MIT Startup Exchange is convening a new installment of Demo Day on Wednesday, December 10 (12 PM – 1:15 PM ET). The event will feature several exciting industry-ready startups in brief lightning talks and Q&A. Breakout rooms will follow at the end of the event.
Please register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
This event is for ILP members.
Ariadna Rodenstein is a Program Manager at MIT Startup Exchange. She joined MIT Corporate Relations as an Events Leader in September 2019 and is responsible for designing and executing startup events, including content development, coaching and hosting, and logistics. Ms. Rodenstein works closely with the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) in promoting collaboration and partnerships between MIT-connected startups and industry, as well as with other areas around the MIT innovation ecosystem and beyond.
Prior to working for MIT Corporate Relations, she worked for over a decade at Credit Suisse Group in New York and London, in a few different roles in event management and as Director of Client Strategy. Ms. Rodenstein has combined her experience in the private sector with work at non-profits as a Consultant and Development Director at New York Immigration Coalition, Immigrant Defense Project, and Americas Society/Council of the Americas. She also served as an Officer on the Board of Directors of the Riverside Clay Tennis Association in New York for several years. Additionally, she earned her B.A. in Political Science and Communications from New York University, with coursework at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico City, and her M.A. in Sociology from the City University of New York.
Principal Engineer, Technology and Industry Solutions, VEIR
Dr. Sasha Ishmael is a Principal Engineer for Technology and Industry Solutions at VEIR Inc., where she leads efforts to position VEIR’s superconducting power delivery solutions for industry adoption and commercial success. With 20 years of experience in superconducting systems and emerging energy technologies, she brings deep technical expertise and a proven track record in bridging engineering, R&D, and go-to-market strategy. Dr. Ishmael focuses on applications that address mission-critical infrastructure challenges, including high-capacity connections for data centers, helping to accelerate the path from technical innovation to scalable deployment. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology and conducted postdoctoral research in Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University.
CEO, Provocative
Nick is Co-founder and CEO of Provocative, and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a serially successful founder, MIT EECS (dropout), and was in the 3rd batch of YC. His super powers are empathetic and technological: recruiting engineers out of retirement and shipping first-of-a-kind products, fast. He sees connections where others don’t by collecting brilliant people and directing them to impactful work. He dreamed up Provocative while he was running MIT’s deep tech accelerator: designing High Performance Computing data centers, deploying new gas separation tech, and creating financial vehicles to scale hardware companies.
Chief Strategy Officer, Evoloh
Dr. Art Shirley is Chief Strategy Officer at EVOLOH. Dr. Shirley has a distinguished 35+ year career in the hydrogen and energy industry with Linde, Airgas, BOC, and BP. He has deep experience in business development, technology commercializatio,n and developing global partnerships. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University.
Co-Founder & CEO, Manolin
Tony Chen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Manolin, a leading software company specializing in predictive models that drive data intelligence and sustainable growth in aquaculture. Before founding Manolin,Tonyworked at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he developed big-data solutions for health and infrastructure projects for the U.S. government. A lifelong fisherman and swimmer, Tony's passion for aquaculture was ignited while collaborating with oyster farmers in the Chesapeake Bay. He holds a degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.
Co-Founder & CEO, Undermind
Josh is the co-founder and CEO at Undermind. He has research experience in gravitational-wave astrophysics (LIGO), particle physics (CERN), atomic physics, and quantum information science. He did his PhD at MIT, studying quantum computing architecture design and inventing techniques for generating entangled multi-particle states using atom-light interactions, with 3 patents pending and 6 peer-reviewed publications.
President & CEO, Satellite Bio
Dr. Tom Lowery joined Satellite Bio in August of 2020as part of the founding executive team. He is an experienced scientist, entrepreneur and executive with over 18years of experience. Lowery has led life sciences technology innovation from inception through FDA to commercialization and clinical use for seven products in U.S. and international hospitals.Prior to joining SatelliteBio, Lowery was the Chief Scientific Officer at T2 Biosystems. He earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley,and BS in Biochemistry from Brigham Young University.
Co-Founder & CEO, Tessel Biosciences
Dr. Naren Tallapragada is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tessel Biosciences. Tessel builds virtual tissues to design real drugs for chronic diseases –developing its own lung-focused pipeline and working with top pharma companies to accelerate drug discovery across multiple organs. Tessel’s platform pinpoints drug targets by designing targeted screens in clinically predictive, patient-derived disease models and actively learning from every experiment. Prior to Tessel, Naren conducted pioneering academic research on tissue regeneration, for which he earned a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University. He also led a team at Google X, developing AI-powered tools for education, and worked in business development at Roivant Sciences. Naren was an MIT undergraduate, receiving an SB in Electrical Engineering & Physics from MIT in 2013.
Co-Founder & Head of Brand Partnerships, Blue Sarah
Caitlin Infantino is the cofounder and CRO of BlueSarah, where she’s helping shape the future of e-commerce. A graduate of the Knowlton School of Architecture, she built her career in the footwear industry at Puma, Calvin Klein, and OrthoLite, leading B2B sales and marketing initiatives that helped propel OrthoLite toward the billion-dollar mark. Drawing on deep experience in product creation, marketing, and commercialization, Caitlin specializes in connecting the dots between brand vision and market execution to drive outsized revenue growth. At BlueSarah, she brings that same energy to transforming how brands sell online.
Disclaimer: MIT Startup Exchange can make introductions that ideally provide open ended discussions in order to share mutual interests and potentially create common ground that incite the parties to collaborate. MIT Startup Exchange introductions may eventually lead to mutual partnerships, but that is not in any way guaranteed by MIT, MIT Corporate Relations, MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) or MIT Startup Exchange, which takes no responsibility for these outcomes and no formal part in such discussions following our introduction. MIT Startup Exchange and its activities and events are not for purposes of soliciting investment or offering securities.