Our first Dive In Episode of 2021 showcases Project Matriarchs, a social venture co-founded by Pilar McDonald ‘24. Project Matriarchs is an organization working to provide meaningful virtual childcare support to working mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mission behind the organization stemmed from the reality that women are taking on a disproportionate amount of childcare and homeschooling responsibilities as a result of the pandemic, undermining their ability to maintain the same hours or even to work at all. Project Matriarchs is a growing community of college students committed to supporting working caregivers, particularly mothers, during the pandemic. Tune in to this episode of Dive In to learn more about this remarkable organization.

Jack Dermer is the student founder of Camp Connect, an online summer learning platform that employed a project based approach to introduce middle-schoolers to subjects ranging from coding, to medical science, to acting and fashion design. The platform was created in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic by Jack and his team of passionate students from top universities across the country who had sought to have impact during a time of crisis.

Welcome to the Dive-In Startup of the Month Series!

Elvia Perez is the student founder of EmpowerU, an online platform that seeks to address educational disparities by providing students with the resources and tools they need to obtain higher education.

Jack Roswell is a recent Brown Alum and the co-founder of Cloud Agronomics, an agricultural intelligence force on a mission to reimagine sustainable food production. Cloud Agronomics provides next generation analytics on crop and soil performance with the end-game of changing the way the industry looks at sustainability, pricing, and other critical decisions related to food. Listen to this episode of Dive In to learn more about Cloud Agronomics' innovative and dynamic platform, how they are responding to food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and their continued efforts to combat climate change.

Welcome to the Dive-In Start-Up of the Month Series!

Michael Lai, Justin Kim, and Matthew Lee are the student founders of Cress Health, a digital platform that develops technologies to enhance personal mental wellness for healthcare professionals. Its mobile self-care app combines data-driven mental wellness features with a confidential peer support platform to democratize access to mental wellness support services and spread awareness of mental health.

Special thanks to the Brown EP Community team for collaborating with us on on this effort.

Albert Saniger is the Founder of nate, a venture-backed artificial intelligence startup which acts as a digital assistant for consumers. nate allows consumers to buy any item on any website without human intervention. Tune in to this episode of Dive In to learn how nate is empowering consumer agency everyday. 

Joel Grosman is a Brown Alum and the cofounder of NumberAI which developed Numa, an artificial intelligence software. Learn how Numa is helping small businesses with day-to-day operations by anticipating customer behavior and responding accordingly.

Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of San Francisco-based hint, which is known for its leading flavored water with no sweeteners or artificial ingredients. In 2017, Kara introduced hint sunscreen, an SPF 30 sunscreen using the same essences of its flagship product, hint water. Kara discusses how she has grown her company beyond the beverage industry and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on hint distribution channels.

Sandy Posa is a Brown Alum and Founding Partner and CEO of Force of Nature, a company that harnesses the power of electrolyzed water to serve as a 100% natural, nontoxic multi-purpose cleaner and deodorizer as effective as bleach. In wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sandy has seen the demand for his product skyrocket. 

Cliff Weitzman is a member of the Brown class of 2016 and the founder and CEO of Speechify a mobile and desktop productivity app that allows people with dyslexia, ADHD, impaired vision, and other reading difficulties to have any text read out to them. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning, Speechify is able to produce a near human text to speech voice.