1 0:00:00,100 --> 0:00:05,233 Speaker 1: You know I'm fired up today to be doing a show with the winners of the Big Bang.

2 0:00:06,040 --> 0:00:09,469 Speaker 1: I was gonna say Big Bang Theory, Big Bang Competition at UC Davis.

3 0:00:09,870 --> 0:00:22,303 Speaker 1: Uc Davis has this competition that they do every year for entrepreneurs and build entrepreneurs that are actually building companies and so this year they said, hey, Mark, you want to have them on our, on your show.

4 0:00:22,323 --> 0:00:23,749 Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, let's do this.

5 0:00:23,809 --> 0:00:25,497 Speaker 1: So I have two teams here today.

6 0:00:25,517 --> 0:00:32,013 Speaker 1: We're going to start off with the Big Bang Competition winners from Shedgo.

7 0:00:32,214 --> 0:00:34,940 Speaker 1: Okay, so I have three of you on this show.

8 0:00:35,101 --> 0:00:40,262 Speaker 1: Maybe I'll have you each go around and introduce yourselves and who does what on the team you want to start over here?

9 0:00:40,522 --> 0:00:40,923 Speaker 1: Yeah, sure.

10 0:00:41,645 --> 0:00:42,266 Speaker 2: I'm Mark Schatz.

11 0:00:43,148 --> 0:00:45,834 Speaker 2: I'm pursuing my MBA at UC Davis.

12 0:00:46,114 --> 0:00:48,064 Speaker 2: I'm a co-founder at Skedgo.

13 0:00:48,344 --> 0:00:51,273 Speaker 2: I mostly handle finances, so you can say I'm the CFO.

14 0:00:51,574 --> 0:00:55,005 Speaker 2: Okay, and I let Dylan and Henry do that.

15 0:00:55,366 --> 0:00:55,788 Speaker 3: Yeah, Dylan.

16 0:00:56,009 --> 0:01:07,435 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm classmates with Oxshodge and the MBA program and I'm the head of growth, so I'm looking at basically just general strategy of where we're headed and making sure that we get the users or the buyers to make sure that strategy works out.

17 0:01:07,757 --> 0:01:09,766 Speaker 1: Okay and Henry, what's your job, Hi?

18 0:01:09,994 --> 0:01:10,744 Speaker 4: I'm Henry.

19 0:01:10,973 --> 0:01:14,676 Speaker 4: I'm the founder and I head the product.

20 0:01:14,905 --> 0:01:18,714 Speaker 4: I'm a computer science undergrad graduating this week.

21 0:01:19,535 --> 0:01:20,115 Speaker 1: All right.

22 0:01:20,596 --> 0:01:21,216 Speaker 1: What's the emotion?

23 0:01:21,236 --> 0:01:22,317 Speaker 1: Are you excited to be graduating?

24 0:01:22,500 --> 0:01:22,761 Speaker 4: Yeah.

25 0:01:23,142 --> 0:01:23,783 Speaker 1: That's great.

26 0:01:24,344 --> 0:01:27,231 Speaker 1: Okay, so you're the product guy when we start with you, henry.

27 0:01:27,271 --> 0:01:29,842 Speaker 1: So what is this Shedgo?

28 0:01:30,403 --> 0:01:30,884 Speaker 1: What is it?

29 0:01:31,525 --> 0:01:32,887 Speaker 4: Yeah, so Skedgo is.

30 0:01:33,509 --> 0:01:34,451 Speaker 1: It's called Skedgo.

31 0:01:34,491 --> 0:01:35,292 Speaker 1: I'm saying it wrong.

32 0:01:35,553 --> 0:01:35,973 Speaker 1: I'm sorry.

33 0:01:36,460 --> 0:01:36,921 Speaker 1: It's okay.

34 0:01:37,002 --> 0:01:38,826 Speaker 1: It's good feedback though.

35 0:01:39,988 --> 0:01:43,436 Speaker 4: So Skedgo is an academic planning app.

36 0:01:43,837 --> 0:01:50,571 Speaker 4: It's a web and mobile app that helps guide students towards their graduation and a successful career.

37 0:01:51,032 --> 0:02:08,626 Speaker 4: So we have mainly two products One is class scheduler, another is a degree planner and we use we try to leverage AI and machine learning to help each student build their customized schedules that can fit their personal needs and preferences.

38 0:02:09,208 --> 0:02:11,292 Speaker 1: Why did you start this company?

39 0:02:11,332 --> 0:02:17,492 Speaker 1: Is there a big problem that you saw, and how did you arrive at this solution?

40 0:02:17,893 --> 0:02:19,016 Speaker 4: Yeah.

41 0:02:19,236 --> 0:02:27,924 Speaker 4: So when I was in my first year, the first time when I registered for classes, I realized that there are so many options I can choose from.

42 0:02:28,024 --> 0:02:30,131 Speaker 4: Each course has so many different sections.

43 0:02:30,552 --> 0:02:42,055 Speaker 4: I need to resolve time conflicts between my classes and choose the professors I want and also try to satisfy as much requirements as I need.

44 0:02:42,361 --> 0:02:43,825 Speaker 4: So there are a lot of factors.

45 0:02:44,406 --> 0:02:53,008 Speaker 4: And also there are things like waitlist, because when I was first year I got very low priority in registering the classes.

46 0:02:53,449 --> 0:03:03,464 Speaker 4: So when I plan my schedule and when I actually register schedule, the course is filled up and I have to be on the waitlist and usually I don't get in when I was first year.

47 0:03:03,845 --> 0:03:09,465 Speaker 4: So at that time I start to build a little tool that can automate this process.

48 0:03:09,947 --> 0:03:16,626 Speaker 4: So I just need to consider what course I want to take and the tool will figure out which section I should register.

49 0:03:16,987 --> 0:03:22,065 Speaker 4: That can get me the best chance of getting there with my preferred time and professors.

50 0:03:22,867 --> 0:03:35,323 Speaker 4: And later, when I actually came here, started taking classes, I realized all my classmates have the exact same problem and most of them are doing these optimizations manually.

51 0:03:36,204 --> 0:03:47,289 Speaker 4: And so that's when I started founding a team and I started making this like little project with no UI into a website that others can use.

52 0:03:47,991 --> 0:03:57,086 Speaker 4: And later, when I like share this app with more and more students, I realized that there are some bigger problems I can solve, which is degree planning.

53 0:03:57,548 --> 0:04:27,028 Speaker 4: So, before I solve the problem of registering classes for a specific quarter, and later I realized that it's also a very like frustrating experience to plan the entire four year like degree plan, like what classes I need to take for each quarter in order to satisfy like general education requirements, major requirements and which minors is like most suitable for me based on my interest and the course I've taken.

54 0:04:27,549 --> 0:04:48,393 Speaker 4: So now we are trying to like add an AI powered degree planner that will be a virtual, personalized academic advisor that can not just help you like build class schedules for each quarter, but build your entire four year plan that is best catered to individual needs and their long term plan.

55 0:04:48,600 --> 0:04:49,062 Speaker 1: All right.

56 0:04:49,624 --> 0:04:51,249 Speaker 1: So, dylan, do you guys have customers yet?

57 0:04:52,072 --> 0:04:52,955 Speaker 3: We have a lot of users.

58 0:04:53,136 --> 0:04:55,866 Speaker 3: We have about 2000 from four different universities.

59 0:04:56,007 --> 0:04:58,700 Speaker 3: Wow yeah, buyers is something that we're working on.

