Applications are now open for the spring 2025 cycle of the Skandalaris Venture Competition! SVC aims to nurture early-stage ideas, inventions, or startups, preparing them for commercialization, launching, and pitching to investors. The competition is open to all WashU students and recent alumni (within one year), and students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.
In preparation for the spring SVC cycle, we chatted with two-time winner and founder of Phoenix Biomedical, Lili Hostetler (SI and MBA ’24), to learn about her experience and how the competition has helped propel her startup forward. Hostetler won Disruptor Funding in the spring 2024 SVC cycle and Catalyst Funding this past fall.
Phoenix is a prosthetic with interchangeable parts designed for easy adjustment and customization using household tools. This innovation both reduces repair costs and enhances patient flexibility. Using a blend of 3D printing and traditional manufacturing techniques, Phoenix significantly lowers initial expenses, making advanced prosthetics more accessible to all.
Read below to learn more about Lili’s experience participating in the Skandalaris Venture Competition.
Lili, you’ve been involved in multiple cycles of SVC; what has the impact of the program been on you and your company?
SVC has helped me to connect with many others in the St. Louis entrepreneurship space who have provided me with both mentorship and networking opportunities. Participating in multiple cycles of SVC has pushed me to create many successful revisions of our pitch deck, financial statements, and executive summary, which has helped me both within the SVC competition and when seeking other funding opportunities.
What types of opportunities and/or relationships have the Skandalaris Center and SVC unlocked for you?
In addition to the connections listed above, the Skandalaris Center has provided me with many options for funding and resources outside of SVC, such as the Holekamp Seed Fund, Skandalaris Innovation Fund, and Skandalaris LaunchPad Program, which have all aided in the development of our current alpha prototype.
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about applying for SVC?
Start looking for sources for customer interviews as soon as possible. Getting multiple people’s perspectives early on can help you to build a better first prototype. Early customer interviews can also help to determine if you should pivot your start-up idea early on before a lot of time and resources have already been used to build a prototype.
What advice would you give to teams who have participated before and are debating applying again?
Thoroughly check the feedback from prior rounds each time you are starting work on a new deliverable. Also consider any feedback you have received from other pitch competitions as well. Each time you begin a new round of customer interviews, you should be looking to fill any gaps that may have been present in prior rounds.
How has winning SVC funding over the past two cycles helped propel Phoenix forward?
The SVC funding we received from the past two cycles has helped us purchase enough supplies to design and test five iterations of our prototype and helped fund our utility patent.
What’s next for Phoenix?
We are currently looking for more funding opportunities in order to match a $50K investment we received from Missouri Technology Corporation. Once we have these funds, we will be looking to further grow our team and begin work on our beta testing phase.
Learn more about the Skandalaris Venture Competition and submit your application here by Wednesday, January 29, at 5:00 pm central time.