Alumni Updates: September 2025

Our STARTedUP alumni continue to make waves across industries, from winning competitions to launching new ventures and earning recognition on international stages. Here's what they’ve been up to this month:

Third Place in Be Bold in Brookville Competition: Christian Mack ('25)

Christian Mack transformed a class assignment into LocaLink, a platform that empowers small-town businesses with digital tools while preserving their local charm. His innovation recently earned him $3,000 in the Be Bold in Brookville Start It Up Competition.

LocaLink provides comprehensive digital storefronts within a single app, allowing small businesses to showcase products, accept online orders, and connect with customers seamlessly. The platform integrates local events, dining, tourism, and community resources, making it easier for residents and visitors to engage with everything their town offers.

"I started LocaLink as a class assignment in Jason Walke's Economics class, where I was given the tools and guidance to grow my idea and build valuable connections," Christian reflects. "This accomplishment showed me that even as a high school senior, my ideas had real potential and others truly believed in me." Now continuing his entrepreneurial journey at Indiana University Bloomington, Christian remains committed to developing LocaLink further while encouraging other students to seize every opportunity that comes their way.

Building IntelliBros Garage: Connor Wueller ('24)

Connor Wueller has transformed his passion for mechanical work into IntelliBros Garage, a small-engine repair business. The venture began with a go-kart project that taught him the fundamentals of small engines, and sparked a realization that his hobby could become a viable business.

"Something that inspired me to get into this business is the passion I have for small engine repair, it's something I enjoy doing on my own and I realized it was something I'm passionate about," Connor explains. "I loved legos as a kid, and to me small engine repair is like adult legos." While exploring different entrepreneurial directions, he envisions scaling IntelliBros Garage to eventually hire employees and potentially franchise the concept.

Purdue Honors Engineering and Lilly Endowment Scholar Recipient : Isis Fleming ('23)

Isis Fleming has achieved a remarkable double victory: acceptance into Purdue West Lafayette's prestigious Honors Engineering Program and selection as a Lilly Endowment Scholarship recipient for the 2025 cohort. The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program has supported over 5,000 Indiana students since 1998, providing more than $439 million in tuition grants.

The scholarship program aims to raise educational attainment in Indiana while encouraging scholars to engage with business, governmental, educational, nonprofit, and civic leaders to improve quality of life across the state.

"Being accepted as a student in the college of Engineering opens so many doors for my future! I am honored to be attending Purdue with the Lilly Endowment Scholarship as a part of the 2025 cohort!" Isis shares. "Huge thank you to the STARTedUP Foundation for all of the skills I learned through InnovateWithIN; it's made navigating college so much easier for me!"

Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation Accelerator Acceptance: Septo ('25)

Alexis Karahalios and Jocelyn Aguirre's healthcare innovation, Septo, has been selected for the 10-week Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation Accelerator. Septo creates simple, at-home solutions to identify infections before symptoms appear through their X-shaped bandage that visually alerts caregivers to potential infections early and reducing preventable hospitalizations.

This program, developed in partnership with Butler University and Hylant, is part of Parkview Health's Healthy Care, Healthy Costs Innovation Challenge aimed at reducing preventable healthcare costs.

"The accelerator is such an incredible opportunity for Septo because it's given us access to resources for expansion and to really bring this to the next level," Alexis shares. "It's really pushing us to think outside of the box for next steps and really draw out a more detailed roadmap of goals for the future."

Septo, along side three other finalist teams, will present to a community of healthcare professionals, executive leaders, potential funders, and customers to pitch their innovative solution on November 20th, 2025.

Purdue Moonshot Pitch Challenge Victory: SpheriLine ('25)

Kelly Fulk and Maxwell Gootee's invention, SpheriLine, made it’s mark at Purdue Innovates’ Moonshot Pitch Challenge, winning the Orbital category and the Best Pitch Award. The competition attracted over 50 teams submitting two-minute videos proposing solutions to real-world problems, with SpheriLine emerging victorious among 15 finalist teams.

SpheriLine is a redesigned central line that minimizes patient discomfort and reduces the opportunity for infection and sepsis, backed by nurses and reviewed by professionals to improve treatment plans.

The 2025 Moonshot Pitch Challenge encourages students to "think beyond the classroom" with ideas spanning three categories: Earth (social challenges), Orbit (business solutions), and Moonshot (seemingly impossible problems). Winners shared a prize pool of $5,500, with SpheriLine taking home a collective $2,000 prize.

“Really, this competition was our entry into the world of innovation at Purdue. It started as something we signed up for to gain experience in collegiate pitching and entrepreneurship, and ended with us gaining a wealth of connections and meeting so many other amazing entrepreneurs. We're so proud to have won and to have seen the warm reception SpheriLine got.," Max reflects. The team plans to establish themselves as both a company and web entity before developing their medical-grade prototype.