60 0:04:58,720 --> 0:05:05,064 Speaker 3: It's very difficult to convince a university to take on a new vendor, so that's kind of the main challenge that we're trying to acquire a user.

61 0:05:05,846 --> 0:05:06,548 Speaker 3: A lot of different ways.

62 0:05:07,129 --> 0:05:08,392 Speaker 3: Word of mouth has been really big.

63 0:05:09,041 --> 0:05:13,939 Speaker 3: Like Henry said, every single university student has this problem since the dawn of time.

64 0:05:14,159 --> 0:05:17,995 Speaker 3: So when they solve it with schedule, they tell their friends, they tell their friends, etc.

65 0:05:18,818 --> 0:05:23,937 Speaker 3: Beyond that, we just look for where students are already solving academic related problems.

66 0:05:24,178 --> 0:05:28,915 Speaker 3: So like Reddit, social media, right, they're confused about their degree, their career.

67 0:05:29,517 --> 0:05:31,324 Speaker 3: They're going certain places to find advice.

68 0:05:31,806 --> 0:05:36,083 Speaker 3: That's really the best place to get in touch with them and is there a way to monetize this?

69 0:05:36,143 --> 0:05:38,068 Speaker 1: What do you anticipate in terms of customers?

70 0:05:38,389 --> 0:05:45,391 Speaker 3: Yeah, so actually I just only have some great numbers on that, but the general strategy is we call it the critical mass.

71 0:05:45,632 --> 0:05:50,195 Speaker 3: So we understand through our advisors that selling to universities very challenging.

72 0:05:50,276 --> 0:06:05,810 Speaker 3: There's a lot of data requirements, a lot of bureaucracy surrounding the process and to make that a little bit easier, our strategy is to have 20% of the student body at a select university, first UC Davis, using schedule as free users on a base plan.

73 0:06:06,211 --> 0:06:12,981 Speaker 3: And then we're saying, hey, you know, university of California Davis, it director, we have 6000 students using this right now.

74 0:06:13,342 --> 0:06:17,432 Speaker 3: If we can sign a contract, we can expand the feature base of this to really change their lives.

75 0:06:17,881 --> 0:06:23,946 Speaker 3: We have a bunch of data that can support you, we can help inspire your register process and that's the basic idea.

76 0:06:24,026 --> 0:06:28,960 Speaker 1: So sort of a B2B sales negotiation Okay, our CFO, let's go over to you.

77 0:06:29,181 --> 0:06:31,489 Speaker 1: How do you, how do you finance this If you don't have any customers?

78 0:06:32,331 --> 0:06:32,552 Speaker 2: Right.

79 0:06:32,592 --> 0:06:38,815 Speaker 2: So big bang is a really big blessing for us right now because it kind of gives us a small runway.

80 0:06:38,835 --> 0:06:42,868 Speaker 2: We won about $30,000 through the big bang $30,000.

81 0:06:43,870 --> 0:06:52,358 Speaker 2: So it's going to go into incorporation and, you know, getting the legal stuff right and a little bit runway to accelerate the degree planner right.

82 0:06:52,378 --> 0:06:58,163 Speaker 2: So we will be rolling out the degree planner by the end of this year like a public beta version which people can actually use.

83 0:06:58,866 --> 0:07:00,230 Speaker 2: Skeitgo is up right now.

84 0:07:00,270 --> 0:07:06,033 Speaker 2: It is live, but by it's the scheduling aspect of it and not the degree planning aspect of it that's live right now.

85 0:07:07,400 --> 0:07:25,188 Speaker 2: We're also in talks with a couple of incubators, accelerators and having the early venture discussions, because I personally work in private equity, so I kind of see a direction where we want to take this company and how we want to monetize it.

86 0:07:26,820 --> 0:07:30,130 Speaker 2: But again, the timeline is by end of this December.

87 0:07:30,481 --> 0:07:32,989 Speaker 2: That's when we want to start off in a really big way.

88 0:07:33,460 --> 0:07:40,046 Speaker 1: So you are recently here from India and when you say you work in private equity, do you work in private equity here in the United States?

89 0:07:40,166 --> 0:07:40,928 Speaker 2: I do, oh, who do you work for?

90 0:07:41,860 --> 0:07:43,304 Speaker 2: Have you heard of Upvelling Capital?

91 0:07:44,166 --> 0:07:45,610 Speaker 2: What is it, upvelling Capital?

92 0:07:45,790 --> 0:07:46,372 Speaker 1: No, I haven't.

93 0:07:46,801 --> 0:07:47,344 Speaker 1: Okay, are they in the Bay?

94 0:07:47,385 --> 0:07:47,727 Speaker 2: Area.

95 0:07:47,900 --> 0:07:49,968 Speaker 2: No, they're based out of Davis and New York.

96 0:07:50,582 --> 0:07:50,743 Speaker 1: Okay.

97 0:07:52,101 --> 0:07:52,462 Speaker 2: I don't know.

98 0:07:52,482 --> 0:07:54,610 Speaker 2: Maybe you would have heard of the Founder, though.

99 0:07:54,640 --> 0:07:55,945 Speaker 2: Have you heard of John Colomark?

100 0:07:57,040 --> 0:07:58,206 Speaker 1: I don't know if I have or not.

101 0:07:58,641 --> 0:07:59,344 Speaker 1: I should have, huh.

102 0:07:59,544 --> 0:07:59,785 Speaker 2: Okay.

103 0:07:59,805 --> 0:08:08,709 Speaker 1: That's awkward, All right yeah some of our listeners know that I do dabble a little bit in venture capital too, so in Sacramento, is that that big a place?

104 0:08:08,840 --> 0:08:09,723 Speaker 1: I probably should know them.

105 0:08:10,024 --> 0:08:10,847 Speaker 2: Right, right.

106 0:08:12,983 --> 0:08:15,730 Speaker 1: Okay, so how long have you been working in private equity?

107 0:08:16,700 --> 0:08:21,543 Speaker 2: I've been with Upvelling since November, so it's been quite some time now, yeah.

108 0:08:22,361 --> 0:08:38,246 Speaker 2: But we've also been having a lot of discussions with other venture firms which do early stage investing, just to figure out if what we are building is aligned with what they're looking for, so that when we want to start off by the end of this year, we're meeting the right people.

109 0:08:38,520 --> 0:08:41,288 Speaker 1: What kind of feedback are you getting from those investors?

110 0:08:42,160 --> 0:08:51,206 Speaker 2: Well, first thing is, pretty much everybody we talk to can relate to the problem we're solving, which is everybody's had an issue while pursuing their undergrad degree.

111 0:08:51,600 --> 0:08:56,926 Speaker 2: That's common to all three of us too, because I'm an industrial engineer myself, but I never worked in that space.

112 0:08:57,401 --> 0:08:59,183 Speaker 2: I don't like, at this point I don't even know why.

113 0:08:59,223 --> 0:09:00,367 Speaker 2: I did industrial engineering.

114 0:09:01,863 --> 0:09:03,228 Speaker 2: So I did industrial engineering.

115 0:09:03,521 --> 0:09:07,805 Speaker 2: I started my own packaging firm and then that got acquired and then I moved to the US.

116 0:09:07,900 --> 0:09:09,627 Speaker 2: Now I'm in private equity and now I'm doing schedule.

117 0:09:09,720 --> 0:09:11,324 Speaker 1: You built a company and sold it already.

