After three days of intense collaboration, the winning teams of this year’s Techstars Pittsburgh Startup Weekend showed AI-powered ways to tackle complex problems.
Even the companies that didn’t land in the top three, though, say they walked away with valuable advice. Mentors taught the value of market validation and a strong business plan over the 54 hours of the pitch competition.
“[We’re] demystifying the glamour of building a startup,” Steven Guo, president of Carnegie Mellon University alumni organization CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship, and a lead organizer of the event, told Technical.ly. “I think part of that journey is understanding this is simply the first step … and really reiterating perfection is the enemy of good.”
The event kicked off Friday night, attracting about 80 participants from different states and a variety of experience levels. By Sunday, members of the final teams had come together to brainstorm, build and pitch their startup ideas.
Launched in 2012, Pittsburgh Startup Weekend has occurred annually, with an exception for the pandemic from 2020 to 2023. Some local successes to come from the event include healthcare platform Treatspace, nonprofit bartering network InvolveMINT and tech startup Clean Plate Innovations.
For many participants, the experience meant collaborating with complete strangers to bring their ideas to life in just 54 hours.
“It’s really incredible to hear other people’s ideas and get my idea out in front of other people,” said Leslie Manson, an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago and a solopreneur with the idea for Trottr, a platform that helps individuals map out their dream life. “I’m hoping to come away with maybe some potential partnerships and connections that will help with the future of my business after this weekend.”
To help the participants grow their startup ideas throughout the weekend, the event had over a dozen mentors provide advice and guidance.
Wei Yu, a patent attorney with local intellectual property law firm Dentons Cohen & Grigsby and a mentor since the event returned last year, said he focuses on understanding the problems startups want to solve and ensuring their products align.
“The most common pitfall, and this is not limited to the competitors here, but for startup founders in general, is that they are overly ambitious,” Yu said. “They think they want to solve all the problems at once and that’s almost never a good idea when we actually try to go through this. They tend to get distracted by new problems surrounding the issue, so as mentors, our job is to bring them back into focus.”
By the end of the weekend, participants said they walked away more connected to the Pittsburgh startup ecosystem, which Guo said is one of his main motivators for organizing the event.
“Something I’ve seen in the ecosystem is we have so many resources, but it’s so confusing for someone who doesn’t know how to get involved,” Guo said. “In an age where we have so much information, I think it’s all about curation and helping to guide people. I think it’s our duty to create an accessible pathway to guide them to resources, to people, to opportunities to learn and nurture and grow.”
Meet the winners of 2025 Techstars Pittsburgh Startup Weekend.
First Place: BehavAI
BehavAI aims to alleviate burdens on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy professionals to improve patient care. The subscription-based AI software service standardizes and organizes data for providers.
Behavior technicians in ABA therapy have high turnover and burnout rates, often bogged down by administrative tasks. For supervisors, the quality of ABA therapy treatment suffers from a lack of structured data.
The idea was developed by Jei Park, Lana Farkas and Grisha Bandodkar, all students at Carnegie Mellon University.
Second Place: Herada
Herada is a mobile app designed to empower women to take control of their health. It features two key tools: a smart medical diary and a supportive chatbot. Together, they generate a comprehensive health report ahead of doctor’s appointments, ensuring physicians have a clear picture of the patient’s recent symptoms.
Users can log notes through text, voice or quick tabs, with the app translating them into language that doctors can easily understand. The chatbot is supported by up-to-date medical research and the app integrates data from external sources like medical records and smart watches.
The idea was developed by Rosalind Dong, Dannie Lyu, Will Penman, Shreyas Sanghvi and Krit Ravichaner.
Third Place: Verbal Victory
Verbal Victory is an AI communication coach, empowering people to feel more confident in their communication skills and overcome challenges. The AI coach helps users pick the right vocabulary to use in certain situations, enabling them to navigate difficult conversations with ease.
The platform also features a crowd-sourced advice section that offers real-life conversation examples to users and a chance to join an online community where users can vent or gather feedback from other users.
The idea was developed by Sai Sri Ramadugu, Sravya Cavuturu, John McBride and Leslie Burchette.
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