Houston Daily

The University of Houston Technology Bridge recently held its seventh Innov8 Hub Startup Pitch Day, where early-stage entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to a panel of judges and potential investors. Prior to the main event on December 15 at the University of Houston Innovation Center, eight founders representing six startups participated in a practice session on December 5. This mock pitch day allowed them to rehearse their presentations and receive feedback from peers and coaches.

Tanu Chatterji, director of startup development and the UH Tech Bridge Incubator, emphasized the importance of these sessions for refining pitches: “These practice runs are an opportunity for our founders to nail down their pitches. We use this time to refine everything from their ideas to their presentations because we want each of these startups to succeed,” Chatterji said. “This program has grown exponentially over the past few years. Now we’re really becoming part of Houston’s startup ecosystem.”

The feedback provided during these sessions was direct but constructive, helping participants improve both content and delivery ahead of the competition. Some were advised to work closely with coaches for further refinement, while others focused on improving presentation materials.

Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president of energy and innovation at UH, commented on the program's progress: “We’re starting to see the successes of the efforts from the first six cohorts. We’re on the right track and the trajectory is at an inflection point,” he said. “The goal is to make this less of a secret; we want to build more partnerships. We have the obligation to prepare this idea of creating new science and technologies and bringing it into the real world.”

Innov8 Hub is a founder-driven accelerator series led by UH Tech Bridge in partnership with the UH Small Business Development Center. Each cohort includes six to eight entrepreneurs aiming to bring new products or services to market. Since fall 2023, 68 founders have participated in Innov8 Hub programs, which utilize methodology from partner Wendy Kennedy Institute.

At this year’s pitch day event, Seth Smith—CEO of Clinano Kidney Technologies and a senior at UH—won first place along with $2,000 and six months’ free lab and office space for his company’s at-home kidney disease screening solution using AI vision analysis through smartphones. Onyebuchi J. Ononogbu received second place for Redeem Care Pro—a digital health platform that collects patient-reported outcomes via AI-guided conversations—earning $1,000 plus six months’ free lab and office space.

Other featured startups included RNAfrnd (an AI platform for RNA structure prediction), Thalor Dynamics (AI-driven maritime security solutions), CovimBio Inc. (a biologic drug discovery platform), among others.

Reflecting on lessons learned through pitching practice sessions, several founders noted that simplifying complex ideas was key when communicating with investors or broader audiences rather than focusing solely on technical details.

Chatterji summarized Innov8 Hub’s impact: “This program has been a gamechanger for our founders, as many of them have been able to take their ideas to market.”

At completion of each three-month cohort cycle, participating founders present before members of Houston’s innovation community—including partners and investors—with hopes that exposure will help turn concepts into viable businesses.