Meet the Launchpad COLA Fall 2025 Cohort
Automations 24 (A24) is a boutique operations, AI, and automation consulting firm built for the AI-native era. A24 helps complex organizations transform how work gets done by designing intelligent systems that connect people, process, and performance — delivering measurable lift across safety, cost, and productivity. Through its Operational Intelligence by Design™ method, A24 embeds AI-powered augmentation directly into core workflows, enabling leaders to operate with clarity, accountability, and real-time insight rather than disconnected tools or dashboards. Built by operators with deep enterprise roots, A24 bridges strategy and execution — turning automation into sustained operational advantage rather than one-off transformation initiatives.
Founder: Paul Malott | paul@automation24.co | automations24.com
Cattywampus is a mobile game pioneering a new category we call Productive Play — fun that fuels the mind. Built for smart, busy, productive multitaskers, it combines the appeal of word games, the engagement of brain games, the challenge of strategy, and the satisfying ease of modern puzzle apps. With early traction, monetization underway, and a clear roadmap for expansion including new modes, personalization, and the 2-player game, Clash, already in Beta, Cattywampus is positioned to scale within a proven, multi-billion-dollar market while defining an underserved niche. More than a single game, Cattywampus is the foundation of a broader Productive Play platform built for long-term engagement, loyalty, and category leadership.
Founder: Adina Maynard | adina@cattywampus-thegame.com | cattywampus-thegame.com
Copacetic Collective, LLC strives to be the forefront for real estate brokers and agents looking to take their photos and turn them into listings, contracts and closing all in one place. Leveraging the power of AI, Copacetic Collective empowers agents with professional quality edits, AI re-designs, social integrations, workflows and so much more. Housing the components necessary to empower real estate professionals to capture and nurture leads creating a sustainable ecosphere for their business.
Founder: Arica Williams | copaceticcollective803@gmail.com
CuffWay is an early-stage medical device startup offering intelligent adaptive airway management, preventing injuries that affect 9 million patients each year. Developed by a University of South Carolina undergraduate, it reduces airway complications, cuts hospital costs by $442 million annually, and decreases the daily workload clinicians spend on manual pressure checks. With strong clinician support, a provisional patent, demonstrable prototype, national awards, and early partnerships forming in South Carolina, CuffWay is poised to set a new standard in patient care. With the right support, CuffWay will be the smarter way to safer respiratory recovery.
Founder: Shrihan Ganesh Babu | shrihangb@sc.edu
Facet is an AI-powered portfolio builder designed to help individuals and organizations present experience in a clear, professional, and credible way. Instead of relying on static resumes or overly designed portfolio tools, Facet guides users through a simple onboarding experience where their resume is analyzed, optimized, and converted into structured data that powers a modern portfolio. The result is a clean, easy-to-read online presence that can be shared with employers, recruiters, or clients. Facet is built for both individual users and institutions such as career centers and bootcamps, offering a scalable way to showcase real skills and outcomes.
Founder: Edwin Wood | edwinjwood@gmail.com
Farline Technology enables users to build and use future-ready, private, and secure networks with full control over their data. By unifying encrypted communication, shared network resources, and community-driven tools into a seamless networking platform. Designed for the AI age, Farline’s network software transforms small devices and encrypted connections into autonomous networks — putting privacy, security, and data protection back in the hands of customers.
Founder: Lucas Allen | lucastallen@gmail.com
Faxosaurus provides a platform for independent healthcare providers to streamline patient qualification and onboarding. By automatically digitizing intake forms, providing instant insurance verification, and offering omnichannel patient communication over web chat, SMS, and voice, Faxosaurus gives practices a patient-focused digital front door that reduces administrative overhead. Instant insurance verification is available for over 3,000 payers and Faxosaurus is currently onboarding its first customers.
Founder: Lee Gillentine | lee@faxosaurus.com | faxosaurus.com
Focus Play™ is a gamified productivity app designed for neurodivergent adults who struggle with traditional task management tools. By combining focus challenges, adaptive timers, dopamine smart rewards, and habit building mechanics, Focus Play™ helps users overcome executive dysfunction and build momentum without burnout. Unlike rigid to do lists or generic timers, Focus Play™ is designed to work with how ADHD brains actually function, turning focus into an engaging, achievable experience rather than a source of stress. Since launching its early MVP and beta waitlist, Focus Play™ has validated strong demand through organic growth, community driven feedback, and consistent engagement from users actively seeking ADHD friendly productivity tools.
Founder: Angel Heaven Lee | angel@focusplay.app | focusplay.app
Interactive Display Systems (IDS) modernizes how teams communicate and make decisions using interactive dashboards (Cloud Screen™), lightweight touch overlays, and rugged plastic kiosks for manufacturing, marketing, and sports. IDS replaces outdated workflows, static displays, and fragmented tools with a scalable SaaS + hardware platform. IDS has 4 SaaS customers ($12K ARR) and a recent $5K sale for a 70” interactive overlay.
Founder: Jeff Siler | jeff@idsinc.tech | idsinc.tech
NautiQ AI is a platform that helps U.S. service members prepare for life after the military by turning their experience into clear civilian career options. It creates a personalized dashboard for each user that organizes their skills, experience, and goals, and uses AI tools to help with resumes, career choices, and transition planning. Instead of figuring everything out on their own, users are guided through the same steps people normally do by hand, all in one place. NautiQ AI also teaches users how to use simple AI tools, so they gain useful tech skills while preparing for their next career. The goal is to give service members clarity, confidence, and a plan for what comes next.