118 0:09:11,585 --> 0:09:14,994 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, my goodness, congratulations, thank you.

119 0:09:16,183 --> 0:09:21,448 Speaker 2: So all of us connect to the problem in some sort of ways, and so do the people we have conversations with.

120 0:09:23,083 --> 0:09:32,929 Speaker 2: But the more conversations we have, the more we realize that the what we say TAM, total Addressable Market is way bigger than what we think it is.

121 0:09:33,020 --> 0:09:39,549 Speaker 2: Because a lot of people who are giving us feedback say I think you're just focusing on one small part of the problem.

122 0:09:39,660 --> 0:09:41,887 Speaker 2: There's a bigger market to address with your product.

123 0:09:42,268 --> 0:09:42,950 Speaker 2: Just go for it.

124 0:09:43,140 --> 0:09:47,723 Speaker 2: So we've been strategizing based on all of these discussions we've been having.

125 0:09:48,220 --> 0:09:54,203 Speaker 2: So it's been a really fun process, especially building a company, something which I personally I'm passionate about.

126 0:09:54,223 --> 0:09:55,508 Speaker 2: So it's amazing.

127 0:09:55,960 --> 0:09:58,062 Speaker 1: Okay, so question here so have you?

128 0:09:58,142 --> 0:09:59,667 Speaker 1: You haven't incorporated yet now.

129 0:10:00,080 --> 0:10:01,486 Speaker 2: We should be by the end of this month.

130 0:10:01,581 --> 0:10:02,716 Speaker 2: We'll be having those discussions.

131 0:10:03,040 --> 0:10:07,548 Speaker 1: The intention is to make it a company and take it to the next level.

132 0:10:08,040 --> 0:10:10,569 Speaker 1: Okay, maybe I'll go back to you, Henry.

133 0:10:10,840 --> 0:10:12,627 Speaker 1: What's been the biggest challenge so far?

134 0:10:14,660 --> 0:10:29,388 Speaker 4: Yeah, the biggest challenge is currently, like the schools, they are very reluctant to open up their APIs for us to get data from them easily, although we currently do not.

135 0:10:29,640 --> 0:10:34,307 Speaker 1: The data that you need to get is what the curriculum is and the class scheduling and that kind of thing.

136 0:10:34,380 --> 0:10:35,565 Speaker 1: Is that the kind of data you need?

137 0:10:36,420 --> 0:10:50,883 Speaker 4: That's like the first step and for our like, next, the next big feature, like the degree planner, we also need to access the student records, like what classes they have taken so far and their performance, so we can make more personalized recommendations.

138 0:10:51,661 --> 0:10:58,127 Speaker 4: And that's kind of the biggest challenge because, like a lot of users, they are requesting this feature.

139 0:10:58,600 --> 0:11:01,823 Speaker 4: Like, also features like where you build your schedule on our platform.

140 0:11:01,863 --> 0:11:10,905 Speaker 4: You can just like click one button on our website to register for it, and these features require, like, official collaboration with the universities.

141 0:11:11,120 --> 0:11:28,109 Speaker 4: So that also is that is also why, like, we try to pursue the B2B model instead of the B2C, because only, like, cooperating with universities, integrate with their existing system, can enable more features that students really wants and make a bigger impact.

142 0:11:28,400 --> 0:11:30,768 Speaker 1: Are they reluctant because of privacy issues?

143 0:11:32,800 --> 0:11:38,926 Speaker 4: Like for the first part, like if we are just getting like the course data, there's no privacy issues.

144 0:11:39,020 --> 0:11:43,486 Speaker 4: Those course information are publicly available online on their website already.

145 0:11:45,762 --> 0:11:52,212 Speaker 4: It's more kind of bureaucracy, like when I talked to one like developing the IT department.

146 0:11:53,800 --> 0:12:08,866 Speaker 4: He actually love our product and he brought it up with the like Edmine who are in charge of the current like schedule builder, and he just told me that hey, it's gonna make their Edmine look like they are not doing a good job, so they are not going to collaborate with us.

147 0:12:09,428 --> 0:12:12,243 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so Well, thinking about this.

148 0:12:12,484 --> 0:12:18,846 Speaker 1: The B2B sales force have you had, dylan, have you had experience in a B2B sales environment?

149 0:12:19,420 --> 0:12:21,962 Speaker 3: Yeah, not as a sales, but on the marketing side Okay.

150 0:12:22,860 --> 0:12:23,402 Speaker 1: Have you built?

151 0:12:23,663 --> 0:12:24,848 Speaker 1: This guy's built and sold a company.

152 0:12:24,940 --> 0:12:26,346 Speaker 1: What's your big win, Brian?

153 0:12:26,366 --> 0:12:27,985 Speaker 1: The current is, I would say my big win.

154 0:12:28,100 --> 0:12:29,907 Speaker 3: I'm curious if you recognize this story.

155 0:12:30,020 --> 0:12:35,962 Speaker 3: I was attending UC Davis as an undergrad when a childhood best friend of mine was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I left.

156 0:12:36,203 --> 0:12:37,688 Speaker 3: I dropped out to create a foundation.

157 0:12:38,800 --> 0:12:44,923 Speaker 3: We ended up on the Washington Post, good Morning America, nbc Nightly News telling our story.

158 0:12:45,103 --> 0:12:48,146 Speaker 3: I left to create a foundation to help him pursue his bucket list.

159 0:12:49,300 --> 0:12:50,867 Speaker 3: We put together some viral campaigns.

160 0:12:51,000 --> 0:12:59,351 Speaker 3: Ultimately, we broke a world record for the most bone marrow donor signups, and it was 13,000 people did this and helped us.

161 0:12:59,520 --> 0:13:01,106 Speaker 3: And then one of those people, a complete stranger.

162 0:13:01,126 --> 0:13:02,049 Speaker 3: He's giving me chills.

163 0:13:02,200 --> 0:13:04,483 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh wait, the story's not over, it's even better.

164 0:13:05,460 --> 0:13:07,749 Speaker 3: One of those people, a complete stranger, still don't know who it is.

165 0:13:08,221 --> 0:13:19,448 Speaker 3: They were the 0.006% chance genetic match that my friend needed, so, like the foundation that we created together, literally saved his life, and he's been in remission since 2019.

166 0:13:20,110 --> 0:13:21,563 Speaker 3: Wow yeah, it was an adventure.

167 0:13:24,105 --> 0:13:25,229 Speaker 1: That happened in 2019.

168 0:13:25,280 --> 0:13:26,164 Speaker 1: How old were you when you did that?

169 0:13:27,020 --> 0:13:27,562 Speaker 3: I was.

170 0:13:28,225 --> 0:13:29,128 Speaker 3: That was five years ago.

171 0:13:29,320 --> 0:13:30,747 Speaker 1: Okay, so you were in college.

172 0:13:30,920 --> 0:13:32,787 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, you were in college at that point Okay.

173 0:13:36,241 --> 0:13:37,104 Speaker 1: That was for your best friend.

174 0:13:37,265 --> 0:13:37,445 Speaker 3: Yeah.

175 0:13:37,846 --> 0:13:40,049 Speaker 1: Wow, I guess you guys are really tight now.

176 0:13:40,767 --> 0:13:41,375 Speaker 1: I'm like oh my God.

177 0:13:41,740 --> 0:13:44,265 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a new form of bonding.

178 0:13:44,285 --> 0:13:46,950 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing.

