.

Wearing a helmet, “reduces head and neck injury by at least…

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for August is Ringly, founded by Christina Mercado.

Ringly is smart jewelry and accessories that connect to your phone and alert you, through vibration and li…

Naivete can persuade you to try for the seemingly impossible. If you follow this up with education and hard work--sometimes the impossible becomes a successful startup. That's how Ringly founder Chri…

That gym membership you signed up for but haven’t used in five years? You know they’re still charging your credit card every month, right? What if someone would not just point that out to you—but als…