Alumni Success
TissueForm seeks to improve quality-of-life outcomes at lower costs for patients suffering from tissue disease, damage, or aging through stem cell and matrix-based therapies. The company—founded by Jeanne Barthold, PhD, and CU Boulder Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Corey Neu—is no stranger to the pitch competition circuit. TissueForm won $125,000 in Venture Partners' 2018 Lab Venture Challenge and took home multiple awards and more than $20,000 in CU Boulder's New Venture Challenge 11.Â
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Panel Series spotlights three alums who have translated their degrees into successful careers. This series, which was launched at the end of 2020, features CU Boulder alumni who use their degrees in unexpected ways and encourage students within the College of Arts and Sciences to do the same.
As Marlo Vernon’s grandmother got older, her family began wondering how best they could keep an eye on her. As Vernon was completing her senior year at CU Boulder, she began to dive deeper into this idea. By monitoring water usage, she had come across a non-intrusive way for people to keep tabs on older adults. After graduating last spring, Vernon took the project full-time and launched CarePenguin.
Meet Cal Brackin, a graduate at CU Boulder and CEO of On Board Innovations, a civic-minded company using visual strategies to bridge communication gaps between the citizens, professionals, and policymakers. Cal is studying Strategic Communication Design to further develop his design skills and weave them into his passion for community development.
Meet Juan Esteban Duque, a CU Boulder Alumnus and founder of Tupró, a platform that provides a business portal to services and professionals in Colombia. Juan grew up in Colombia and lived in China before coming to the University of Colorado at Boulder to pursue a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Strategy and Entrepreneurship.
Meet Marlo Vernon, CU Leeds School of Business alumna and CEO of CarePenguin, a company bringing non-invasive activity-monitoring technology to market. Marlo studied Marketing and got her Entrepreneurship Certificate through the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship.
Meet Tim Visos-Ely, a 2019 CU Boulder alum and co-founder of StrideTech, a company that produces an embedded walker attachment that provides real-time haptic feedback when incorrect walker use is detected. Tim developed StrideTech by taking advantage of the many entrepreneurial resources at CU Boulder, such as Design for America, New Venture Challenge and Catalyze CU.
Meet Alex Mulvaney, CEO and co-founder of ShineOn, a company providing a unique spin on the typical bike light. Alex graduated from CU Boulder in 2019 with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and competed in New Venture Challenge 11.
StrideTech was founded with a mission to reduce the fall risk of seniors who use walkers. The startup has created a technology embedded walker attachment that provides real-time haptic feedback when incorrect walker use is detected, empowering aging adults to learn and maintain correct mobility device use.
Bill Snider created the site as a way for patrons to visit artists' studios year-round. Currently, around 60 artists — mostly within the Front Range — are participants on the site that allows users to search by location, name and medium.