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Winners from Spotlight
Digital ID startup, blockchain infrastructure, and IoT
Happy Friday!
Welcome to another edition of the newsletter that highlights the best startups, jobs, and events from the USC entrepreneurship community.
Our first ever Spotlight launch was a hit. The top project Carbonisbad (founded by current USC students), received 101 upvotes. AI outreach tool Spellbound and AI-powered keyboard Rizz! (got milk rizz?) came close in 2nd and third.
A wave of new projects for this month will release next week so keep your eyes peeled. There will be startups in reusable foam, no-code, apparel, and beverage just to name a few 👀.
We are now accepting submissions for April's edition of Spotlight. If you want to show off what you are working on, fill out this form.
📣 USCStartups.io Product Update
Fixed bugs around missing authentication code
Improved UI/UX of Spotlight
Mystery update (hint: scale) We are cooking something big and our team is growing - if you are reading this then you will be the first to know.
📃 Job Board News
If you are interested in any of these jobs or would like to hire talents from USC like those startups, shoot me a message by replying to this email.
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💫 Startups of the Week
What? - Say goodbye to tedious form-filling whether you're signing up for a new social media account or booking a hotel room, Wrld makes it easy to get through registration without the hassle.
Why? - Save time with just one ID.
📍 Industries: Fintech
🚀 Stage: Pre-Seed
💵 Funding: $100,000
🛠 Founded: 2023
😎 Founders: Timothy Li
Bonus: Timothy Li is a well-known professor at USC teaching entrepreneurship. He previously exited his fintech company Alchemy for 8 figures. He's currently raising for Wrld ID.
What? - Platform for building user-friendly blockchain products
Why? - It's difficult to build wallets from scratch and transactions on the blockchain are complex to manage. Stackup provides the infrastructure for smart contract wallets on all EVM compatible chains.
📍Industries: Blockchain, SaaS, B2B
🚀 Stage: Seed
💵 Funding: $500,000 (YC S22)
🛠 Founded: 2022
😎 Founders: John Rising
Bonus: John Rising has an impressive resume working for Space companies before turning into Web 3. He worked at Virgin Galactic and was the first employee at Relativity Space, private 3D printing Rocket company that is now valued at $10B (also founded by two Trojans). He later worked at SpaceX.
Wonder what changed his mind to leave rocketships behind.
What? - CyClean222 provides safe environments as a service using far-UVC 222nm autonomous robots and luminaires for disinfection of dynamic work environments.
Why? - Controlling the spread of viruses is more important than ever after the COVID-19 outbreak. CyClean uses innovative safe UV light to eliminate virus and bacteria indoors.
📍Industries: Hardware, SaaS, IoT
🚀 Stage: Bootstrapped
🛠 Founded: 2022
😎 Founders: Chase Hood, William Hood
Bonus: CyClean was featured on February's Spotlight. To see his post where he answered questions about the business model and the logistics, click here.
If you are a founder or know of a startup that should be included in the database, please submit this form.
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