179 0:13:46,970 --> 0:13:52,485 Speaker 1: I've also worked in marketing, which is a little bit more I know I'm jumping off story here, but this is I'm blown away by that.

180 0:13:52,505 --> 0:13:54,270 Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, oh my gosh.

181 0:13:55,100 --> 0:13:56,105 Speaker 1: Okay, so he's built and sold the company.

182 0:13:56,300 --> 0:14:01,048 Speaker 1: You've saved your best friend's life, and about make me cry here.

183 0:14:01,128 --> 0:14:02,723 Speaker 1: Okay, dr Yee, what have you?

184 0:14:02,763 --> 0:14:03,265 Speaker 4: done Henry.

185 0:14:03,941 --> 0:14:05,588 Speaker 1: Are you just the founder, the original founder?

186 0:14:05,860 --> 0:14:06,844 Speaker 1: What have you done prior to this?

187 0:14:08,040 --> 0:14:30,681 Speaker 4: Yeah, so like because I started this as a personal project in my first year of college and later I founded a team, I went to the Plasma Accelerator and finally, like the Big Bang, and during these four years I've also like done two internships at Amazon and I also like worked for some like student startups before.

188 0:14:30,721 --> 0:14:34,209 Speaker 4: Like it's more like related to AI, machine learning.

189 0:14:34,470 --> 0:14:36,561 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay.

190 0:14:36,582 --> 0:14:42,261 Speaker 1: So maybe I'll ask each of you this and I don't know how well you're well, how well you're aligned on this what's?

191 0:14:42,401 --> 0:14:50,873 Speaker 1: If you could just tell me the vision of what this will look like and maybe what the longer term strategy would be?

192 0:14:51,260 --> 0:14:51,783 Speaker 1: You wanna start?

193 0:14:52,600 --> 0:15:02,646 Speaker 4: Yeah, so like our short term strategy is to have our AI machine learning power degree planners that can help undergrad students build their entire four year degree plan.

194 0:15:03,280 --> 0:15:17,707 Speaker 4: And we are also looking for like other things like professional education, continuing education and, yeah, like expand to the like other part of the attack market as well.

195 0:15:19,280 --> 0:15:25,470 Speaker 4: Yeah, because there are a lot of legacy system the school is using that is like not user friendly.

196 0:15:26,161 --> 0:15:38,234 Speaker 4: And when we like, when we grasp our go-to market, we are going to expand to like all other related areas with our AI and machine learning based technology.

197 0:15:38,716 --> 0:15:39,982 Speaker 1: So how do you guys make decisions?

198 0:15:40,075 --> 0:15:40,958 Speaker 1: So you get three of it.

199 0:15:40,998 --> 0:15:43,239 Speaker 1: Looks like there's three people on this team.

200 0:15:43,696 --> 0:15:44,600 Speaker 1: Is there other people on the team?

201 0:15:46,255 --> 0:15:47,681 Speaker 2: It's among the three of us.

202 0:15:48,195 --> 0:15:50,342 Speaker 2: All the decisions are made among the three of us.

203 0:15:51,435 --> 0:15:59,602 Speaker 2: We do have a few people in the team who mostly work on the product side and some on the growth side to implement the strategies that we come up with.

204 0:15:59,642 --> 0:16:02,240 Speaker 2: Right, but it's mostly the three of us.

205 0:16:02,300 --> 0:16:07,504 Speaker 2: Where strategy growth and how do we finance it and who do we reach out to?

206 0:16:07,655 --> 0:16:09,601 Speaker 2: These decisions are taken by Dylan and I.

207 0:16:10,675 --> 0:16:14,621 Speaker 2: Henry takes most of the decisions on the product side and we have these conversations.

208 0:16:14,662 --> 0:16:15,364 Speaker 2: We come up to Henry.

209 0:16:15,495 --> 0:16:23,723 Speaker 2: We say, hey, I think this is the direction we wanna explore and Henry gets working on the product itself because he's amazing in building products.

210 0:16:23,743 --> 0:16:30,547 Speaker 2: Right, he's really good with code and the kind of feedback we're getting from users who are using SCAT Go to.

211 0:16:30,615 --> 0:16:42,843 Speaker 2: They really like how intuitive the platform is, how it looks, the whole user experience, ui, what we say right, and all of that is good to Henry because he's really good with what he does.

212 0:16:43,315 --> 0:16:45,283 Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting to see this team.

213 0:16:45,395 --> 0:16:52,042 Speaker 1: I love how you guys have broken it up with the three leaders one's product, one's finance, one's growth.

214 0:16:52,276 --> 0:16:54,403 Speaker 1: I think that's a really good way to go.

215 0:16:54,555 --> 0:16:56,201 Speaker 1: It feels like you got all your bases covered.

216 0:16:57,295 --> 0:17:00,645 Speaker 1: What's your biggest concern in terms of reaching this vision?

217 0:17:01,437 --> 0:17:02,280 Speaker 1: What's the big worry?

218 0:17:02,340 --> 0:17:02,962 Speaker 1: If there is one?

219 0:17:03,275 --> 0:17:06,119 Speaker 3: I think the short-term worry is the chicken and the egg problem.

220 0:17:06,400 --> 0:17:14,681 Speaker 3: Right, Like, what we're building is technically complex and so it requires financing To be able to really nail the landing.

221 0:17:14,996 --> 0:17:20,123 Speaker 3: We need a runway right To be able to do that, but of course, to be able to get there we need money.

222 0:17:20,757 --> 0:17:21,941 Speaker 3: So it's like what comes first.

223 0:17:22,001 --> 0:17:33,761 Speaker 3: Right, we know that tomorrow, in a different universe, we could turn on ads and that would solve a lot of problems, but then we're missing the like philosophical goal we have, which is making education easier.

224 0:17:33,935 --> 0:17:43,479 Speaker 3: So I think it's just balancing what we can do now and what we wanna do in the future and making sure for lack of a better way to put it we're not selling ourselves out for like a short-term game.

225 0:17:43,741 --> 0:17:49,760 Speaker 3: Right, we really wanna make education easier, but that's a big, big ask yeah, well, I like that.

226 0:17:49,855 --> 0:17:51,240 Speaker 1: That's easy for me to understand.

227 0:17:51,300 --> 0:17:59,761 Speaker 1: Make education easier, because my daughter went to UC Davis as well and she was on a diving scholarship so she got a little bit of.

228 0:18:00,623 --> 0:18:08,640 Speaker 1: I guess getting into classes was slightly easier for her and then she ended up getting some of the degrees were really tough to get into these classes.

229 0:18:08,755 --> 0:18:15,945 Speaker 1: So she ended up getting a communications degree and she got out in like three and a half years but she sorta just wanted to go get through it a little bit.

230 0:18:16,355 --> 0:18:26,942 Speaker 1: But I can see with these advanced degrees it being just almost very, very hectic and it takes forever just to get your degree if you don't have the right planning strategy.

231 0:18:27,055 --> 0:18:29,643 Speaker 1: So congratulations on what you're building.

232 0:18:30,355 --> 0:18:37,503 Speaker 1: It's exciting to hear each of your stories individually and we have somebody else coming up on the show.

233 0:18:37,595 --> 0:18:41,441 Speaker 1: We have the I guess it's the second place team is gonna come on Square Solutions.

234 0:18:41,535 --> 0:18:43,162 Speaker 1: So thank you guys for coming on.

235 0:18:43,556 --> 0:18:44,882 Speaker 1: We'll bring up Square Solutions now.

