The Art of Innovation

18^th Annual Cardinal Challenge Showcases 11 UofL Ventures

A steadier syringe. A smarter way to navigate college. A cat lounge built around coffee, comfort and community.

Those ideas may occupy very different corners of the entrepreneurial world, but they shared the same stage at the 18th annual Brown-Forman Cardinal Challenge event, “Celebrate the Art of Entrepreneurship,” held on July 31 at the Speed Art Museum. Eleven teams of University of Louisville innovators presented ventures designed to solve real problems, rethink familiar processes and improve the way people work, learn, connect and live.

The competition brought the teams together with professional mentors, UofL faculty and staff and members of Louisville’s entrepreneurial community. Their presentations tackled challenges with health care, education, networking, professional development and consumer experiences.

Award winners for the event included:

• Claustrum Design: Claustrum Design received the opportunity to pursue a $25,000 investment from Keyhorse Capital. Founders Justin Houts, Kieran Richards and Redi Rahmani are developing Precisionject, an easy-to-use syringe attachment designed to improve the accuracy and stability of needle-based procedures.
• Due Gooder: Due Gooder received a $5,000 Forcht Accelerator Award. Created by Ethan Havertape and Nate Royal, the AI-powered student success platform helps college students manage their academic responsibilities and stay on track.
• Villo: Villo received a $2,000 Forcht Accelerator Award. Developed by Landen Fuller, the all-in-one platform allows photographers to manage bookings, deliver galleries, create invoices and contracts and rent photography equipment.
• Beans & Biscuits Cat Lounge: Beans & Biscuits Cat Lounge received the competition’s $1,000 People’s Choice Award. Created by Lydia Crowder, the community-centered coffeehouse and cat lounge offers a welcoming space where guests can relax, recharge and connect with both cats and one another.

Other teams competing included:

• Alexandria: Created by Michael You and Cooper Cumens, Alexandria is a web and mobile platform that helps students form effective study partnerships and small groups without relying on existing social circles or invitations to group chats.
• Epidural PAL: Founded by Abigail Bohn, Tyson Davies, Ethan Badger, Jeffrey Miller and Be Nguyen, Epidural PAL develops medical technology designed to improve the safety, accuracy and efficiency of epidural placement.
• Get LOUcal: Developed by Vivek Nirmal, Get LOUcal is a relationship-first networking tool that helps users capture, organize and recall information about the people they meet, then act on those connections.
• Growth Partner AI: Designed by Vivian Wang, Growth Partner AI is an AI-assisted strategy and decision-support platform that helps early-stage founders make clearer, evidence-based decisions about customer segmentation, positioning, pricing, go-to-market strategy and growth priorities.
• Lyrium AI: Created by Keegan Allred, Lyrium AI transforms fragmented, unstructured customer conversations into clear, actionable insights through AI-driven Voice of Customer analytics.
• The Forge: Developed by Jon Yelton, The Forge is an RPG-style scenario training system that supports ongoing skills development for customer-facing and interdepartmental teams.
• Typhon Medical: Developed by Kieran Richards, Redi Rahmani, Justin Houts, Dan Young and Rawan Ahmed, Typhon Medical creates automation tools designed to improve workflows within hospital sterile processing departments.

The event was sponsored by Brown-Forman, Keyhorse Capital, the UofL Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship, Bricker Graydon Wyatt, Canopy, KYX, Occam Design, Story, TriSystem Solutions and Superslates.

About the UofL College of Business:

Founded in 1953, the UofL College of Business fosters intellectual and economic vitality in our city, region and the global business landscape. Our academic programs, research, community outreach initiatives and commitment to student success inspire lives and businesses to flourish through entrepreneurship, innovation, critical thinking, diversity and the power of people.

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