Biomedical Scholars FORGE a Path to Success with Startup Ventures
Left to right: Mentor in Residence Ben Maurey, FORGE Founding Executive Director Brian Ellerman, Student Biomedical Entrepreneurs Isaac Kailat, Abhiman Gupta and Sydney Arriaga, Flagship Pioneering General Partner Harry Wilcox, Mentor in Residence John Achoukian
Three remarkable college students seized a unique opportunity to cultivate entrepreneurial skills while securing their academic futures. In a new initiative from the University of Arizona FORGE, the students received Biomedical Entrepreneur scholarships that enabled them to work on their startup concepts in exchange for tuition. University of Arizona undergraduate students Sydney Arriaga, Abhiman Gupta, and Isaac Kailat took part in an intensive summer program that helped them take their startup concepts from idea to pitch ready.
"A key challenge for student entrepreneurs is how to dedicate time to launching a startup that may not pay off for years while trying to earn money for college at the same time," said FORGE Founding Executive Director Brian Ellerman. "We were extremely fortunate to have UArizona alum Harry Wilcox sponsor this scholarship program to help address that challenge."
Wilcox, a general partner for Flagship Pioneering and Chairman and CEO of YourBio Health, graduated as a finance major at the University of Arizona before getting his MBA at Boston University. Wilcox began his career as a professional accountant before moving on to working with life sciences venture capital companies, where he helped develop biotech concepts, including the Moderna vaccine. With decades of experience working with successful biomedical companies, Wilcox was glad to use his expertise to provide feedback to student entrepreneurs in the early stages of their startups.
"I really support what FORGE is doing," said Wilcox. "Whether it's students, the community, or just innovation in general, that's what our economy needs to be vibrant."
The student entrepreneurs spent 13 weeks developing their ideas, researching the market opportunities, crafting business plans, and refining their pitches under the guidance of experienced FORGE Mentors in Residence and staff. Students collaborated and exchanged ideas at the FORGE at Roy Place Hub, where they had opportunities to network with other startup founders.
On graduation day of the summer program, Kailat, Gupta, and Arriaga took center stage in front of Wilcox, their mentors, faculty, and professional venture investors. This was an exciting opportunity for the student entrepreneurs to demonstrate the potential to create positive health outcomes through their startup concepts.
Kailat, a Tucson native double majoring in Bioinformatics and Biochemistry in the College of Science, presented his startup Mindly.io. The venture concept is an app to support and mitigate individuals' mental health challenges.
"Mindly.io " aims to address the health inequities that I have observed on an anecdotal and community level. I've seen friends and family impacted by psychological disorders during the pandemic," said Kailat. "These disorders affected their well-being and that of those around them, creating a ripple effect. That was my motivation for driving this concept."
Kailat synthesized a way to use AI and other tools to help provide direct mental health care.
"Systemic health inequity is a major driver of social inequity in Arizona. I thought, this is a problem - why aren't we doing something about this?" asked Kailat. His work in developing Mindly.io aims to answer that question.
Sydney Arriaga presented the startup concept, RevoLens - a biomedical company looking to develop smart contact lenses for monitoring and detecting diseases. Arriaga is a first-generation student from San Luis, Arizona near the US/Mexico border. Arriaga began her college journey in community college before receiving an NSF Scholarship in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM), allowing her to continue her studies at the University of Arizona.
As a neuroscience and cognitive science major in the College of Science, Arriaga found many opportunities to advance her research and ideas. Arriaga became part of the team working on RevoLens, which gained several awards in startup concept competitions, including iExpo, the McGuire New Venture Development Competition (NVD) and Bear Down and Pitch. Receiving a FORGE Biomedical Scholarship was a significant next step for Arriaga to continue learning what it takes to turn scientific research into a successful venture.
Arriaga presented the staggering impact of diabetes in the United States, a disease affecting almost 1 in every 10 people and costing as much as $327 billion annually. The team's first aim for RevoLens would be to monitor glucose levels to aid in diabetes management.
"This was personal to me due to the fact that one of my parents had diabetes," stated Arriaga. "I feel like my dad would have been proud of me for doing this. He always wondered if there could be better treatments for people who suffer from diabetes."
Student, Abhiman Gupta, presented Un-Afflict a venture demonstrating how micro-choices can have macro-consequences. Gupta is an international student from Madhya Pradesh, India, and a Biomedical Engineering major in the College of Engineering. Gupta was also inspired by his personal experiences and what he saw around him.
"When school schedules get stressful, it is hard to stay motivated to keep healthy habits," said Gupta. He envisioned how creating Un-afflict could support making minor changes to daily habits that exponentially impact future health. Un-afflict aims to help people prevent major diseases through habit-building, wellness groups, behavior psychology, and AI assistance.
"I believe that our habits cause favorable or unfavorable outcomes in our lives, "said Gupta. "What about your daily life do you feel is beneficial, and do you think it is due to habits picked up or your unique identity? Un-Afflict can discover that for you."
For all the students, working with FORGE changed their perspectives about building a business and themselves.
"Watching the increased confidence and resilience in the face of challenges has been the most rewarding part," said John Achoukian, one of the Mentors in Residence who provided weekly guidance. "The students gained so much confidence. It was incredible to see the changes from when they first started to their final presentations in how they refined their business propositions, their comfort with presenting, and their ability to manage questions from industry professionals. That ability to communicate your idea is what you need as a startup founder."
For Kailat, that ability was critical. "The biggest challenge for me has been to craft the story of what I want to accomplish, why I want to accomplish this, and to build my business case around that story."
Arriaga's experience was similar, "To this day, I can't believe that I presented to someone like Harry. If you had told me 5 or 10 years ago that I would do something like this, I wouldn't believe you", said Arriaga. "As a researcher who works in a lab, I was afraid to take this on because I didn't have a background in entrepreneurship. FORGE changed that for me."
Gupta agrees. "I learned that entrepreneurship wasn't just about companies. It was about who I was as an individual."
The FORGE Biomedical Entrepreneur scholarship program shows the University of Arizona's commitment to fostering tomorrow's leaders by providing resources for students from every major, and background, to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.