When Suman Kanuganti (MBA ’14) arrived at the Rady School of Management, he knew he wanted to leave with an idea that would change the world—he just wasn’t sure where to start. An impactful course in entrepreneurship incited Kanuganti to pull from his experience to address a societal need. A question was posed to the class: How can entrepreneurship inspire positive change in the lives of others?
Motivated by a perseverant friend with deteriorating vision, Suman decided to use his engineering skills to help empower visually impaired individuals to achieve their full potential. Launched by Kanuganti in 2015, Aira was created to help visually impaired individuals navigate the world with more freedom and autonomy. By leveraging leading technologies, such as smart glasses and mobile devices, Aira connects users with a network of trained remote human agents to provide them with instant access to information and assistance in the physical and digital world, when and where they want it.
Aira is one of today’s fastest-growing assistive communities, revolutionizing travel, commuting, and shopping for visually impaired individuals. Aira users are able to connect to agents who are able to see a user’s location and surroundings, providing a clear, live auditory narrative of the user’s environment in virtually any daily activity.
Through partnerships with Lyft, airports, Walgreens, universities (including the University of California San Diego), sports stadiums, museums, and other lifestyle venues, Aira has brought its assistive service to millions across the U.S. and around the world. As the technologist and innovator who co-founded and serves as president of Aira Tech Corp., Kanuganti is reducing barriers and empowering people who are blind or have low vision to fully engage, explore, and experience the visual world.
Kanuganti is an active alumnus at the Rady School of Management, and has hired five other Rady School alumni to Aira. He has also worked with Rady School faculty to host two capstone projects for the Master of Science in Business Analytics. In addition, Kanuganti has spoken at several events to share his story with students, including a TEDxUCSD talk in 2017.
Suman Kanuganti (MBA ’14) Honored by AACSB as a 2020 “Influential Leader” was last modified: February 5th, 2020 by Rady School
Amy Bernal’s path to become Chief Experience Officer at
artificial intelligence company Aira began before the company was even born. Prior
to entering the Rady School in 2011, Bernal, who graduated from the Flex MBA
program in 2014, had worked in project management and business development for
local non-profit organizations. “I was hungry to operate in an entrepreneurial
environment,” she says. “I knew that Rady was the best in terms of the ability
to connect to the right people.”
It was in her first study group at Rady where Bernal met classmate
Suman Kanuganti. Bernal and Kanuganti also worked together through their Lab to
Market course sequence. By their final quarter, Kanuganti had the idea for
Aira, which connects blind and low-vision people to remote human agents via smart
phone or smart glasses, and developed his concept through Rady’s Lab to Market
and StartR programs.
“I was able to see him create that company, leave where he
was working before, and I eventually followed him,” says Bernal, who a senior
offering program manager at Intuit before joining Aira.
Since 2016, Bernal has grown from Director of Agent Services
to Chief Experience Officer at Aira. Currently, she is working to expand Aira’s
network of 25,000+ partners across companies, locations, platforms and devices
to increase accessibility for Aira “explorers” (users).
In the video, Bernal explains how her MBA degree from Rady broadened her skillset and opened her world to new opportunities.
How Collaboration at Rady Changed Amy Bernal’s Career Path was last modified: November 6th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
2019 has been a banner year for Aira. Launched in 2014 when Suman
Kanuganti was a Rady School MBA student, Aira (“Ai” is a nod to artificial
intelligence and “ra” references remote access) connects blind and low-vision
people to remote human agents via smartphone app or smart glasses, “enhancing
everyday efficiency, engagement, and independence” for users, which Aira calls “explorers.”
This year, Aira was recognized on Forbes’ list of 50 Most
Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies, honored in Fast Company’s World
Changing Idea Awards (finalists included Amazon, IBM and Microsoft), and
expanded its 25,000+ partnerships to include the some of the country’s busiest
airports and transit systems.
“I always tell people that if it was not for Rady School of Management, Aira probably wouldn’t exist,” Kanuganti says. Kanuganti entered Rady having earned a bachelors in electrical and electronics engineering and a masters in mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering. He says he chose Rady because “I wanted to do a program focused on how to build a business,” and build he did.
