On Friday, April 25, the McCloskey New Venture Competition celebrated a quarter century of encouraging excellence in entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame. The annual competition culminated with awards of nearly one million dollars in cash, in-kind, and pitch-for-investment prizes.

Watch the finalist teams present their six-minute pitches and answer questions from the judges.

David Murphy, Executive Director for Student Entrepreneurship and the ESTEEM Graduate Program at Notre Dame, said, “This 25th year of the McCloskey competition was incredibly strong and diverse. We saw such a wide variety of innovations, all aimed at improving lives and creating impact at scale — from helping people learn and prepare for jobs to helping them heal from chronic disease. We want to extend our gratitude to all of the finalists and semifinalists, as well as to all of the team members from the 137 companies that participated in making this competition continue its success as the University’s longest running and most impactful effort to nurture entrepreneurship and innovation amongst students and faculty.”

In recognition of the competition reaching its quarter-century mark, John Henry, director of student startups at the IDEA Center, took a moment to provide a retrospective look at the competition’s impact. Henry highlighted that in addition to well-established companies founded in its early years, such as Better World Books, the competition has launched 40 ventures in just the past seven years.

“One company has been able to protect the lives of blue-collar workers,” Henry said. “Another is in over 400 grocery stores, reducing food waste. Another has helped deliver over 100,000 meals to needy children around the world.” Henry added that the competition has helped show that entrepreneurship through startup companies is a key way Notre Dame can live out its mission to be a powerful means for doing good.

Grand Prize

The Grand Prize of $50,000 went to Runwayz, presented by Teresa Covarrubias, a graduate student in the ESTEEM Graduate program who worked as an intern with Runwayz; Mike Haarlander (‘99), Runwayz’s Chief Revenue Officer; and Jonathan Poelhuis (‘09), the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

Runwayz is a platform designed to help the 1.5 million high school students who graduate each year without firm career or college plans. The platform utilizes artificial intelligence to provide tailored career guidance. It also connects job seekers to opportunities, empowering them to apply quickly and seamlessly with just a few clicks. Runwayz received recognition in additional categories as well. It won the $5,000 prize for Best Community Startup as well as the $5,000 prize for Best Presentation. The company also earned the opportunity to present an investment pitch to the Irish Angels and the 1842 Fund, along with offices at the Momentum Co-Working Space.

Best Student-Led Ventures

The $10,000 prize for Best Undergraduate Student-Led Venture went to Routora. Founded by Notre Dame undergraduates Luke Blazek and Brian George, together with their childhood friend Tom Vazhekatt, Routora is a route-finding app that reduces fuel costs, travel time, and carbon emissions. Blazek is a political science major with minors in economics and innovation and entrepreneurship, and George is a finance major with a science, technology, and values minor.

The $10,000 prize for Best Graduate Student-Led Venture went to Pi Squared. Billing itself as "Wordle for Math," Pi Squared is an educational, gamified math app. Designed for students aged 15-18, it prepares users for standardized math exams and also provides a fun, shareable challenge for people who enjoy math puzzles. Pi Squared was co-founded by graduate students David Carr, a Naughton Fellow studying in the ESTEEM Graduate program, and Chris Fakhimi, who is pursuing a master’s degree in computer science.

Finalists

DressyClub, Inc., earned the $10,000 prize for Best Female-Led Venture. A digital marketplace that enables college women to sell or rent clothes on their campus, DressyClub also took home the $500 prize for Startup Showcase Runner Up.

Finalist Vectorgram Health won $5,000 as the Best Minority Led Venture. Founded by Master of Science in Global Health student Nikita Muthuuri, Vectorgram Health provides a low-cost portable device for rapid cancer screening.

Rounding out the finalists is Abbio XR, Inc. The company, co-founded by Matthew Webber, the Keating-Crawford Collegiate Professor of Engineering and acting director of Notre Dame’s Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, has developed an injectable gel that provides a long-lasting, stable solution for peptide therapeutics.

The finalist judges were Matt Brady, General Manager of the Build team at Alloy Partners; Caroline Gash, the managing director of Irish Angels, John Martin, Senior Partner at VPC; Jada McLean, the CEO and Founder of Grow Flow; and Alex Yurkowski, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ClickUp.

Additional Categories

Special awards recognized excellence in particular achievements and areas of innovation. An award of $1,000 went to Retech Displays for winning first place in the Startup Showcase. HYPERNOVA Energy earned $5,000 for the Best Idea in Climate, Conservation, and Clean Energy, and EcoGrains earned $5,000 for the Best AgTech innovation. Additionally, two startups won special awards for Most Innovative Venture: SNIFR won the $10,000 prize, and Ball-Fin won the $5,000 prize.

A separate judging category recognized excellence in entrepreneurship among regional high school students. Tristan Gamel, a senior at nearby Culver Military Academy, won the high school venture prize for MUTE, a technology that provides an affordable, comfortable sleep mask for autistic children who struggle with insomnia due to sensitivity to light or sound. The second-place prize of $1,500 went to AuraForm, while the $1,000 third-place prize and the $500 Best Female-Led High School Venture prize went to the Cozy Canopy.

About the McCloskey New Venture Competition
The McCloskey New Venture Competition is a signature event in the innovation ecosystem at Notre Dame. It serves as an opportunity to test the validity of ideas and innovations and allows students to develop skills directly transferable to the commercial market. The competition is open to all current students from Notre Dame and Saint Mary's, as well as faculty and staff, alumni, and local community leaders. Participants are encouraged as entrepreneurs to create presentations and pitch decks, receive mentorship, serve as team leaders, and compete for prizes that include resources and funding. The competition is designed to strengthen startup skills by providing participants with insight from mentors and judges that includes a mix of angel investors, venture capitalists, successful entrepreneurs, and other startup experts. Teams are provided with proven strategies and a process to build a solid foundation to launch ventures. Information about the 2026 competition will be released in October.

About the IDEA Center
The IDEA Center, which is part of Notre Dame Research, is the University of Notre Dame’s collaborative innovation hub dedicated to expanding the technological and societal impact of the University’s innovations. We do this by nurturing and facilitating the movement of the best ideas of faculty, staff, and students from discovery to commercial application. The Center provides the necessary space, services, and expertise for idea development, commercialization, business formation, prototyping, entrepreneurial education, and student entrepreneurial efforts. The Center is open to any University researcher and student with an idea they want to commercialize.

Contact
Brett Beasley / Research Content Strategy Program Director

Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame

bbeasle1@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183

research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch

About Notre Dame Research
The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.