EX-Z3
ƒ/2.6
5.8 mm
1/40

One of the university teams, SmartWorks, is developing inexpensive consumer micro-robots for some of the least pleasant home cleaning tasks.

At the DFJ Venture Challenge yesterday, the 15 winners of university business plan competitions convened for a state-wide finals event. They were all fascinating and creative, yet completely different from each other.

The two winners will each receive $250K of seed financing:
• Bionic Harvest from Cal Tech: Electrical energy harvesting from the motion of the human body to recharge the batteries in implantable medical devices.
• World of Good from UC Berkeley: ethically sourced fair trade artisan gifts sold in mainstream retailers.

Congrats to these wonderful entrepreneurs!

3 responses to “Upward Climb”

  1. gdsanders Avatar
    gdsanders

    Bionic Harvest sounds very intriguing. I’m sure a MedTronic or Boston Scientic will snap them up in the future.

    Reply
  2. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    gocarrt: not this year. I was an advisor to the one in SF last year. It was very popular. When I got there, it was so full, they would not let anyone else in.

    Reply
  3. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    As an inhabitant of the enpoverished southern Third World, (definition this one too much more accurate beacuse it points out the importance we have to the world Admins -even when it was not the original reason for it-, than "developing countries" which is definitely a fashionable and silky way of saying something which is no more than a wish),

    As the woman I am and

    As the active promotor of bondless gathering of minds and efforts in the name of the greater good,

    I feel moved, touched and happy for the http://www.worldofgood.com project and, hey, proud of you that you chose this kind of enterpreneurship to sponsor.

    You give me hope. Thank you.

    Steve, you know, I never get tired of saying so. 😉

    Reply

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