Startup Stories: Recent Episodes
UC Davis Student Startup Center
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Neville Boston is a serial founder who has exhibited a bias for action since the early days. He is currently the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Reviver, the inventor of the digital license plate.
Find more information about the UC Davis Student Startup Center at startup.ucdavis.edu.
Josh Moser's Linkedin: Josh Moser is a Venture Partner at Petri and Co-founder Tezza is accelerating the discovery of cultured foods, starting with a new category of hard, aged cheese made from sustainable plants.
Ken Bossung's Linkedin: A proven executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the fields virtual reality/augmented reality, artificial intelligence, technology for water & wastewater utilities, information technology, geospatial / location based technologies, commercial real estate and commercial construction with a focus on:
- Business Leadership
- Executive Management
- Executive Sales
- Business start-ups, bootstrapped and venture funded
- Building high performance sales teams
- Sales coaching, sales management and executive level selling
- Rapid start-up growth and acquisition
- General management / P+L leadership
- Business development, strategic alliances, partner programs
- Strategic business planning
- Defense and Intelligence programs
Quinn Morgan is a UC Davis Alumni, CEO and Co-founder of Workona Inc.
Morgan's Linkedin description on Workona Inc.: "We transform your browser into a professional work tool that is far more capable of the heavy workloads we're all doing in it. See how we're reimagining work in the cloud at workona.com."
Jim Wilson is a UC Davis Alumni and currently an Operating Partner at Costanoa Ventures.
Bettye Watkins is an Office Manager at Costanoa Ventures.
Alex Whatley is the current CEO and Co-founder of Vividly.
Joy's Linkedin: Joy Fan is a serial tech entrepreneur, operator, and urbanist -- democratizing access to affordable real estate. She spent her early career in environmental design, brand marketing, and asset management and has since disrupted the traditional commercial lease model into license agreements, popularized global strategy of pop-ups as a founding member of Storefront -- the largest marketplace for short-term retail (acquired); designed the "retail-as-a-service" model adopted by hundreds of DTC brands, REITS, mall operators, developers, and landlords; unlocked proptech playbooks for the masses as a contributor to the Ultimate Popup Guide, and is an active committee advisor for Women in Proptech and a part of Mayor Eric Adam's NYC Small Business Advisory Commission.
Joy has transformed the consumer landscape and continues to lead spatial equity for under-represented communities who seek to access retail as a way to grow their online business while influencing the success of thousands of disruptor DTC brands.
Adi's Linkedin: Adi is a product/problem enthusiast. He is driven by problems and find happiness through finding solutions. This perspective applies to his work, personal and his future life!
Michael Hurlston has been a director and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Synaptics since August 2019. Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA) is changing the way humans engage with connected devices and data, engineering exceptional experiences throughout the home, at work, in the car and on the go. Synaptics is the partner of choice for the world’s most innovative intelligent system providers who are integrating multiple experiential technologies into platforms that make our digital lives more productive, insightful, secure and enjoyable. These customers are combining Synaptics’ differentiated technologies in touch, display and biometrics with a new generation of advanced connectivity and AI-enhanced video, vision, audio, speech and security processing. Mr. Hurlston serves on the Board of Executive Trustees of the UC Davis Foundation and on the Dean’s Executive Committee for the College of Engineering and the Dean’s Advisory Counsel for the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis. Mr. Hurlston holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Davis.
Helen Corey is a Partner and Co-Founder at 8 Dimension Ventures, where she supports and provide capital to people striving to improve people and planet. Helen has worked in and with companies of all sizes around strategy development, business development, finance, operations, rightsizing, capital sourcing, negotiations, acquisitions, mergers & liquidations.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Geoff Davis is the CEO at Sorenson Impact. He creates companies & global systems that help people live better and help the planet, and has a background in implementing impact investment strategies, impact measurement, emerging markets, financial services, education, venture & private equity.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Seana Day is a partner at Culterra Capital, which provides strategic and transaction advisory services across the Agriculture, Supply Chain and Food Tech sectors. She is also a Venture Partner at Better Food Ventures, exclusively investing in early stage companies that are leveraging information and communications technology to transform and strengthen the food and agriculture sectors. Seana leads the firm's agtech sector thesis.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
As Director Venture Capital for Micron's $100M AI Fund, Gayathri is actively investing in startups that apply AI to solve critical problems in the areas of Manufacturing, Healthcare and Automotive. She brings over 20 years of multi-disciplinary experience across product management, product marketing, corporate strategy, M&A and venture investments in large Fortune 500 companies such as Dell and Corning and in startups. She has also worked as an early stage investor at Earlybird Venture Capital, a premier European venture capital fund based in Germany.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Jamie Rodota is currently the Senior Director of Strategy for Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, where he invests catalytic capital in the most promising seed stage companies located outside of Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Nitzan Pelman is a social entrepreneur at heart and cares deeply about finding solutions for breaking the cycle of poverty through education and workforce development. Nitzan launched Climb Hire, a new upskilling organization, that helps overlooked and hidden talent prepare for "new collar" jobs related to Salesforce. Prior to Climb Hire, Nitzan founded ReUp Education in 2015 and served as its founding CEO for 3 years. ReUp partners with universities to re-enroll students who have dropped out of college.