In the video, Kanuganti
shares how a friend who is blind inspired him to leverage wearable technology,
and how the Rady School taught him the quantitative and qualitative skills needed
to create a business that changes lives.
Suman Kanuganti Is Making an Impact with Aira was last modified: October 30th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
If you’ve ever seen Shark
Tank, you’ve gotten a glimpse of the nerve, expertise and determination it
takes to pitch to potential investors. You must absolutely know what you’re
doing, where you’re headed and what you can offer.
Through Rady School’s StartR Accelerator, a 100%
philanthropy-supported, six-month program, teams comprised of at least one Rady
or UC San Diego student or alumnus are provided with mentoring, workshops,
co-working space, and connections to funding sources. At the end of the
program, StartR Demo Day is the teams’ Shark
Tank moment.
On October 2nd, six startups from the Fall 2019 StartR cohort: FlexAir, Athlete Initiative, DeepFlow, SurfUp, Project: Pangolin and FreeGen Technologies showcased their companies in five-minute presentations in front of San Diego’s entrepreneurial community, including several successful StartR alums. If you weren’t one of the 160+ attendees at this Demo Day, here’s what you missed:
How Far We’ve Come: StartR accelerator was founded in 2013 by none other than Rady School students, and since then, it’s served a whole lot of them. Dr. Lada Rasochova, executive director of Rady’s California Institute for Innovation and Development (CIID), and Kim Davis King, co-director, shared that 152 startup teams have participated in StartR and raised a remarkable $85.9 million under the guidance of CIID and more than 50 mentors. Not only that, but twelve StartR companies have been accepted into business incubators, five teams went on to found a second startup, two received investment from the Rady Venture Fund and two exited to larger companies.
Accomplished Alums: If those figures weren’t enough to demonstrate StartR’s impact, at Demo Day, we got to hear it first-hand from StartR alumni.
Demo Day emcee Ashley Van Zeeland, Ph.D (Rady MBA ’12, co-founder and former CEO of Cypher Genomics, which she sold to Human Longevity) is now the VP of Product Development Business Operations at Illumina. “I can say with 100% confidence that I would not be where I am today without the support, the backing and the constant encouragement from the Rady School and the StartR program,” she said.
Ana Morena, StartR Inclusion alumna and CEO and founder of Navega Therapeutics, shared that the business has raised nearly $1 million from investors. Martyn Gross (Rady MBA ’15), StartR Rady alum, founder of Clarify Medical and President of Stratify Genomics said, “I can’t express my gratitude enough.” His thanks were echoed by Julio de Unamuno IV, (Rady MBA ’14) StartR Rady alum and CEO of lab software startup LabFellows, which has garnered 2,300 customers, more than $3 million in funding and a recent write-up in Xconomy. “This started here with Rady,” he said. “You guys were here before anyone else was.”
Six Talented Teams:
Former Navy pilot and FlexAir CEO Paul Wynns (Rady MBA ’20) presented “the flight school training tomorrow’s flight leaders.”
Athlete Initiative co-founders Robbie Beyer (Rady MSBA ’20) and Amy Kame pitched their sexual violence prevention program for collegiate athletic departments. “We ask that everyone join us in creating a safer campus community today,” they said.
Takuya Onda and Yusaku Nakamura (both Rady MBA ’20) of Deep Flow offered insight into their cloud-based, large-scale simulation software.
Chris Hissom and Natalie Moazzez (both Rady MBA ’19) shared their “Bird scooter of surfboards,” SurfUp, an automated surf rental station and smartphone app. Unlike Bird scooters, the team said, because SurfUp houses the rental boards at a station, you won’t find them scattered “everywhere.”
Ayush Sapra and Ana Dasgupta presented Project: Pangolin, an initiative to recycle plastic waste in Myanmar to produce an alternative construction material. To demonstrate the material’s strength, Sapra stood on a recycled footstool during the presentation.