236 0:18:44,963 --> 0:18:45,566 Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you very much.

237 0:18:45,586 --> 0:18:46,510 Speaker 3: Thank you for having us Thank you.

238 0:18:48,217 --> 0:18:49,201 Speaker 1: That was awesome guys.

239 0:18:50,735 --> 0:18:51,940 Speaker 1: Jeez, you guys blow me away.

240 0:18:52,635 --> 0:18:55,805 Speaker 1: College students, that's cool.

241 0:18:56,195 --> 0:18:58,656 Speaker 1: So you guys can relax over there if you want to and we'll see.

242 0:19:01,122 --> 0:19:02,146 Speaker 1: All right, excuse me.

243 0:19:11,341 --> 0:19:20,621 Speaker 1: All right, so, sophie and how?

244 0:19:20,641 --> 0:19:21,664 Speaker 4: do you say your first name, harjan?

245 0:19:21,764 --> 0:19:23,709 Speaker 1: Harjan, harjan and you're okay.

246 0:19:25,321 --> 0:19:37,974 Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so now I have I guess it's the second place when winners of the Big Bang and it's square solutions, and there's three of you here again today to.

247 0:19:38,721 --> 0:19:41,749 Speaker 1: So maybe we'll go around and just have you do a quick intro, like we did with the last team.

248 0:19:42,050 --> 0:19:44,145 Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure, I'm Disha.

249 0:19:44,647 --> 0:19:52,112 Speaker 5: I'm a third year biomedical engineering student and we all met at Um quarter at Aggie square, so I'll pass it on to Sophie.

250 0:19:52,573 --> 0:19:55,703 Speaker 1: I'm Sophie might need to pull the mic up a little closer, sorry, yeah.

251 0:19:57,182 --> 0:19:57,784 Speaker 7: I'm Sophie.

252 0:19:57,925 --> 0:20:01,777 Speaker 7: I'm also a third year undergraduate in biomedical engineering.

253 0:20:01,797 --> 0:20:07,463 Speaker 7: I kind of help when the strategy and kind of Development of product.

254 0:20:08,024 --> 0:20:08,305 Speaker 1: Okay.

255 0:20:08,786 --> 0:20:09,488 Speaker 6: I am Harjan.

256 0:20:09,669 --> 0:20:16,440 Speaker 6: I'm also a third year biomedical engineering student at UC Davis and I also hope in like the product development side of things.

257 0:20:16,881 --> 0:20:21,292 Speaker 1: Well, you and I hit it off originally because you went to Oakmont High School, so I knew you were a stud right then.

258 0:20:22,522 --> 0:20:22,622 Speaker 6: Yep.

259 0:20:24,281 --> 0:20:24,561 Speaker 1: The other.

260 0:20:24,862 --> 0:20:27,589 Speaker 1: You two women, did you grow up around here?

261 0:20:27,609 --> 0:20:28,652 Speaker 1: Where are you guys originally from?

262 0:20:29,462 --> 0:20:31,006 Speaker 5: I'm actually from Central Valley.

263 0:20:31,107 --> 0:20:31,708 Speaker 1: Central Valley.

264 0:20:31,769 --> 0:20:32,551 Speaker 1: Like what's that?

265 0:20:32,571 --> 0:20:33,855 Speaker 1: Like Fresno around.

266 0:20:33,915 --> 0:20:34,818 Speaker 5: Fresno area.

267 0:20:34,858 --> 0:20:37,786 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and then where are you from originally, sophie?

268 0:20:37,846 --> 0:20:38,628 Speaker 1: I'm from the South Bay.

269 0:20:38,668 --> 0:20:40,071 Speaker 1: I'm from San Jose, south Bay.

270 0:20:40,131 --> 0:20:44,433 Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about your business and then we'll.

271 0:20:44,814 --> 0:20:46,480 Speaker 1: And then we'll talk about the competition a little bit.

272 0:20:46,881 --> 0:20:48,968 Speaker 1: Maybe just tell us a little bit about the business.

273 0:20:49,489 --> 0:20:55,369 Speaker 5: Yeah, so our product I'll describe it in three words, it's a sell, a portable cell incubator.

274 0:20:56,281 --> 0:21:12,654 Speaker 5: So basically, the goal that we're trying to solve with our product is to get to solve this problem of a transportation gap between getting cell therapies To from like product development, like research side to people in the hospitals.

275 0:21:13,061 --> 0:21:15,506 Speaker 1: Okay, so the transportation, like getting.

276 0:21:15,606 --> 0:21:15,946 Speaker 1: What are these?

277 0:21:15,967 --> 0:21:24,186 Speaker 1: Like little test tubes, or there must be very small Packages so they're usually cell therapies.

278 0:21:24,226 --> 0:21:25,308 Speaker 5: They're in flasks.

279 0:21:25,729 --> 0:21:38,605 Speaker 5: Okay and so what we're trying to do is we're trying to so transport these, because right now what's happening is they're just kind of put into ice, like a box of ice, and Transported, and that can really kill off the cells.

280 0:21:38,665 --> 0:21:43,214 Speaker 5: I think it's about 15% of cells die within the transportation process.

281 0:21:44,141 --> 0:21:48,853 Speaker 5: So they're not getting all of them are not getting there to the patient who needs these cells.

282 0:21:49,321 --> 0:21:50,968 Speaker 1: Okay, so could they just make?

283 0:21:51,009 --> 0:21:53,660 Speaker 1: Get more cells, and then that way you could deal with the 15%.

284 0:21:56,508 --> 0:21:57,952 Speaker 5: That's not necessarily how it works.

285 0:22:02,043 --> 0:22:03,451 Speaker 1: I don't even know what cell therapy is.

286 0:22:03,551 --> 0:22:06,884 Speaker 5: I know that's completely fine, it's, it's still a growing market.

287 0:22:06,964 --> 0:22:11,314 Speaker 5: A lot of new research is being done in cell therapy development area.

288 0:22:13,263 --> 0:22:15,660 Speaker 5: But yeah, you can't just make cells out of nowhere.

289 0:22:16,081 --> 0:22:21,720 Speaker 5: You have to really like, you have to do cell culturing techniques and you have to make sure like it's a it's a big time process.

290 0:22:22,061 --> 0:22:23,126 Speaker 5: Okay goes into.

291 0:22:23,821 --> 0:22:28,236 Speaker 1: Making so and so, and so you're saving a lot of money by having that happen.

292 0:22:28,276 --> 0:22:28,757 Speaker 1: Is that right?

293 0:22:28,838 --> 0:22:29,540 Speaker 1: Are you saving lives?

294 0:22:29,821 --> 0:22:30,685 Speaker 1: Are you saving money?

295 0:22:30,885 --> 0:22:31,066 Speaker 1: What?

296 0:22:31,207 --> 0:22:32,845 Speaker 1: What are you Actually?

297 0:22:32,865 --> 0:22:33,694 Speaker 1: What's actually happening?

298 0:22:34,199 --> 0:22:41,400 Speaker 6: Yeah, so by solving this like cell, like efficacy issue, the idea is that we'd be saving more people, people's lives.

299 0:22:41,821 --> 0:22:45,871 Speaker 6: Okay that they're getting all the cells that they need and not like minus 15% of what they need.

300 0:22:46,112 --> 0:22:51,613 Speaker 1: Okay, so you transfer them from where to where to what it starts off where and then it goes through the hospital.

301 0:22:52,042 --> 0:22:52,244 Speaker 6: Right.