Founder: Tony Stephenson | tony@nautiq.ai | www.nautiq.ai
NeedNoMore is a civic-tech platform that makes real-time food access visible for everyone who depends on it. Families use the app to share quick updates after each visit to a food pantry (a place that gives free groceries), so others can see which pantries are open, stocked, and nearby — down to the types of food available. Pantries confirm updates and use a simple portal to manage hours, inventory, and alerts. Cities and healthcare providers use a live dashboard with real-time insight to spot shortages, identify neighborhoods lacking nutritious options, and direct support where it’s needed most. All three NeedNoMore products launched last week, pantries are actively onboarding, first users are already searching for food, and two citywide pilots begin in January.
Co-Founders: Svitlana & Yurii Koval | hello@neednomore.com | NeedNoMore.com
Parkeze provides real-time parking availability for universities and dense urban campuses using connected IoT sensors and an intuitive mobile application. By detecting spot occupancy at the source and delivering live availability data to drivers, ParkeZe reduces time spent searching for parking while giving institutions visibility into utilization and demand. The platform helps optimize existing parking infrastructure without costly expansion and has been validated through campus pilots and user testing.
Co-Founder: Darssan Eswaramoorthi | darssan@parkeze.com | Parkeze.com
PostPixel is an AI-powered social media platform that turns what used to be a 20-hour monthly marketing task into a 5-minute workflow for local service businesses. By converting a company’s website into on-brand, ready-to-publish social content, PostPixel removes the need for manual design, planning, or agencies, with one-click scheduling across Facebook, Instagram, Google Business Profile, and LinkedIn. Since launch, PostPixel has generated revenue from early customers and is actively drafting agreements for three embedded integration partnerships, validating strong demand for automated, purpose-built marketing infrastructure for SMBs.
Founder: Dan Young | hello@postpixel.ai | www.postpixel.ai
Planning reunions is often difficult due to scattered communication and organization across multiple platforms. Reunion Ally solves this issue by offering a single platform for reunion planning, encompassing all communication, scheduling and financial transactions in one platform. Reunion Ally makes information easily accessible and usable for every member, regardless of age or tech proficiency. We aim to serve a broad market, including: families, school alumni (high school/college), and social organizations. We also plan to partner with college and university alumni chapters for their annual reunions and offer vendor opportunities to showcase services directly to our engaged user base.
Founder: Lauren Tillar | laurentillardesigns@gmail.com |
Sorlaste Technologies is a clean-energy engineering company developing compact electromechanical power systems that convert electromagnetic energy into controlled mechanical motion and on-demand electrical output. Our flagship technology, E-MPE (Electromagnetic Mechanical Power Engine), is a patent-pending modular electromanetic engine architecture designed to scale across configurations and fit a wide range of power and mobility platforms.
Our purpose is to expand access to reliable, efficient power by delivering a controllable generation solution that is compact, adaptable, and built for real-world operating demands. We aim to enable greater energy resilience and flexibility supporting industries where needs like stationary backup and distributed power, mobile/remote power, and range extending architectures for next-generation electric platforms are in demand.
Sorlaste’s goal is turn innovative electromagnetic conversion into practical systems that improve uptime, reduce constraints for designers and operators, and accelerate the transition to cleaner, more dependable and affordable energy solutions.
Founder: James Ray | jray@sorlastetechnologies.com | sorlastetechnologies.com
StigMemes smashes stigmas one meme at a time for mental health well-being. StigMemes is a digital mental-health startup designed to reduce stigma and improve emotional well-being among college students through daily texted memes, AI-powered mood tracking, and community support. With 20M+ U.S. college students facing rising levels of anxiety and depression and limited access to campus counseling resources, StigMemes offers an accessible, culturally resonant solution that meets students where they are—on their phones. The platform launches its MVP apps with freemium advertising supported products in 2026. Backed by a team with deep expertise in psychology, higher education, and AI engineering, StigMemes aims to become a leading mental-wellness tool for Gen Z.
Founder: Geoffrey Graybeal | geoffrey.graybeal@moore.sc.edu
VcodeAssist addresses critical product development challenges such as scattered information and disconnected tools that can lead to defective products. Our AI-powered, cloud-based platform simplifies Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) while aligning with INCOSE standards to transform complex ideas into validated models. Beyond just modeling, VcodeAssist serves as an educational tool by actively teaching users systems engineering methodologies as they design. This approach cultivates better systems engineers and designers by enhancing their understanding of system Architecture.
Founder: Carter McKinney | contact@vcodeassist.com | vcodeassist.com
Vertical’s platform helps athletes and coaches prevent energy crashes by turning a simple meal scan into predictive nutrition guidance—forecasting energy dips, satiety duration, and performance/focus risk based on what was eaten and the athlete’s context (game, practice, etc). Vertical simplifies nutrition decision-making by translating ingredients into actionable recommendations (what to eat next, when, and why), while giving coaches a lightweight view of team nutrition consistency and risk flags without requiring manual food logging. Vertical is currently preparing an early alpha (Jan–Feb) and building toward a March team pilot with youth and high-school programs, with a waitlist and prototype experience already live to validate demand for proactive, performance-first nutrition intelligence.
Founder: Solomon Jacobs | solomon@verticalco.io | verticalco.io
Launchpad COLA is an intensive entrepreneur training program that helps founders transform scalable tech startup ideas into real businesses. The program equips first-time founders and early-stage tech companies with expert mentorship, proven curriculum, and access to Columbia's growing entrepreneurial network.
Created and delivered by Launchpad GVL, the program draws on nationally recognized training including Founder University from Launch VC, RevTech Labs Foundation, and The Bunker Labs Veterans in Residence program.
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