Casey Fitzpatrick of FreeGen Technologies told us about the SeaSkimmer, their autonomous, machine marine drone that tracks and collects trash in ports and harbors. In other words, he said, it’s the “Roomba of the ocean.”
And the Awards Go to:
After the company pitches, two StartR teams were recognized with a $250 prize
each. Deep Flow was selected for the Excellence Award by the judges, and SurfUp
was voted Audience Choice. Additionally, Derrick Oien, CEO and founder of
ScoreStream was recognized with the Guru Award for his mentorship, and Karen
Anderson, partner at Cooley LLP was recognized with the Spark Award in
appreciation of her sponsorship.
The next round of StartR began this month, with new teams
under the wings of CIID and community mentors. Be on the lookout for the next
Demo Day in Spring 2020!
Cloud-Based Simulations, a Surfboard Rental Station and More Highlights from Demo Day Fall 2019 was last modified: October 21st, 2019 by Camille Cannon
Career Fair Day – A day full of new opportunities, insightful conversations, and potential job offers on the horizon. Here at the Rady School of Management, there have been dozens of doors open for students at career fairs; from internships, to long-term jobs for the graduate students who have participated in Rady’s career fairs.
Each career fair typically consists of employers from corporate companies that have 250 employees or more. This one, however, consisted of not only large corporate companies but also smaller startups. This was an exciting, unique event for Rady because it is the first career day to ever have startups verses only corporations.
The Rady School of Management not only champions, but raises up entrepreneurs, so having startups present was an encouraging factor for the students who attended the career fair. Some of the startups that came to the career fair included founders from Rady School of Management such as LabFellows.
Some of the startup companies who attended were:
Leadcrunch
– B2B Sales and Marketing
Sendlane
– An intelligence-driven email automation service
LabFellows
– An integrated lab management platform
Offer1
GoSite
– A web platform for businesses
Launch
Factory – A creative co working space
The list of new companies who attended were:
Booz
Allen Hamilton – Strategy, technology, and engineering
AT&T
– Communications, media, entertainment, and technology
Tealium
— A universal data hub
Some of the other companies that were present included, Trust&will, Artevist and Prudential.
Here at Rady, we are happy to host career fairs and have found them to be very successful for students looking for job leads and internships.
Rady’s First Ever StartUp Career Day was last modified: June 10th, 2019 by Rady School
StartR, founded by a group of Rady students in 2013, is a non-profit six-month accelerator program homed on the Rady campus. The program includes a workshop, mentoring, advice and access to other resources for early-stage companies. StartR has been highly successful and currently has one hundred and thirty-seven teams who have gone through the program. Eight of these teams have also been accepted into EvoNexus. There are fifty-five unduplicated companies that are active, and $63.8 million has been raised so far.
Along with the 6-month accelerator program, StartR also
encourages students to partake in the StartR demo day, where entrepreneurs pitch
their business ideas to students,
faculty, investors, and professors. Nine companies chose to participate this
year in the StartR DemoDay. In the past, the only StartR group to partake in
the demo day are Rady MBA students and alumni, but this year was a little
different. This is the first Demo Day event where teams from multiple StartRPrograms were invited, rather
than only MBA students. All of the teams under StartR Accelerator include Rady, Inclusion, Impact, Veteran, and Teen.
This was a monumental step, and highlights Rady’s commitment to champion
and spotlight entrepreneurs of all styles!
At Demo Day, the teams dressed in slacks,
polished shoes, and newly pressed blazers, lined up one by one, while they
anticipated putting their best foot forward in hopes to win a prize, or attract
the attention of a potential investor or partner. As they shared their pitch,
they stood in front of the audience with refined power points, apps, and even a
real, live business prop itself, including a sleeping pod! The audience
listened to each hopeful entrepreneur, all while cheering on their family and
friends.
The StartR programs
spotlighted this year, and the ones highlighted below with their company
pitches, include: StartR Rady, Inclusion,
and Impact.
StartR Rady – The premier StartR accelerator, the Rady track is exclusively
for our MBA students and alums. The
teams who presented are as follows:
AngioX: – AngioX Therapeutics is an early stage biopharmaceutical company that develops novel therapies for patients with rare Cerebral Cavernous Malformations (CCMs).