302 0:22:52,284 --> 0:23:00,100 Speaker 6: So a lot of these cells are cultured in labs and we have to get these cells from the labs to the hospitals where the patients need them the most.

303 0:23:00,662 --> 0:23:12,174 Speaker 6: So the idea with this incubator is that instead of freezing down the cells and thawing them again which affects 15% and 15% die we would keep them at 37 degrees Celsius, like body temperature.

304 0:23:12,240 --> 0:23:18,140 Speaker 6: We'd keep them at body temperature and they just aren't freezed and they won't die and then what's the?

305 0:23:19,162 --> 0:23:20,004 Speaker 1: What about time?

306 0:23:20,124 --> 0:23:20,525 Speaker 1: Can they?

307 0:23:20,906 --> 0:23:24,954 Speaker 1: Does it need to be from point a to point b in a short window of time?

308 0:23:26,541 --> 0:23:29,167 Speaker 1: I mean if you keep it at 37 degrees Celsius, will it?

309 0:23:29,347 --> 0:23:32,033 Speaker 1: Will those cells last for a long period?

310 0:23:32,053 --> 0:23:32,293 Speaker 6: of time?

311 0:23:32,961 --> 0:23:34,227 Speaker 6: Yeah, I think in 30s.

312 0:23:34,961 --> 0:23:40,272 Speaker 7: So the way cell culturing kind of works is you have these cells and you basically they are living things.

313 0:23:40,292 --> 0:23:50,357 Speaker 7: You treat them like living things, you give them the, the food they need, and Our product is essentially scaling down the standard right now for growing cells and like maintaining cells and that's.

314 0:23:50,718 --> 0:23:55,422 Speaker 7: You go into any research lab that Makes cells.

315 0:23:55,883 --> 0:23:57,506 Speaker 7: They're gonna have these big incubators.

316 0:23:57,526 --> 0:24:00,212 Speaker 7: They keep them at 37 degrees Celsius, they have co2.

317 0:24:00,252 --> 0:24:06,469 Speaker 7: They have sterility and when you give the ideal conditions, that's when they can thrive.

318 0:24:06,609 --> 0:24:18,520 Speaker 7: And so we want to shrink this normal incubator down, make it portable and Do it so we can deliver these cells essentially as they would be in the lab, directly to the hospitals, just directly to the OR room.

319 0:24:18,961 --> 0:24:24,521 Speaker 1: Would you say that this is mostly like a packaging type item is because you're not dealing with the actual Transportation.

320 0:24:24,542 --> 0:24:28,192 Speaker 1: You're just dealing with the way, the way that it's packaged when it gets transported.

321 0:24:28,921 --> 0:24:30,244 Speaker 7: It's a little bit of both.

322 0:24:30,705 --> 0:24:33,250 Speaker 7: Our current venture is creating the product.

323 0:24:33,831 --> 0:24:37,529 Speaker 7: Our long-term venture is being involved in the transportation of it as well.

324 0:24:37,790 --> 0:24:38,091 Speaker 1: Okay.

325 0:24:38,453 --> 0:24:40,340 Speaker 1: So how did the team come together?

326 0:24:40,521 --> 0:24:50,933 Speaker 1: You're all in doing bio med at UC Davis and Did you hear about the Big Bang, and then you decided to start the company, or what prompted you to like, start this?

327 0:24:51,601 --> 0:25:13,363 Speaker 7: So our story starts with Aggie Square, which is essentially an issue, an initiative through UC Davis to bring together students, industry in the community, and we specifically, were part of a part, a cohort of people who were addressing the gap between physicians and Engineers in healthcare.

328 0:25:14,005 --> 0:25:19,058 Speaker 7: So we were in a program where we were exposed to so many different problems in healthcare.

329 0:25:19,140 --> 0:25:31,260 Speaker 7: We spent a lot of time in the OR room, we got to talk to a lot of researchers and doctors and Through that we recognized well, first off, there are so many problems in healthcare and there are so many things that need to be addressed.

330 0:25:31,841 --> 0:25:52,334 Speaker 7: But one of our professors, dr Eidgen Wang, is currently in the clinical trials for stem cell therapy for spina bifida, and when talking about his research and his clinical trials, he was explaining how difficult it is to get his cell therapy to the hospital for the surgery that they're being used for.

331 0:25:52,943 --> 0:26:10,850 Speaker 7: He showed us this photo kind of like it was really funny we're basically the PI of his lab was pushing the cell incubator the full-size cell incubator down the street from his lab at the medical facility to the hospital, and that's kind of where our idea formed were like this is crazy, like this can't be, what the standard?

332 0:26:10,871 --> 0:26:16,080 Speaker 1: so that what it was, what it is now, it looks like a cart that he be pushed down the from one building to a next.

333 0:26:16,241 --> 0:26:17,149 Speaker 1: It's like this huge box.

334 0:26:17,580 --> 0:26:19,325 Speaker 6: It's like on wheels and like pushing it.

335 0:26:19,405 --> 0:26:29,727 Speaker 1: Like how do you get it through the elevator, up the stairs to the what you're pushing is this small, like it's very small a thing, flask, okay and it's.

336 0:26:30,189 --> 0:26:33,400 Speaker 1: It's a big ordeal and you, you're pushing it in a cart.

337 0:26:33,620 --> 0:26:44,820 Speaker 1: So some places I'm sure you would want to transfer, transfer, transport it farther than that, right like right, it's like some labs like specialized in certain cell therapies and making specific cells.

338 0:26:45,121 --> 0:26:57,410 Speaker 6: So if your patient is in LA, you know how are you gonna get this huge cart to LA, so you would need like put on a plane, and so the idea with this portable incubators it's just easier to transport even far distances, rural distances for rural patients and stuff.

339 0:26:57,491 --> 0:26:59,054 Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, interesting.

340 0:26:59,861 --> 0:27:01,085 Speaker 1: So what stage is the company?

341 0:27:01,145 --> 0:27:22,747 Speaker 1: And now I I'm a little bit familiar with Aggie Square and I know they're building a big facility, but you're part of the program, like one of these original programs, where you're sort of finding a problem, almost as a like a class project type of thing kind of is how, how is this different than a class project turning into a business?

342 0:27:23,342 --> 0:27:25,087 Speaker 5: Well, it was never a class project.

343 0:27:25,107 --> 0:27:26,521 Speaker 1: Not a class With.

344 0:27:26,581 --> 0:27:36,764 Speaker 5: I think actually it was after Aggie Square, we all sat down and we talked with each other or like this is like a problem that we, we all got to know each other, like the team got to know each other through Aggie Square.

345 0:27:36,824 --> 0:27:48,130 Speaker 5: So we were able to find our weaknesses and strengths through that and we talked about these problems and this was the one we really nailed down and we were like this is something that would be great if we can just like help solve.

346 0:27:48,540 --> 0:27:50,487 Speaker 1: Have you decided to actually make it a business now?

347 0:27:51,401 --> 0:27:55,762 Speaker 5: Yes, we, we were hoping to make it a business as of right now.

348 0:27:56,183 --> 0:27:56,744 Speaker 5: We're still.

349 0:27:57,305 --> 0:28:08,272 Speaker 5: Now that we have the Big Bang money we got 10,000 from the Big Bang prize money we're hoping to develop a prototype so that we can actually get it out there and do testing on it.

350 0:28:09,040 --> 0:28:11,890 Speaker 1: Okay, so, in terms of developing a prototype, who does what on the team?

