A founder’s vision comes alive at a showcase for Baltimore’s student entrepreneurs

The celebration of student entrepreneurship inside the recently opened 4MLK building carried an emotional weight. 

Family members of Pava LaPere appeared to honor the late founder of prominent local startup EcoMap Technologies, whose name graces the grants awarded to regional university-based founders as part of last Tuesday’s showcase. Pava’s parents Frank and Caroline LaPere briefly reflected on her vision and motivation for making entrepreneurship more accessible in their daughter’s adopted hometown. 

Pava, Frank said, “wanted to build new entrepreneurs, because an entrepreneur creates several megacompanies in their pocket.” 

Reading from Pava’s journals, he continued, “I love Baltimore because, despite all of our challenges, our entrepreneurs have risen to meet them, and will continue to do so as long as our great city stands.”

The Maryland Student Venture Showcase, hosted at the University of Maryland BioPark’s newest facility, seemed to celebrate just that. 

Hosted by ecosystem nonprofit UpSurge Baltimore, the event blended networking with formal programming, highlighting the city’s next generations of student entrepreneurs and inviting ecosystem movers and shakers. 

39 ventures from across metro Baltimore’s many colleges and universities were nominated to take part in the showcase. The nine winning student-founded companies were awarded $50,000 grants from the Pava LaPere Legacy of Innovation Act of 2024. Signed into law last year by Gov. Wes Moore and administered by both Maryland-founded TEDCO and UpSurge, the legislation intended to celebrate and support student ventures in Maryland. The winners hailed from Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC); Loyola University Maryland; Johns Hopkins University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC); Towson University; and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). 

Maryland Student Venture Showcase participants

Meet the companies that presented, including several that committed to building and hiring in Maryland. 

DegreeMap (Towson): Andres Londoño and Matthew Dibbern cofounded DegreeMap to make navigating the college journey easier for students and academic advisors. They are already working with Towson University to pilot their product. 

Drio/WholeSite (CCBC): Hazel Geary (a 2023 RealLIST Connector) and Rachel McFadden designed hundreds of websites in the nearly 15 years they’ve been in operation. Now, they’re building WholeSite, an AI-assisted platform to help small businesses establish a stronger online presence with sleek websites and curated content. 

Elastic Energy (UMBC): Cofounded by siblings Sam and Juliana Bendek, Elastic Energy seeks to create battery technology that can derive and store energy using tree sap. 

Fetal Therapy Technologies (Johns Hopkins): This company develops surgical tools and training models for the uterine environment, creating alternatives to how medical professionals currently conduct fetal surgeries.

Luminova Beauty (Loyola): Founder Charles Engler, who came with a video and presentation reminiscent of a tech giant’s reveal, started Luminova Beauty to create affordable skincare technology. 

RhizeUp (CCBC): Another ecological innovation, RhizeUp addresses phosphate runoff and minimizes algal bloom in our local waterways using an engineered rhizobium bacteria in soil. After a technically dense presentation, the crowd audibly gasped when cofounder and CEO Shumvobi Mitra mentioned that she and her fellow cofounder Ulysses Matricciani are both still in high school.

SneakerSync Labs (Towson): After years of reselling sneakers, cofounder and birthday boy Hermes Bunch decided to build a platform that enables others to become sneaker resellers. It involves proprietary software offering sourcing automation. SneakerSync boasts significant usage and nearly $150,000 in annual recurring revenue.

Somnair (Johns Hopkins): With over 10 years of surgery experience, Anders Sideris started Somnair to end invasive and ineffective treatments for sleep apnea by using an oral device that stimulates throat muscles. Somnair already boasts extensive trial data.

Sustainabli (UMB): Baltimore’s many healthcare and lab facilities consume massive amounts of energy, with machines running 24/7. Sustainabli tackles this waste by retrofitting common lab equipment with Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems, optimizing energy use without disrupting operations or safety. 

In addition to the winning student ventures above, some nominees came to share their products with the ecosystem. Several also won audience awards. Executive director Markus Proctor of Innovators of Progress, the sponsoring organization for the audience awards, announced those winners:  

• Impact Award: Jay’s Watermelonade 
• Innovation Award: Mindmap AI
• Passion Award: Kairos

Innovation beyond the business sector

The evening additionally highlighted how the tenets founders embrace can also serve government agencies. 

Francesca Ioffreda, who Gov. Moore appointed the State of Maryland’s chief innovation officer back in October, shared how her office — the state’s first-ever innovation team — brings the very same principles of entrepreneurship into the public sector. 

“I know innovation isn’t just for business,” she said. “It must happen in government too. In fact, public sector innovation is one of the most challenging and rewarding forms of entrepreneurship in government. The problems are complex, the impact is far-reaching and the responsibility to get it right is immense.” 

“We’re living in a time of historic challenge and uncertainty,” she added. “But here in Maryland, we run towards big challenges — not away from them — and we do that together.”