NYU Tandon Students Shine in the VentureWell E-Team Grant Program


Doctoral student Daniela Blanco and recent alum Myriam Sbeiti have been an inspiration to other aspiring entrepreneurs at Tandon since founding their company, Sunthetics, in 2017. Now other Tandon students are following in their footsteps. One of the latest awards garnered by Blanco and Sbeiti came as a result of their participation in the summer 2018  VentureWell E-Team Grant Program, which has as its goal to cultivate a pipeline of inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs driven to solve the world’s biggest challenges and to create lasting impact. While they took home a $20,000 Stage 2 grant, two newer (and equally exciting) companies co-founded by Tandon students received Stage 1 grants.

They are:

  • HealthHuddle, a platform that equips medical personnel with the tools they need to manage their patients’ complex data, was co-founded by senior Andrew Dempsey in collaboration with teammates from Wagner, CAS, and the School of Medicine and is expected to help eradicate dangerous hospital-acquired conditions.
  • Merciless Motors, which is developing a more efficient, powerful, and lightweight electric motor, was co-founded by Nader Ahmed (Tandon '19), along with a Gallatin teammate. As a teen, Ahmed bought and repaired junk cars to sell at a profit, and he now predicts that his innovation could save companies like Tesla millions of dollars a year.

HealthHuddle and Merciless Motors have already performed admirably in other entrepreneurial competitions, such as InnoVention, and their latest wins are setting them even further along on the path to success.

Students looking at computer

Interested in applying for a VentureWell grant?

If you are working on a venture that could scale to address a social or environmental need, the VentureWell E-team grant program may be right for you. Next deadline for Stage 1 is February 6, 2019