Freightracker: – This Company is bringing IOT solutions to the transportation industry in order to streamline operations and reduce costs bycreating a device which allows users to track their freight anywhere in the world.
SurfUp – An automated surfboard rental station that is paired with a smartphone application to make the surfboard rental process convenient for beginner surfers and tourists on the beach, in-front of stores, resorts, restaurants, and much more.
bou: Bou is a small device that can save, transfer, and emit
smells instantly in various circumstances to enhance consumers’ daily
experiences in different settings including while watching movies, playing
video games, shopping, online shopping, relaxing, etc.
Virtual Sleep Environment: A virtual sleeping pod which increases human performance, entraining a natural sleep-wake circadian rhythm. This makes it easy to sleep anywhere, at any time!
Visionful: An app that provides fully automated parking guidance and enforcement,
making parking simpler than ever before.V
Inclusion:Open to students
across UC San Diego and designed to highlight diversity, teams must have at least one leader from a
traditionally underrepresented population.
Felicity
CBT – Aims
to better the mental well-being of users by providing cognitive behavioral
therapy at the convenience of a mobile application.
Impact:The StartR Impact accelerator is open to startups and ideas
from across campus aiming to make a societal impact. The teams from Impact, that performed at demo day
included:
Athlete Initiative: A sexual violence prevention program and app for college student-athletes, helping to prevent sexual violence on campuses, where one in five students are currently affected.
Family Proud – Connecting patients and families to the technological resources necessary to effectively maximize their quality of care.
It was a
competitive battle at Demo Day, and each entrepreneur deserved a prize, but,
there are only two awards—a judges choice, and an audience choice.
The team who presented the most polished, well thought out idea according to the judges this year, was Thomas Fontes from Freightracker. Thomas walked up to the stage with excitement, as he won a $1,000 prize towards his business. Thomas is working on creating a custom device with AT&T, in hopes to have a freight tracker on the market by 2020! Rady School is excited to see where Thomas’s business will take him in the future! You can contact Thomas at Thomas.fontes@rady.ucsd.edu.
The team who won the audience choice award was Robert Sweetman with Virtual Sleep Environment. Robert brought a real, live sleeping pod to his presentation that tracked the brain waves of the sleeper, revealing to the sleeper if their brain was active, calm, or busy. This would allow the sleeper to find peace and calmness and fall asleep at any time! Robert is working on getting the sleeping pod in airports, and creating stations for consumers to sleep anywhere, anytime, and especially before or after a long flight! You can contact Robert at Rob@existech.us for questions or thoughts.
Rady School
of Management is proud to house and educate students and alumni, who are
passionate about entrepreneurship. Building on the success of their startups, all of the teams
who presented will be continuing to pursue their business ideas in hopes to
continue to succeed in pioneering a new, innovative way to solve and better our
world!
StartR Demo-Day on a Whole New Level was last modified: April 10th, 2019 by Rady School
Rady School of Management has a number of programs and services available to students looking to break into the startup scene. Among the most popular programs is the StartR accelerator — a six-month program designed to support budding entrepreneurs and their startups through workshops, mentorship, access to funding and more.
The newest class of student-led startups includes innovative ideas ranging from streamlined parking mobile applications to novel gene therapies.
SurfUp is an automated surfboard rental station that is paired with a smartphone application to make the surfboard rental process convenient for beginner surfers and tourists on the beach, in-front of stores, resorts, restaurants, and much more.
AngioX Therapeutics is an early stage biopharmaceutical company that develops novel therapies for patients with rare Cerebral Cavernous Malformations (CCMs).
Visionful
Visionful created a parking and traffic intelligence system for efficient transportation.
Bou is a small device that can save, transfer, and emit smells instantly in various circumstances to enhance consumers’ daily experiences in different settings like while watching movies, playing video games, shopping, online shopping, relaxing, etc.
Freightracker
Frieghtracker brings IOT solutions to the transportation industry in order to streamline operations and reduce costs.
