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The foodie's Yelp, automatic pricing, children's TV

Meet Hngr, Soufflé, and Immersiva

Author

Josh @ unistart
June 23, 2023

Together with

Happy Friday!

It’s an exciting time to be part of this list.

In the coming weeks, here’s what you can expect from us:

  • A product revamp (No more gatekeeping by universities, a new Spotlight, and more)

  • Free resources every week (VC fellowships, investor lists, how to break into startups)

  • Online and in-person events and competitions (prize money 👀)

We’re not gonna charge for this. We want to supercharge startups, and paywalling resources negates our whole mission in the first place.

That said, if you want to help out, it would mean a lot if you share this newsletter with your friends. The more we grow, the better resources we can curate.

🤟 What Your Classmates Are Building

What? - Hngr is democratizing restaurant recommendations. Find the perfect restaurant, share your recommendations, follow your friends, and create unique restaurant lists.

Why? - Deciding where to eat is stressful and foodies have no way to get clout for knowing the best restaurants.

  • 📍Industries: Consumer, Food and Beverage, Social Media

  • 🚀 Stage: Pre-seed

  • 💵 Funding: Raising

  • 🛠 Founded: 2023

  • 😎 Founders: Jake Sacks (USC), Parker Landon (Seattle Pacific University)

What? - Implement dynamic pricing to boost restaurant sales while maintaining profitability

Why? - Restaurants are leaving money on the table by not experimenting with pricing and promotions. They are hard to optimize, but Soufflé does this automatically by looking at historical data.

  • 📍Industries: Restaurants, SaaS

  • 🚀 Stage: Pre-seed

  • 🛠 Founded: 2022

  • 😎 Founders: Saachi Cywinski (LMU & Georgetown), Fabien Gaillard (Aix-Marseille)

What? - An edutainment platform aimed at building a healthy relationship between children & technology

Why? - Children are developing unhealthy relationships with screens which are leading to increasing rates of anxiety and depression. Immersiva’s streaming channels encourage programming for learning and togetherness.

  • 📍Industries: EdTech, Education, Edutainment

  • 🚀 Stage: Bootstrapped

  • 🛠 Founded: 2021

  • 😎 Founders: Bobby Alexis (UCLA)

Know of a startup that we should feature in this newsletter Send us a reply!

This week's edition is sponsored by McKinsey’s InLA Accelerator

Are you an underrepresented founder (i.e., someone identifying as BIPOC, female, LGBTQ+, and/or someone with a medical condition or disability) based in SoCal? Would your company benefit from ~3 months of personalized consulting from McKinsey’s network of consultants and creatives—completely free of charge?

McKinsey’s Southern California office is excited to launch InLA, a start-up accelerator that partners with founders from underrepresented backgrounds to tackle their toughest challenges and fuel sustainable, inclusive growth. Click the button below to apply to join Cohort23, their inaugural class, by June 30, 2023.

Questions or want to learn more? Get in touch with the team at [email protected]

 📃 New Job Openings

Want your job to be featured like those startups? Send us a message by replying to this email!

📣 We want to hear from you!

If you are job hunting or hiring for roles in startups & VC, searching for deal flow, or just want to grow your college's startup ecosystem, we want to help.

Schedule a 30-min call with us so we can understand your needs.

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