On Wednesday, July 19, student startups from ten universities came together for the 6th Annual University Pitch Madness hosted by the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University. Four WashU startups traveled to Chicago for their chance to win up to $6K in funding.

The competition kicked off with all teams tabling at the Holtschneider Performance Center on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus. Event attendees were able to walk through and engage with the student teams before voting for their favorite startup from each university. The top teams from each school made their way to the stage and presented a 3-minute pitch of their business in the final round of the competition.

ChiChi, a healthy and delicious chickpea based breakfast company, took home 2nd place and a check for $5,000. Chiara Munzi (LA ’23) and Izzy Gorton (LA ’25), the team behind ChiChi, were excited to represent WashU and the Skandalaris Center at University Pitch Madness alongside many amazing businesses. “Our favorite part of the business is our customer and we love watching people try our product and buy into our brand – it’s so energizing to see people just as excited as we are when they first taste our chickpea oatmeal,” said Gorton.

As for what’s up next for ChiChi, they are working hard to prepare for their launch on August 4. “We plan to use the $5K to make 30,000 ChiChi pouches for our second production run in September,” shared Munzi. “We’ve spent the summer creating our new packaging and branding, developing our social media presence, sourcing our ingredients and labor for our first copacker run, and have lined up 13 grocers in St. Louis including Fresh Thyme, Dierbergs, and Straubs – we’re incredibly excited for our launch and ready to sell again!” You can see ChiChi at Taste of St. Louis (August 11-13) at Ballpark Village.

This annual competition brought together student teams from WashU, University of Chicago, Michigan State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois System, University of Iowa, DePaul University, Northern Illinois University, University of Wisconsin, and Northwestern University.

Three additional WashU student startups participated in the competition:

• Article26 (Helen Telahun, LA ’24) The first personal finance platform that empowers it’s users to make healthy rational financial decision with confidence.
  
• LabLink (Arnav Desai, LA ’25) Democratizing research opportunities by connecting students with faculty and available projects.
  
• QuitStik (Rory Perkins, LA ’25) Tackling the vaping epidemic and aims to be your last ever vape.

All of the WashU teams who took part in University Pitch Madness have also previously participated in the Skandalaris Venture Competition (SVC). SVC provides expert mentorship to new WashU ventures and startups to ready them for commercializing their idea, launching, and pitching to investors. 

The Fall 2023 Skandalaris Venture Competition application opens in mid-August. Check out our website for more details!