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CoMotion DubPitch Spring 2018

Written by CoMotion Staff / June 20, 2018

In early June, CoMotion held its fourth DubPitch event where research teams from the University of Washington pitch their innovations to local investors.  As the UW’s collaborative innovation hub, CoMotion acts as a conduit between UW researchers/CoMotion Labs’ startups/CoMotion Innovation Fund winners and investors looking for investment opportunities. DubPitch supports CoMotion’s mission of expanding the economic and societal impact of the UW community.

Ten teams, with expertise in Health IT, Blockchain and IT were invited to pitch their technologies in ten minutes, followed by a networking happy hour where investors could ask questions, exchange business cards, and learn more about funding opportunities. All teams were based on UW research or were from CoMotion Labs, our multi-industry labs system which hosts startups inside and outside the UW community.

One early stage company, Augury Designs, Inc., mentored by Mike Robinson, hoped to gain business connections to help them grow into an operating company. Augury has developed a web design tool for predicting website appeal.

Another one of the teams, Stasys Medical, is not at the funding stage but participated for the invaluable experience of live pitching to real investors, and to observe tactics and presentation styles of other teams.

"CoMotion is invaluable as a hub to gather together all of this amazing research that's happening all over campus, and connect those research projects to people who can help turn them into businesses." - Mike Robinson, mentor, Augury Designs, Inc.

Over 40 investors attended to learn about innovations from:

  • Format Health – cardiac arrest documentation
  • KitoTech’s microMend ™ – time-saving alternative to sutures and staples
  • Lyssn – an app that records and transcribes counseling sessions
  • NanoSurface Biomedical – cardiotoxicity drug screening
  • Novuson ® – technology that decreases surgery times and reduces blood loss
  • Stasys Medical – analyzes blood clotting disorders and platelet dysfunction
  • Augury Designs, Inc. – a web design tool for predicting website appeal
  • CoLAB – collaborative ecommerce
  • Onda Origins ™ – blockchain technology for the specialty coffee supply chain

 

And, if you counted only nine companies, you’re right – there was one team who decided not to participate because they had just garnered a substantial investment from a recent connection facilitated by CoMotion.

Jeanette Ennis

Associate Director of Innovation Investment

Jeanette Ennis supports UW researchers pursuing grant money to commercialize their innovations, and helps CoMotion secure economic development grant opportunities. Ennis joined CoMotion in 2009 after more than 15 years of broad research experience as a scientist, entrepreneur, and manager. Her areas of expertise include pharmacology, biochemistry, molecular biology, tissue engineering, and medical devices. She has worked with a variety of start-up companies as project manager, grant writer, and intellectual property manager, and held senior research positions at Cornell University and the UW Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. She earned a doctorate in medical and molecular pharmacology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she trained with Louis Ignarro, Nobel Laureate in Physiology. She also holds a certificate in technical writing and editing from the UW Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering.