Two startups, one from Emory University and one with roots at the University of Georgia, made their mark at this month’s TiE U Global Pitch Competition in Silicon Valley.
The university program, founded in 2013, helps college entrepreneurs hone their pitches and connect with a global group of mentors. During the academic year 2023 – 2024, 1,400 teams applied to the program. As the field was narrowed down, the TiE Atlanta chapter sent two teams to California to compete against 34 different global chapters representing seven countries for cash and in-kind prizes.
Doorstep.ai (previously profiled on Hypepotamus) was named first runner up and OpenLake landed fourth place. The top prize went to MabLab, a student startup based out of New York.
Doorstep, founded by recent Emory graduate Shashwat Murarka, is a visual guidance system built to help delivery drivers get pinpoint directions to a drop-off location. On top of taking home second place at the global competition, Murarka’s work was recently recognized at the Emory Entrepreneur Awards hosted in April.
Milan Tahliani, Co-Founder & CEO of data infrastructure startup OpenLake and recent graduate of Boston University, Tahliani built his team from college talent in both Massachusetts and the University of Georgia campus. He told Hypepotamus that representing TiE Atlanta at the pitch competition in Silicon Valley gave him invaluable access to mentors, customers, and investors. He said that he didn’t even have a chance to sit down after pitching on stage before an investor pulled him aside to talk about committing capital to his fundraising round.
His startup works as a no-code, conversational AI platform that makes it easier for users to manage data source integrations. Tahliani said the startup launched in 2022 but started to gain traction in August of 2023 when it landed its first paying customers. Built strategically as an industry agnostic tool, he said that early customers have come from the insurance and software world.
“Our ideal user is someone who is managing multiple data sources at scale and wants to create customized workflows,” he added.
Dr. Paul Lopez, entrepreneur, investor, and Board Chair of TiE Atlanta, said that the university program has long been viewed as a value-add to a student’s college experience and entrepreneurial journey.
“In our most recent Spring 2024 semester, the college teams rated the quality of mentoring at an average of 9.8 on a 10-point scale with over 135 sessions logged! We at TiE Atlanta are pleased to ‘give back’ through our differentiated and dedicated mentoring to assist these young founders as they pursue their entrepreneurial dreams!”
—
Featured photo: OpenLake’s Milan Tahliani (from LinkedIn)