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Pedro Góes is currently the CEO of InEvent. InEvent is a Y Combinator venture backed company providing an event, marketing and sales platform for Forbes 2000 Global companies, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, KPMG, Santander, Unilever, Boeing, Embraer and Citibank. Previously Pedro started a company in college where he had more than 10,000 monthly active paying users. He is a Y Combinator Alumni, a 40 under 40 founder by Association Magazine, a UK Event Tech Award Winner and a Gold Crocodile Award Winner.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Adam is currently a Founding Member of Keiretsu Forum, the world's Largest Angel Investment group, serving as COO/Head of Global-partnerships. In addition, Adam is an advisor to the Keiretsu Capital real estate fund. Adam has spent his career at the intersection of Real Estate and Technology. He has been an early investor, board member, founder, and advisor in a number of companies ranging from agribusiness, trading platforms, Fintech, App development, SaaS software, green tech, real estate to wine with successful exits including an IPO.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Allen Taylor is part of the global leadership team at Endeavor, a mission-driven organization focused on supporting high-growth companies in emerging and under-served markets. He leads Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s innovative co-investment fund that has been recognized as one of the most active global venture investors in markets like Latin America and the Middle East. Since launching in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has raised over $250M+ across three funds and made 200+ investments in 30+ different markets, including 37 companies now valued at $1B+.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Chon Tang is an experienced entrepreneur, computer scientist, venture investor, and fund manager. Currently a founding partner at UC Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, he is is leading the effort to transform UC Berkeley into a global nexus for entrepreneurship, with the support of private venture capital.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Tim Bucher is currently CEO of Agtonomy, a company with a hybrid autonomy and tele-assist platform for agriculture vehicles. Tim is a high-tech serial entrepreneur who has created several successful companies over the last 3 decades, taking one of them public and selling six others to tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and Seagate.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Maria Salamanca is a Partner at Unshackled Ventures, where she invests in the ideas of immigrant entrepreneurs. She is also President and founding member of LatinxVC and on the Board of Director at SwingLeft (where she was inaugural COO in 2016). Maria was the first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital; she has also been listed as one of Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Michael Hurlston is President and Chief Executive Officer of Synaptics. Michael completed his MS in Electrical Engineering and MBA at UC Davis.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Matt Kaufman is Chief Systems Officer at Roblox. He was previously President and Head of Operations at Crunchbase. He has led engineering and product development at a number of firms, including one he co-founded.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Lisa Morales-Hellebo is Co-Founder and General Partner at REFASHIOND Ventures. She is also Co-Founder of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation and a member of several advisory boards. Lisa started her career in digital design and later founded a FashionTech startup.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Alfred Chuang is a general partner at Race Capital. Recognized by Andreessen Horowitz as the Silicon Valley CEO’s CEO, Alfred Chuang is an accomplished entrepreneur and venture investor. Known for being the co-founder and CEO of BEA Systems, Alfred led BEA Systems to its acquisition by Oracle for $8.5 billion. Alfred’s notable awards include CIO Magazine 20/20 Vision Award Honoree, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, among others.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Sterling Anderson is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Aurora, the self-driving technology company. Before Aurora, Sterling led the autopilot programs at Tesla, worked as an engagement manager at McKinsey, co-founded a selective autonomous driving system company, and conducted research on shared-adaptive or autonomous control of passenger vehicles.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Nitin Gupta is the VP of Enterprise at MasterClass. Additionally, Nitin Gupta was also the Founder & CEO of Fairy, a home management platform for hotel-like cleaning service for homes. His experience includes leading one of the top strategic verticals at Box through IPO, leading a strategic enterprise team at Postmates through acquisition to Uber to sign the largest exclusive accounts, and founding and leading two venture backed consumer / enterprise startups both through acquisitions.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Agustina Sartori Odizzio was the CEO and Founder of GlamST, an augmented reality (AR) technology company and Virtual Makeup Platform designed for beauty brands and retailers that allows women to try on makeup from anywhere, anytime. After GlamST’s acquisition by Ulta Beauty, Sartori now serves as the Director of AR Innovation at Ulta Beauty. In her role, she works to develop AR experiences, AI, and machine learning applications such as GlamLab with the in-house Digital Innovation team.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Erika Hairston is the co-founder & CEO of Edlyft, a YC backed tech startup helping create the next million computer science grads. At 24, her and her co-founder became 2 of the youngest Black women to raise over $1M in venture funding. After raising from investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Village Global, and Jeff Weiner, Erika was featured on the Forbes' 30 under 30.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.
Juanita Lott is the founder and former chair and CEO of Bridgestream Software, an enterprise software company that was sold to Oracle in 2007. Gartner recognized Bridgestream as one of the ‘cool vendors in security and privacy’, and Burton Group recognized Ms. Lott as ‘a pioneer’ in role based access management solutions.
Get inspired by the startup stories of founders and investors in the UC Davis Student Startup Center community. Learn what got them going and what keeps them motivated. Collect tips to make your startup journey as successful as possible.