Duke Students Showcase Their Startups
The annual showcase is an opportunity to make connections and share lessons in entrepreneurship
Dogged Determination
Duke alumnus Rick Rosso, Fuqua ’89, an executive vice president at Concentrix, went from table to table impressed by what he saw and was amazed at the “breadth of ideas and businesses.”
One of those he visited was Dr. Milou, a company co-founded by Rui Sun, who is pursuing a master’s in engineering management degree at Duke, and her long-time friend Shuyi Fan.
Their pet dental cleaning tool grew out of their tragedy. Fan’s cat died under anesthesia while being treated for dental disease. Sun also is participating in the 2024-2025 cohort of the Melissa and Doug Entrepreneurship Accelerator,
a year-long intensive program designed for Duke students who are committed to launching and growing their startups.
The tool includes an electric toothbrush and an ultrasonic dental scaler, and they are working on an AI-powered health-screening app that analyzes a pet's dental health via phone.
Along the way there have been several lessons: “Building a startup is a constant exercise in resilience, resourcefulness and radical empathy. When you’re working on something deeply personal — like improving the health and well-being of pets — it requires more than just strategy. It demands courage and the humility to listen,” Sun said.
Dr. Milu took the Graduate and Professional Runner-up prize of $10,000, as well as a $5,000 Best in Showcase prize voted on by the audience.
Making Connections
When Sydelle Bernstein came to Duke, she wanted to continue babysitting like she did back home. She used existing job platforms to find work but didn’t feel safe. With a captive audience at Duke – working parents – she launched Students Who Sit, a platform that matches Duke students with Duke employees and alumni.
“I felt like there needed to be a streamlined way to connect students like me who wanted to babysit with parents who struggled to find childcare,” she said.
The idea took off: She has 600 users and hopes to create partnerships with other Duke-owned facilities, including Duke Health, JB Duke Hotel and Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club.
Bernstein took the Borchardt Runner-Up prize of $10,000, awarded to an undergraduate student-founded venture.
Health Care Across Borders
Making health care accessible and affordable to men in Zimbabwe is Ben Ncube’s passion. It prompted him to launch Men’s Health Clinic Zimbabwe, which provides health care services exclusively for men in a private, safe and stigma-free environment.
Student-Led Design Project Sold
What began as a First-Year Design (EGR101)project ended with the sale of a construction planning software application designed by Duke engineering students Ken Kalin, Del Cudjoe and Alec Liu.
The trio sold QuikCalto MOCA Systems, Inc. (MSI), provider of Touchplan, a construction planning platform, for an undisclosed price. QuikCal was among the firms taking part in last year’s Student Showcase.
The impetus for QuikCal came from Evan Reilly, an engineering alumnus working for Skanska USA. Reilly presented this dilemma to the first-year design class to solve: Although one of the largest construction companies in the world, Skanska was still using a whiteboard to schedule deliveries. The three got to work.
“(Evan) explained how challenging it was to manage logistics for a multimillion-dollar building project,” said Kalin. “We ran a pilot project with Skanska where we increased their notice time for when deliveries were showing up by 300 percent.” That turned into an estimated $2 million in savings on a $117 million Skanska construction project in Raleigh.
The QuikCal software bridges the gap between commonly used manual construction planning boards and digital project management systems. Liu joined the duo to assist in incorporating AI into the program.
“This is a big step in aiding the transition from analog to digital planning,” said Brett Adamczyk, president of MSI’s software division. “They've brought their vision from concept to code with impressive clarity and focus to deliver tangible efficiencies on real-world construction projects. The team has shown remarkable entrepreneurial traits in identifying a real-world pain point and developing an applicable technology solution for construction professionals.”
Kalin, who graduates this year, is going to a Boston start-up. Liu has secured a job with Microsoft, and Cudjoe is going to work for Amazon in Los Angeles.
“In most cases, they are suffering in silence and die at home,” said Ncube who is pursuing a master’s degree in population health sciences.
Since launching a year ago, the clinic has a dozen core staff, nine supporting staff and 400 community health champions. They have treated more than 24,000 male patients and targeted 13,000 more through outreach programs in rural and urban areas.
While treatment is being provided in person, Ncube is preparing to launch the first telehealth platform specifically for men in Africa, to offer more than 45 health services and products.
Ncube won the Graduate and Professional grand prize of $30,000 to continue his pursuits.
Yes She Can
In seventh grade, Riya Jain defined herself by her peanut allergy. She had to sit at the peanut-free table with other students who defined themselves by their limitations.
“Too often kids are defining themselves by what they can’t do,” said the Duke first-year student. “Our mission is to erase that narrative.”
She’s done that by publishing a series of children’s books titled The Land of Can that address issues ranging from mental health to nutrition to medical conditions.
Sitting in the audience, Jain’s mother Ruchi Gupta said something flipped in her daughter while in seventh grade; her daughter told her she no longer wanted to be known as the “allergy kid.”
“She had this transformation, and she wanted to share it with the world. It’s incredible seeing her vision become a reality, thanks to Duke and everything here that is supporting her. This environment is incredible for her,” Gupta said.
Jain took the $30,000 Borchardt grand prize awarded to an undergraduate.
Other Winners
The $10,000 Fuqua fast pitch prize for the best Fuqua student venture went to Keke Genio MBA '26 and her company Lokaresto. It offers a digital menu system that allows customers in Indonesia to view and order food online and restaurants to manage order systems to handle customer requests more efficiently.
Ray’Chel Wilson’s company For Our Last Names earned the $10,000 social entrepreneurship prize for the best venture whose primary purpose is to solve a social or environmental problem. Her company helps first-generation underrepresented individuals build wealth, achieve financial literacy and provides them with a plan for success.
Rahul Narang describes his company Let’s Get Visa as “a TurboTax for immigration services.” The platform uses AI-powered systems to expedite the visa process. Narang won the $6,500 Dean Yep, Jr. prize for a Fuqua student venture using entrepreneurship to diminish geographic and social boundaries.
Find a complete list of participants on the Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship website.