Collegiate startup challenge: Announcing the top 6
TiE Oregon is proud to announce the Top 6 Finalists for the inaugural Pitch Oregon Collegiate Startup Challenge, a new statewide competition designed to spotlight the rising entrepreneurial talent emerging from Oregon and SW Washington’s colleges and universities.
This Challenge brings together an exciting mix of student founders, university spinouts, and alumni-led ventures building technology and tech-enabled companies across a wide range of traded-sector industries. Finalists were selected for their innovation, market potential, and ability to articulate a strong pathway toward commercialization.
From healthcare innovation to AI-driven tools and next-generation campus technologies, these six ventures represent the future of our region’s startup ecosystem.
Below, meet the teams advancing to the December 6th live pitch event—listed in alphabetical order.
🎓 Congratulations to Our Top 6 Finalists
AKAYA – Portland State University
AKAYA is is building a human-vetted context-engineering platform that transforms organizational workflows into intelligent, error-reducing processes. Designed initially for university managers and staff, AKAYA ingests existing forms, workflow documentation, and institutional knowledge, then uses a conversational system to capture tacit expertise such as process exceptions, common mistakes, and in-house preferences. The platform overlays real-time, context-relevant guidance directly onto forms—checking for errors, answering questions, and learning from human corrections. Over time, AKAYA builds a continuously improving knowledge base, enabling ultra-precise, guided workflows that streamline operations in higher education and, ultimately, other complex enterprise domains.
CAMPUS GTM – University of Oregon
Campus GTM is building the operating system for college ambassador GTM programs. Early-stage startups struggle to acquire their first users cost-effectively—paid ads are expensive and unproven channels are risky. We solve this with a software platform that operationalizes campus ambassador programs at scale, combined with strategic consulting to design and execute these programs. Our platform manages recruitment, task assignment, performance tracking, and incentive distribution, turning what's traditionally been a manual, fragmented process into a repeatable growth engine. We discovered this playbook while executing our own ambassador strategies and built the tooling we wished existed.
EEGONAUT – Oregon Health & Science University
EEGonaut is developing a gamified, accessible, and affordable at-home neurofeedback system that empowers children to master emotional regulation. Millions of children (especially those with ADHD, anxiety, or autism) struggle with overwhelming emotions and frequent meltdowns. The most effective, non-invasive treatment — neurofeedback — is prohibitively expensive, costing thousands of dollars, and is often inaccessible and unengaging for the kids who need it most. We are democratizing access to clinical-grade emotional self-regulation training by turning it into a fun, compliance-driving video game.
HAULVANA – University of Oregon
Haulvana is a fleet management and operations platform built specifically for residential and commercial haulers, including roll-on/roll-off services. The waste hauling industry faces major inefficiencies — from fragmented dispatching systems and poor customer communication to manual billing and limited visibility into fleet performance. Haulvana solves these problems by bringing every part of a hauler’s operation — dispatching, routing, customer management, invoicing, and analytics — into a single, modern SaaS platform.
POURUP – Linfield University
PourUp is redefining the way people discover and experience wine country. Although the global wine tourism industry exceeds 350 billion dollars, most wineries still rely on phone calls, emails, and fragmented tools to manage reservations and guest engagement. This outdated approach limits visibility, efficiency, and growth, particularly among younger, tech-savvy consumers who expect curated and convenient experiences.
TRANSCRIBBIT – Oregon State University
Transcribbit provides classrooms with real time lecture transcription, alongside a suite of accommodation and accessibility tools. Our goal is to bring the superpowers of accessibility we all had on Zoom, like captions, translation, and easy participation, to every in-person classroom so no student gets left behind or singled out.
🌟 What Happens Next
These six standout teams will move on to pitch live on December 6th, competing for equity investment, in-kind services, and the opportunity to elevate their visibility with investors, mentors, and the broader innovation community.
Join us in cheering on these emerging founders as they take the big stage and share their vision for the future!
👉 REGISTER
