Jumpstart Demo Day 2025 - The Results!

Jumpstart Demo Day is the culmination of The Garage’s summer accelerator program where student startups are given $10,000 and 10 weeks of programming and mentorship to work full-time on their startups over the summer. 

This year, 11 student teams from across the University participated in the program, building products in healthcare, AI, education, and more. On August 27th, 2025, the teams made their final pitches to a panel of judges who were tasked with awarding more than $18,000 in prize money to support their ventures. 

Read on below to learn which teams took home the top prizes! 

Watch the show here!

After presenting one final time during the Public Showcase to a standing room only audience of more than 100 attendees at The Garage, and over 300 watching the livestream, the results were announced!

1st Place ($10,000): Nyck.AI, an AI employee built to automate the purchasing workflow for small and medium businesses led by Marc Davis, MBA ‘26 and Daniel Sutheo, MBA ‘26 took home the top prize!

Marc commented, "Jumpstart was a fantastic experience for our team -- the mentorship we received from industry leaders and workshops helped to push our venture forward. We couldn't be more grateful for the support of The Garage and are so excited to continue building Nyck! Winning demo day was such a great way to end the summer and head into the fall on a high note!" 

2nd Place ($5,000): FeedLogic, the easiest access to advanced manufacturing data analysis, led by Lance Locker ‘27 and Casey Arbelaez ‘27 scored second place. 

Lance commented, “The opportunity to work full time on FeedLogic this summer was truly unmatched. The guidance we received from day 1 in the program refined and enhanced our work to get us to where we are today. When we faced challenges and needed support, we had mentors we could count on to help redirect us. This is just the beginning of our journey with FeedLogic, and I'm thrilled to keep working toward our mission alongside support from our amazing cohort!”

Casey added, “I’m so grateful for my Jumpstart experience. The people were amazing, and the support from everyone made it such an awesome community. I’m really going to miss seeing the teams every day and the environment we built for each other. I’m just really happy we were able to share our idea in a way that connected with people and highlighted all that we learned this summer.”

3rd Place ($2,500): Quarkle, an AI editing partner for fiction writers, led by Samarth Makhija, MBA ‘26 with Alessandra Mariano, ‘26 landed third place. 

Samarth commented, “I’m so proud of my team for the work we put in, and grateful to be surrounded by such an inspiring group of founders at Jumpstart. The prize was just a bonus on top of this incredible experience.”

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Al added, “I’m so grateful for The Garage’s support and for the chance to learn and grow alongside absolutely incredible teams this summer at Jumpstart. I’m excited to carry the momentum forward with the Quarkle team!”

Audience Favorite Award ($1,000): nLab, the world’s smallest electronics lab led by CEO Angie Mercurio, MBA ‘26 took home the audience favorite award, voted on by members of the in person audience. 

Angie commented, “I got more done in 10 weeks at Jumpstart than I did in 10 months—having that structure, mentorship, and weekly push while being surrounded by founders just as obsessed with their ideas was game-changing. There’s truly nothing like the energy of Jumpstart, and I’m so glad I got to be part of it.”

Congratulations to all of the winners and participants of Jumpstart 2025! We can’t wait to see what you do next!

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