A New Class of StartR Entrepreneurs was last modified: February 6th, 2019 by Hallie Jacobs
Each year, the Rady School of Management taps the business potential of students by offering StartR — a non-profit accelerator program for Rady School of Management students and alumni designed to provide entrepreneurs the tools needed to start and grow their businesses.
The spring Class of 2018 will culminate their efforts with the accelerator at StartR Demo Day, which takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 3.
STARTR TEAMS – CLASS OF SPRING 2018
Analytix Hub provides big data and analytics services to corporations, startups, and research institutes using a unique platform of scientists and researchers across the nation.
Beggy gives women convenience and connectivity with a highly functional and stylish Smart Bag.
Bevea makes refreshing superfruit tonics made from organic coffee fruit, ginger, and botanicals.
Hylite is an accurate and effective indoor navigation and position-based marketing solution provider.
Tryspree offers “One Click Free Samples” – the fastest easiest way to find and try free product samples.
StartR Spring 18 Teams Showcase Innovation was last modified: August 30th, 2018 by Hallie Jacobs
It has been 15 years since the Rady School of Management opened its doors to welcome a premier group of students and inspire the next generation of business leaders. Graduates have gone on to lead top companies, and have even launched companies that are leading in their respective industries. Despite less than two decades of operation, the school has reached many remarkable milestones, including earning spots on top ranking lists, launching more than 150 operating student and alumni led startups and graduating students who are now leading global organizations.
Since its founding in 2003, the Rady School MBA program has expanded its curriculum to include additional graduate programs designed to meet the needs of the business world. The Master of Finance, Master of Science in Business Analytics and Master of Professional Accountancy programs joined the stellar MBA programs offered at the Rady School to ensure a holistic and comprehensive approach to tackling important issues in all facets of the vast network of global industries.
Through the generous support of the business community, the school has grown exponentially in its 15 years, expanding the ranks of its world-renowned faculty, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovative thinking and significantly contributing to our economy. Here’s a look at the top 15 accomplishments the Rady School has achieved in its first 15 years.
Over 150 operational startup companies have been started by Rady School alumni and students. These startups have revolutionized industries, led to breakthrough medical devices, drastically enhanced the lives of the visually impaired, improved personal wellness monitoring and have forever transformed our world for the better. Many of the startups are a product of the Rady School’s unique Lab to Market core sequence and accelerators.
The Rady School community is driving local, national and global economic impact. Rady School start-ups have raised over $1.1 billion in the last 15 years.
Founded with the intention to provide quality business education to leaders in innovative industries, the Rady School has launched distinguished graduate programs to serve the needs of the business community, including the school’s flagship Full-Time MBA and FlexMBA programs, which are already recognized among the best.
Rady School faculty are recognized as leaders for the quality of their research. Over the past 15 years, the school’s faculty have been ranked #1 in the U.S. for intellectual capital by Bloomberg Businessweek, 14th globally for faculty research by the Financial Times and 12th globally in student rating of teaching quality by The Economist.
Since its inception, the school has received strong support from the business community. The school’s many supporters have been generous with their time and with gifts to support the mission of the school. Notable gifts include: a $100 million gift from Ernest and Evelyn Rady to fund strategic priorities and recruit faculty; a $4 million legacy gift and endowed chair from Nobel Laureate and Rady School Professor Harry Markowitz and his wife Barbara, a $30 million naming gift from Ernest and Evelyn Rady, a $7 million gift from Pauline and Stanley Foster for fellowships and an endowed chair, and a $5 million gift from Carol and William Stensrud for program development and faculty recruitment.
Launched in 2013, the StartR Accelerator at the Rady School is a non-profit program for Rady School students and alumni designed to provide entrepreneurs the tools needed to start and grow their businesses. The StartR program includes workshops, mentoring, advice and access to other resources for early-stage companies. At the conclusion of the program, teams present their pitches at Demo Day, attended by investors, industry experts and the San Diego community. To date, 61 companies have participated in StartR, raising over $41 million in capital.
