On May 2nd, 2017, Free Ventures hosted its semi-annual Demo Day showcasing six startups at The House near UC Berkeley. Unlike past semesters, this year’s Demo Day was closed to the general public to allow Berkeley students, investors, mentors and leaders of Silicon Valley to network in a more private setting.
Free Ventures incubates startups in various industries, each whom will continue to move forward with their companies in the summer. Managing Director, Blake Lafayette, opened the night with a brief introduction of what Free Ventures does and what each startup has accomplished this past semester. Greylock Partners, Early Growth Financial Services, The House Fund and Pear VC sponsored Free Ventures this semester and accelerators like Y Combinator has invested in a few of their startups as well.
About Free Ventures
Free Ventures is UC Berkeley’s student run startup incubator that allocates resources and mentorship to help student translate an idea into a company. Founded in 2013, Free Ventures has helped over forty teams and has successfully created a student run accelerator within the UC Berkeley community. Free Ventures continues to invite new teams and startups into incubation every semester to help diversify the types of companies it hosts. Meetings are held on bi-weekly and sometimes more frequently where each team gets to develop their companies with the help from VC mentors.
Teams
PeerEditr
PeerEditr is a feedback and collaboration tool that is the quickest way for someone to receive feedback. It is designed for any documents like resumes or marketing presentations that allows the user to get feedback with one click. It creates a feedback room with annotation tools that can be shared with anyone allowing for edits to be made quick and easy. PeerEditr will be working with Pear VC for the summer.
Free Ventures has provided access to our team from the beginning through sponsorship and mentorship and has also taught us what it takes for someone to invest in our company.
– PeerEditr
Memory
Memory is an Alexa-based voice assistant for individuals with Alzheimer’s. It uses information given by the patient’s family members and caretakers to collect data on the best way to respond to a patient’s question or concern. Memory’s goal is to lower the difficulty on caretakers and to allow physicians to provide customized treatments to each and every patient. Memory will be working with Lightspeed Venture Partners for the summer.
Acuity for Moms
Acuity for Moms is an online program that gives the opportunity for moms to re-enter the workforce by providing various resources and skill training. The platforms creates a customized path in order for each client to have their own unique experience depending on their skill set, time availability, interests etc.
Genetic Foresight
Genetic Foresight provides a genetic test that will be able to determine how an individual will react after taking a certain kind of medication depending on their genetic code. Doctors will then be able to make safer and more effective prescriptions to each patient preventing the risk of any medical interference with the patient’s genetics. Each report will be evaluated biannually from new research, new drugs and new medications so that the individual is always kept up to date.
Paladin Drones
Paladin Drones are drones that provide safety to the public, which decreases the response time by two minutes by providing situational awareness before first responders arrive at a scene. Paladin Drones is now a finalist for Berkeley Big Ideas.
Layer Six
Layer Six is the only research backed cognitive solution to help solve the problem of information overload and reduction of high performance. It brings data-driven diagnostics, software on how our brain already works through cognitive assessments and personalized VR therapeutics to its consumers.
After hearing from all six startups, the audience was able to interact with the teams, investors and Free Ventures Team to learn more about the programs, development processes, and companies.
To learn more about Free Ventures please visit their website.
For questions please feel free to email Blake Lafayette, Jeffrey Feng, or Pranav Gulati!