351 0:28:12,060 --> 0:28:14,589 Speaker 1: How did you divide up the I guess rules and responsibilities?

352 0:28:14,700 --> 0:28:22,808 Speaker 1: We heard our last group they've I don't know if they're further along sounds like they might be slightly further along what are your, what's your plan for dividing up roles and responsibilities?

353 0:28:24,180 --> 0:28:41,951 Speaker 6: I think I think we kind of all have our like specialties amongst a group and so then based on that specialty, so we kind of created like some categories like me and Sophia, like on the product side, deesha has her like amazing leadership skills as well, so she kind of like helps organize meetings and also overarching like looks at things.

354 0:28:42,220 --> 0:28:43,865 Speaker 5: We also have a really big team.

355 0:28:44,026 --> 0:28:45,190 Speaker 5: There's about 10 of us.

356 0:28:45,320 --> 0:28:47,328 Speaker 5: I saw that picture on my screen over there.

357 0:28:47,420 --> 0:28:48,504 Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks like about 10.

358 0:28:48,765 --> 0:28:51,326 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, what does everybody do?

359 0:28:51,540 --> 0:28:52,846 Speaker 1: How do you keep 10 people busy?

360 0:28:52,980 --> 0:28:53,722 Speaker 1: I mean, I can't.

361 0:28:53,842 --> 0:28:57,220 Speaker 5: you know, that's a lot of so I think a lot of it is just like a lot of the.

362 0:28:57,441 --> 0:29:01,090 Speaker 5: It is product development and that's like mainly what we're focused on right now.

363 0:29:01,940 --> 0:29:11,191 Speaker 5: We like started just a little bit before the Big Bang and we have a lot of great advisors giving us, you know, all the ins and outs of what we could do, what we shouldn't do.

364 0:29:12,340 --> 0:29:13,022 Speaker 5: Young hang he's.

365 0:29:13,143 --> 0:29:21,930 Speaker 5: He was our TA in Aggie Square but he's been helping us make a lot, do a lot of the decision making and also the research aspect of it.

366 0:29:22,740 --> 0:29:29,934 Speaker 1: So if you make this into a real company, it's going to be worth a lot of money and you've got 10, 10 teammates.

367 0:29:29,974 --> 0:29:32,120 Speaker 1: Is everybody sort of an equal shareholder?

368 0:29:32,602 --> 0:29:33,625 Speaker 1: How do you, how do you make those kind of?

369 0:29:33,645 --> 0:29:34,007 Speaker 7: decisions.

370 0:29:34,660 --> 0:29:36,306 Speaker 7: That's kind of where we're standing at right now.

371 0:29:36,820 --> 0:29:39,308 Speaker 7: Yeah, we're at a point where now we have this money.

372 0:29:39,900 --> 0:29:45,707 Speaker 7: It's like this is going from like you said, it wasn't a class project, but a class project to like a thing, like an actual thing, a company.

373 0:29:46,380 --> 0:29:49,609 Speaker 7: So we're just working on like any company.

374 0:29:49,649 --> 0:29:50,091 Speaker 7: There's roles.

375 0:29:50,320 --> 0:29:58,331 Speaker 7: We're kind of working through roles and like what people are going to take on and with that will kind of rise who has taken what company in the company?

376 0:29:58,580 --> 0:29:59,824 Speaker 7: But it's it's.

377 0:29:59,924 --> 0:30:01,409 Speaker 7: We're still very early on in our venture.

378 0:30:01,640 --> 0:30:12,776 Speaker 1: So there's no, there's no, there's no arm wrestling or positioning right now, for you know leadership roles or more equity, or I'm working harder than you, or any of that.

379 0:30:13,518 --> 0:30:13,980 Speaker 7: Not at the moment.

380 0:30:14,461 --> 0:30:15,986 Speaker 7: Hopefully it stays that way.

381 0:30:16,146 --> 0:30:29,871 Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I'm like, oh no, I would say our team is really good at communicating with each other and if we do have a problem that arises, we make sure to address it together as a group, rather than just someone talks to someone on the side and kind of gets it over with.

382 0:30:31,002 --> 0:30:33,248 Speaker 5: I mean, ethan, he's one of.

383 0:30:33,629 --> 0:30:45,765 Speaker 5: All of us are co founders, but me and Ethan are primarily taking on the role of like just delegating and also like organize everything, as Harjan said, and I think so far it's been working.

384 0:30:45,825 --> 0:31:01,423 Speaker 5: But if anywhere were to come up to me and be like I want to try out the role, I don't think there would be a problem necessarily in us kind of working together on that Interesting dilemma is you know to see something like this because you have 10 people all trying to work together.

385 0:31:02,740 --> 0:31:20,598 Speaker 1: You've been described as the leader, which might mean you have to make, find a way to make those decisions or get those decisions made, because you can't have too many cooks in the kitchen, and then when they came on, they've got, you know, one person in charge of product, one person in charge of growth and the other person in charge of finance, kind of.

386 0:31:20,718 --> 0:31:23,340 Speaker 1: I don't know if it's textbook, but it seems to make sense.

387 0:31:23,581 --> 0:31:24,905 Speaker 1: That's what I see a lot of companies do.

388 0:31:26,080 --> 0:31:28,968 Speaker 1: Do you envision needing to move towards something closer to that?

389 0:31:30,260 --> 0:31:35,621 Speaker 5: I think as we develop the product and as we go forward, we definitely will develop something that's.

390 0:31:35,982 --> 0:31:36,745 Speaker 5: That's like that.

391 0:31:37,380 --> 0:31:41,139 Speaker 5: I think as I was listening to them talk, I was like, wow, that's they have it.

392 0:31:41,340 --> 0:31:42,464 Speaker 5: They have it down to the nail.

393 0:31:43,580 --> 0:31:47,088 Speaker 5: But I think right now we're still very, very early on our product development.

394 0:31:47,148 --> 0:31:52,664 Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, so in terms of the competition, what would it feel like to compete against people like these guys?

395 0:31:52,925 --> 0:32:01,694 Speaker 1: Right, obviously kick butt in a big way, but you guys are no slouch, you guys are highly technical and you're solving sounds like a real problem.

396 0:32:02,035 --> 0:32:04,185 Speaker 1: Tell me about that competition Anybody want to describe.

397 0:32:04,380 --> 0:32:06,721 Speaker 1: Is it like feel super competitive, were you?

398 0:32:06,741 --> 0:32:07,263 Speaker 6: nervous.

399 0:32:08,681 --> 0:32:15,254 Speaker 6: So we were all part of pitching to these investors and I know when I walked in I see them all sitting like that.

400 0:32:15,700 --> 0:32:16,746 Speaker 6: I felt like Shark Tank almost.

401 0:32:17,080 --> 0:32:18,807 Speaker 6: I got kind of nervous, kind of scared.

402 0:32:19,621 --> 0:32:23,522 Speaker 6: But as you start talking about your product and pitch, you become more and more confident as you go.

403 0:32:24,580 --> 0:32:40,432 Speaker 6: I didn't really look at the other competition as much because I knew if I looked at it I'd second guess myself and whatever, and so I just went in there, just not knowing who the competition is, and I think that confidence in me kind of like kind of got brought out as we were presented.

404 0:32:40,452 --> 0:32:41,434 Speaker 1: Well, 10 people pitching.

405 0:32:41,500 --> 0:32:42,324 Speaker 1: How did you guys divide up?

