Meet The 2026 Jumpstart Cohort

Jumpstart, The Garage's summer pre-accelerator program for student teams to work full-time on their projects, is now three weeks into its 10-week run, supported by a stipend and hands-on mentorship. Meet the 10 teams participating in this summer's Jumpstart program:

Cultivene: Farm experience platform helping farmers host on-farm events like workshops, farm to table dinners, pizza nights and u-pick.
Students: Julia McCurry, Kellogg '27; Khushi Surana, Kellogg '27

JukeBox: A music and concert rating social platform designed to bring music-lovers together to promote community and engagement beyond listening.
Students: Jeb Scipio del Campo, Weinberg '28; Matthew Smith, SoC '28; Obinnaya Okezie, Weinberg '28; Hans Byenkya, Weinberg '29

Katallst: A digital commerce platform that helps creators turn their audience into active customers through digital products and secure, live video experiences hosted directly on the platform.
Students: Delia Zuzarte, McCormick '29; Sonoma Geil, San Jose State University '29

Kinetic Robotics: Building robotic servo motors at 95% of the performance for a fraction of the cost.
Students: Dimitri Gunawan, McCormick '29; Nathan Wu, McCormick '29

OnSight: A sensor-analytics platform to help gyms better run their facility.
Students: Angel Mendoza, McCormick '26; Matt Martinez, McCormick '26

Restless: A better energy solution to keep you energized to attack the day without crashing, designed for people in demanding professions.
Students: Daniel Medina, Kellogg '27; Jack Easterby, Weinberg '28; Stan Reyzin, Kellogg '27

Spyke: Code analysis platform for industrial automation.
Students: Karthik Chandra Velamati, Kellogg '27; Jatin Hooda, McCormick '26

Steward: An agentic operating system for salons that runs the day-to-day so owners can grow on less of their time.
Students: Daniel Killioglu, McCormick '26; Rani Joudeh, McCormick '26

Symbia: Growing leather out of recycled kombucha and bacterial culture to redefine functional sustainability and introduce a new source of income to rural craftspeople worldwide.
Students: Rayden Yap, McCormick '29; Haipeng Shen, McCormick '26

Tuka: Transforming real word-of-mouth recommendations into an organized, searchable experience, giving users instant access to insights from people they actually know and trust.
Students: Josephine White, Medill '26; Autymn Williams, Bienen '26

Jumpstart will culminate with a Demo Day on August 26th, where teams will share the progress they've made over the summer and pitch for a $10,000 prize pool. Join us in-person or via livestream to watch the pitches!