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HUG Solutions, a startup company developing cold chain transportation technology to help rural communities access mRNA vaccines, walked away from the University of Colorado’s New Venture Challenge as champions, banking $30,000 in cash prizes and a $25,000 investment offer.

CU Engineering students have invented PortaVax, a portable vaccine carrier that can keep up to 250 vaccine doses cold for several days using insulation and dry ice. Their device will help solve transporting vaccine doses to rural communities, which often lack reliable electricity or cannot afford ultra-low temperature coolers.

Six of CU Boulder's top startups (HUG Solutions, LGBT50, Orbital Biodesign, Sarus, Seedling Biosystems and ToobTek) will vie for their portion of $100,000 in funding at the 13th annual NVC Championships.

More than 60 out of 110 registered NVC teams chose to participate in one of the three competitions: Impact Prize, NVC Newcomer Prize and Female Founder Prize. The winners represented all corners of campus, ranging from the Leeds School of Business to the College of Music, to freshmen, graduate students, PhDs and faculty.

TissueForm seeks to improve quality-of-life outcomes at lower costs for patients suffering from tissue disease, damage, or aging through stem cell and matrix-based therapies. The company—founded by Jeanne Barthold, PhD, and CU Boulder Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Corey Neu—is no stranger to the pitch competition circuit. TissueForm won $125,000 in Venture Partners' 2018 Lab Venture Challenge and took home multiple awards and more than $20,000 in CU Boulder's New Venture Challenge 11.

Want to turn your passion turn into a business? Learn how from Michaela Shepherd (MBA'21), the CEO and founder of W.P. Equestrian, a premier equine-facilitated, evidence-based leadership development program that focuses on inclusivity and authenticity.

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, won two top prizes within several days in support of her company, Chembotix, taking home a total of $11,000 in prizes. On March 18, Shara’s team won $5,000 during the New Venture Challenge 14 Female Founder Prize. Then on March 22, Shara’s team won another $6,000, the top prize in CU Boulder’s New Venture Launch class.

As Marlo Vernon’s grandmother got older, her family began wondering how best they could keep an eye on her. As Vernon was completing her senior year at CU Boulder, she began to dive deeper into this idea. By monitoring water usage, she had come across a non-intrusive way for people to keep tabs on older adults. After graduating last spring, Vernon took the project full-time and launched CarePenguin.

Max Young is a junior studying computer science and a solopreneur who has a passion for startups and building awesome products. His passion led him to compete in CU Boulder's New Venture Challenge (NVC) in 2019 with his business idea for PartyFavor (now known as Hooot), a smartphone app that is aimed at empowering individuals with the gift of safety.

After competing in New Venture Challenge her freshman year at CU Boulder, computer science major Andrea Chamorro is back competing as a senior with a new business concept: trAIn. The company hopes to change the way employee training is done in industry.