406 0:32:42,980 --> 0:32:44,444 Speaker 1: Did everybody say something on the pitch?

407 0:32:44,525 --> 0:32:48,366 Speaker 6: No, that's a lot of mouths, only a few people were talking.

408 0:32:48,988 --> 0:32:49,770 Speaker 1: Sophie, were you talking?

409 0:32:50,040 --> 0:32:50,863 Speaker 1: Were you one of the people presenting?

410 0:32:53,281 --> 0:32:56,390 Speaker 7: The way it was done was it was an eight minute presentation, 12 minute Q&A.

411 0:32:57,461 --> 0:33:05,310 Speaker 7: I played a big role in the Q&A because of, like we said, we were really involved in the research and design aspect of it.

412 0:33:05,420 --> 0:33:11,106 Speaker 7: So then I was kind of able to jump in and add in those like the information that we can't give in like an eight minute pitch.

413 0:33:11,540 --> 0:33:14,789 Speaker 1: Do you intend to be a part of this going forward if it becomes a company?

414 0:33:15,089 --> 0:33:18,286 Speaker 1: Yes, what part of this are you most excited about in terms of that?

415 0:33:20,100 --> 0:33:24,890 Speaker 7: I'm very excited about just we have so much opportunity to grow.

416 0:33:26,660 --> 0:33:30,891 Speaker 7: We're putting ourselves into an industry that well, a very fast growing industry.

417 0:33:31,100 --> 0:33:46,946 Speaker 7: Cell therapy is super fast growing and so kind of seeing where our product can go I really believe in our product and I think it could really change cell therapy and so just kind of seeing that through it's really cool, kind of being an undergrad and having an idea I care about.

418 0:33:47,860 --> 0:33:59,653 Speaker 1: Well, uc Davis is world renowned for this area of study, and so how much of an advantage is it to be at UC Davis solving this kind of problem?

419 0:33:59,920 --> 0:34:01,025 Speaker 1: We talked to the last group.

420 0:34:01,045 --> 0:34:06,126 Speaker 1: They're solving a problem that every university deals with basically, or every student deals with.

421 0:34:08,984 --> 0:34:14,021 Speaker 1: Yours is like, perfectly suited for UC Davis specifically, is that?

422 0:34:14,222 --> 0:34:15,507 Speaker 1: Do you find that that's an advantage?

423 0:34:16,080 --> 0:34:17,225 Speaker 7: It's very exciting.

424 0:34:17,460 --> 0:34:33,880 Speaker 7: As I mentioned, we have our one advisor and he's carrying out the first clinical trial for spina vifera in fetal surgery, and so it's cool that, like they are supporting us in this, because it's just exciting that's the only way to put it.

425 0:34:33,955 --> 0:34:45,841 Speaker 7: It's very exciting because we have a very close look into it and, like through the program, we were able to talk to these doctors and they're all very excited and willing to help us, because they also recognize the value of it.

426 0:34:46,695 --> 0:34:52,522 Speaker 6: And also at UC Davis, there's many professors, many researchers that are, you know, dabble in cell therapy, in the sort of field.

427 0:34:52,895 --> 0:34:59,040 Speaker 6: So if we have any questions, if we have, if we need something, we can, we have a wide range of people that we can go to as well.

428 0:34:59,175 --> 0:35:07,934 Speaker 1: Besides the person that you guys have described so far, who's been the most help out of UC Davis in terms of the professors, I would say Dr Wang right.

429 0:35:09,239 --> 0:35:10,944 Speaker 7: Well, that's the list goes on.

430 0:35:11,064 --> 0:35:16,240 Speaker 7: Honestly, we've had Dr Wang alongside Dr Diana Farmer, who's been very helpful.

431 0:35:16,355 --> 0:35:20,085 Speaker 7: She's a physician, so we get to see her perspective.

432 0:35:20,735 --> 0:35:24,286 Speaker 7: We've had a lot of people in the business aspect of it.

433 0:35:24,355 --> 0:35:32,359 Speaker 7: We have, like Pat and lawyers who work along Davis and are very involved in that to help us with, like, the business aspect and kind of what we wanna do longterm with our design.

434 0:35:33,235 --> 0:35:40,478 Speaker 7: Just a lot of professors are very excited to hear that their students are working on something and are very excited to let us pick their brain for information.

435 0:35:40,919 --> 0:35:41,502 Speaker 1: That's exciting.

436 0:35:41,955 --> 0:35:45,305 Speaker 1: Okay, so, in terms of moving forward, what are you most excited about?

437 0:35:45,415 --> 0:35:46,420 Speaker 1: Let me go to you, too.

438 0:35:46,555 --> 0:35:47,419 Speaker 1: What are you most excited about?

439 0:35:48,455 --> 0:35:52,623 Speaker 5: I would say the thing that I'm most excited about is seeing our product come to life.

440 0:35:52,915 --> 0:36:12,342 Speaker 5: I think that's a little bit short term as of right now, but being able to see, like, all of the aspects that we want in this portable incubator and seeing that it actually works and it actually is helping cells live, if you will, I think that's really that's very exciting to see when do you go to get something like this prototyped?

441 0:36:13,895 --> 0:36:17,620 Speaker 5: Well, we have a lot of resources at UC Davis, I think in general.

442 0:36:18,135 --> 0:36:37,439 Speaker 5: We have the engineering student design center where we can go to get this stuff designed and actually built, and then also Dr Wang's laboratory is there if we want to do research to make sure like we're getting the right amount of CO2 into the cells.

443 0:36:39,317 --> 0:36:41,564 Speaker 5: So we have quite a bit of room to play with.

444 0:36:41,835 --> 0:36:42,578 Speaker 1: What are you most excited about?

445 0:36:42,618 --> 0:36:42,859 Speaker 1: Harjun?

446 0:36:43,515 --> 0:36:55,560 Speaker 6: I'm excited for because, as Sophie was saying, that the biomedical engineering industry itself is growing rapidly, and so is this health therapy industry, and so I'm just excited to be a part of that growth and contributing to that growth.

447 0:36:56,336 --> 0:37:04,064 Speaker 6: And I'm excited just to see again Deshosa saying that our product is coming to life, like something that we've worked so hard on is coming together.

448 0:37:04,175 --> 0:37:05,916 Speaker 6: I think I'm really excited about that Well.

449 0:37:06,296 --> 0:37:12,000 Speaker 1: I am excited that these kind of innovative ideas are coming out of UC Davis.

450 0:37:12,815 --> 0:37:15,517 Speaker 1: You know a guy coming out of my high school that's doing it.

451 0:37:15,578 --> 0:37:16,481 Speaker 1: It's changing the world.

452 0:37:16,595 --> 0:37:30,785 Speaker 1: So it really brings me a lot of appreciation for you and, really, I guess, hope for America, for the world, with people like you really at the helm.

453 0:37:30,915 --> 0:37:35,125 Speaker 1: You're the next generation, so I'm really, really excited for what you guys are doing.

454 0:37:35,215 --> 0:37:40,164 Speaker 1: So thank you very much for joining me on the show and really great to have you right here in my backyard.

455 0:37:40,798 --> 0:37:41,682 Speaker 1: It's really fun to see.

456 0:37:42,044 --> 0:37:42,305 Speaker 6: Thank you.

457 0:37:42,875 --> 0:37:43,827 Speaker 6: Thank you so much for having us.

458 0:37:43,915 --> 0:37:44,615 Speaker 6: We'll see you back.