Startup Exchange Summit Inspires Students and Entrepreneurs Across Atlanta

Hundreds of college students gathered for Startup Exchange’s Spring 2025 Summit at the Tech Square Clubhouse on April 22nd. The summit brought together student founders from across Atlanta. Students came from notable schools like Georgia Tech, Emory, Spelman, Morehouse, the University of Georgia, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and more.

These founders were brought into the TSQ Clubhouse, where they could exhibit their innovative start-up ideas. Six of the best teams got to hit the stage and pitch live to investors who served as judges for the competition. The six start-ups launching their live pitches at the event were Georgia Tech-founded start-ups: Allez Go, CarbonCents, Clariyon, Echo Log, Tabl and Senior Sheild Technology.

The event started with a social hour, where the aspiring entrepreneurs could network and watch smaller start-up demonstrations and pitches on the upper floor. Then, the audience began to watch six of Georgia Tech’s best home-grown start-ups duke it out for dominance, recognition and funding. The start-ups ranged from biomedical devices (Senior Shield technologies) to sports broadcasting software for fencing (Allez-Go). Linus Nagata, a Student Events Board Member and coordinator for the event, was watching from the second story balcony. “All the pitching by the fellowship founders made me inspired also to do entrepreneurship,” he said. Students like Linus lined rows of chairs and stood over the top floor balcony of the clubhouse to watch the pitching commence. Ultimately, the audience got to vote on a People’s Choice winner.  

As the judges deliberated and the audience cast their ballots, Start-up Exchange brought out a few founders to have a coffee chat with the audience. Jay Deuskar, the Co-Founder and CTO of Prize Picks, was selected to speak, as was Ted Feldmann, the founder and CEO of Durin. Deuskar and Feldmann are Georgia Tech Alumnus, and Feldmann was also a previous showrunner for GT Start-up Exchange. David Serrao, the Director of Community Growth at GT Start-Up Exchange, said, “One thing I thought was cool was we had Ted Back on. When I started, he was the one running the coffee chats, so I think it’s cool to see full circle the people in the start-up exchange community going from students here working on building Georgia Tech as kind of an entrepreneurship ecosystem to doing their own things and becoming the founders and inspiring the community.”

After much deliberation, the judges came out and announced the winner of the event, Senior Shield. They received the grand prize of the event, which included investor funding and mentorship from Atlanta’s best start-up pioneers. The audience granted Clariyon a Software start-up focusing on healthcare applications, to help hospitals maximize AI assistance while keeping data private, as their favorite. Second and third place went to Tabl and Allez Go, respectively, and all the startups left in good spirits after presenting to judges such as Jake Kaemf the founder and CEO of The Everyday Company, Jennifer Whitlow, a community partnerships representative at Fusen, and Dr. Paul Lopez board chair, co-founder and partner for TiE Atlanta, and 11-11 Ventures.

Overall, Georgia Tech’s start-up exchange was a success. Students left inspired and energized. Founders left acknowledged, and some even left rewarded with mentors and funding for their work. Even the judges left satisfied with the new talent and potential companies to invest in. This annual event was Georgia Tech’s Start-up Exchange’s big blow-out to celebrate and reward the community of founders, builders, inventors, and pioneers.

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