The Rady School’s mystartupXX program is a one-of-its-kind accelerator that was created to increase and encourage diversity in entrepreneurship. Program participants take workshops on launching startups, team building, leadership, market assessment, consumer feedback, creating a value proposition, validating business models, and understanding financing strategies needed to launch the business. Each team works with a mentor and advisors who monitor and encourage their progress.
The Rady Venture Fund, a student-assisted venture capital investment fund, was established to support the Rady School’s educational objectives in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and transfer of discoveries into the marketplace. Students screen investment leads, perform due diligence, make investment recommendations, and monitor portfolio companies. To date, the fund has invested in five early stage companies.
The Rady School’s Center for Executive Development (CED) offers courses and certificates that provide valuable learning experiences to meet the needs of executives and managers in the rapidly changing world of business. Popular CED courses include: leadership, team building, and interpersonal skills. Executive Development faculty are industry experts, renowned researchers, engaging teachers and authors.
The Rady School’s D. program began in 2009, attracting top doctoral candidates from around the world. Rady School Ph.D. students have gone on to teach at top schools across the U.S. and the globe.
Two state-of-the-art buildings have been constructed to house the Rady School and provide a modern and technology-forward learning space. Otterson Hall opened in 2007 and Wells Fargo Hall Opened in 2012. Wells Fargo Hall has been LEED Gold certified for its sustainable practices.
The Rady School earned accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) in 2011. AACSB International is the premier business education accrediting body, with less than five percent of business schools worldwide achieving accreditation.
Rady School Celebrates Top 15 Accomplishments in 15 Years was last modified: October 23rd, 2018 by Hallie Jacobs
Each year UC San Diego hosts the annual Entrepreneur Challenge to celebrate innovation on campus. And each year, Rady School of Management students and alumni bring their brilliant startup ideas and launched companies to the stage to compete with fellow Tritons, sweeping the competition and earning thousands of dollars to continue developing the product or technology. The 2018 Entrepreneur Challenge was no different.
The majority of teams competing in the competition were affiliated with the Rady School and worked with one of the School’s many accelerator programs. The competition featured three tracks — Clean Technology, Life Technology and High Technology – and Rady School affiliated teams won first prize in two out of the three tracks.
Rady School affiliated teams swept the High Technology track, earning first, second and third place. StartR team GLXY – technology for weight training by preventing injuries and plateaus for athletes – earned first place. Family Proud – a mobile-application based patient advocacy software solution that provides hospitalized patients and their families easy and secure access to all their essential social, medical, and logistical resources – took second place. Beggy, mystartupXX and StartR team developing a new and trendy approach to convenient and functional Smart Bags, earned third place.
Navega – a mystartupXX team – took home first place in the Life Technology category. The company is developing technology to conquer the opioid addiction epidemic in the United States using addiction-free pain management. CReATE Medical,a StartR team, earned second place in the competition. CReATE is a patent-pending algorithm that analyzes routinely-collected patient data utilizing machine learning techniques to predict highly accurate patient-specific outcomes to pacemaker-related heart surgeries.
Green Stop won second place in the Clean Technology. The Green Stop is a mobile, solar-powered, waste-free refill station that can be used at the beach to reduce plastic pollution and provide filtered and chilled drinking water to beachgoers.
Pierre Sleiman (MBA ’13) gave the keynote address at the event, detailing how he was able to start his successful business, GoGreen Agriculture. He credited the Rady School for helping him develop the necessary entrepreneurial skills to launch and sustain a successful business.
Rady Teams Sweep UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge was last modified: May 25th, 2018 by Hallie Jacobs
It has been 15 years since the Rady School of Management opened its doors to welcome a premier group of students and inspire the next generation of business leaders. Graduates have gone on to lead top companies, and have even launched companies that are leading in their respective industries. Despite less than two decades of operation, the school has reached many remarkable milestones, including earning spots on top ranking lists, launching more than 150 operating student and alumni led startups and graduating students who are now leading global organizations.
eam developing a new and trendy approach to convenient and functional Smart Bags, earned third place.