Nasdaq Milestone Makers Program: Kerry Ao ('21,'22)

Kerry Ao and his team at Intertwined have been selected for the Fall 2025 cohort of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center's Milestone Makers program. This highly competitive program provides individualized business mentoring, executive coaching, and customized training at no cost to impact entrepreneurs. The program culminates in a graduation celebration featuring the company on Nasdaq's MarketSite Tower in Times Square.

International Miss Tourism 2026: Mariah Wright ('23,'24)

Mariah Wright has been crowned International Miss Tourism 2026, earning recognition that extends far beyond pageantry. Miss Tourism, established in 1998, focuses on authentic empowerment, leadership development, and community impact while supporting education and providing opportunities in media, film, and magazines.

"Being crowned International Miss Tourism 2026 is an incredible honor that represents not only personal achievement but also the chance to amplify my platform," Mariah explains. "Preparing for this moment took months of dedication, as I balanced my studies, business, and advocacy work while growing in confidence and leadership. This recognition reminds me that passion and perseverance truly open doors to making an impact."

NASA L'Space NPWEE Program Acceptance: Truman Greaves ('25)

Truman Greaves has been accepted into the NASA L'Space Proposal Writing and Evaluation Experience (NPWEE) Program. This competitive program, sponsored by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, provides hands-on experience in identifying NASA needs and developing innovative solutions.

Participants work in teams to formulate proposals for specific solicitations, competing for a $10,000 team prize to fund their projects. The program also trains participants as proposal reviewers, providing valuable experience in scoring and evaluating peer submissions.

"I'm incredibly excited to learn more about the technical proposal writing process and work with a team to design a real product in competition for NASA Marshall funding," Truman shares. "I look forward to bringing in the skills I've learned from the StartedUP Foundation to solve NASA problems by seeing them as opportunities."

Global Recognition and Research: TianLe Liang ('25)

TianLe Liang has achieved dual recognition on both national and international stages. He was selected as a Coolidge Senator from among 5,000 nationwide applicants, joining 100 top students at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation summit in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. See TianLe’s post about this experience here

Additionally, TianLe traveled to Tokyo, Japan, to present his research titled "Optimizing Random Forest Multi-classification and Gini-Based Feature Analysis of Board Game Success via BGG Characteristic Data" at the IFIP International Conference on Entertainment Computing, his first experience at a global academic conference where he connected with professors and PhD students from around the world. See TianLe’s post about this experience here

The Coolidge Senators Program recognizes exceptional academic accomplishments and provides networking opportunities with both peers and mentors, including annual conferences in Washington, D.C. "I was selected as one of 100 top applicants out of ~5000 nationwide to the Coolidge Scholarship. During the summit at President Calvin Coolidge's homestead, I met some of the brightest high schoolers in the country, who were also building companies, presenting research, working at NASA, and everything else under the sun. That really inspired me to continue to always bite off more than I can chew and aim for the top."

InnoPower Rising Star & Recognition: Faith Spencer ('19)

Faith Spencer has been recognized as an InnoPower Rising Star through her work with IronWorkz, a nonprofit business incubator that focuses on strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Gary and Northwest Indiana. Faith, alongside IornWorkz’s Co-founder and COO, Emmani Ellis, was recognized on the main stage of the RALLY conference, a global cross-sector innovation event that brings together visionary leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and educators.

InnoPower Indy is designed to highlight innovations in minority communities, create capacity-building opportunities, and provide a platform for creative thought and innovative entrepreneurialism.

"This recognition as an InnoPower Rising Star means a lot to me personally because it validates my journey the risks, sacrifices, and faith it takes to keep pushing forward as a leader and entrepreneur," Faith explains. "Being on the RALLY main stage is an exciting opportunity to build awareness around who I am and what I do through IronWorkz. It's a chance for others to learn more about how we're working to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Gary and Northwest Indiana as a whole."

Launching Roots2Results: Kishan Patel (‘25)

Kishan Patel has announced the launch of Roots2Results, a venture that addresses the complex challenges immigrant entrepreneurs face when navigating business documentation and financial processes. The platform blends AI with trained professionals to help immigrant business owners understand complex documents in their native language or simplified terms.

The inspiration for Roots2Results stems from Kishan's personal experience watching his immigrant parents navigate small business ownership while he took on the responsibility of translating and interpreting financial documents at a young age.

"Roots2Results grew out of watching my own parents navigate the complex challenges of running a small business as immigrants as well as the task of translating and answering questions on things like financial documents being delegated to me at such a young age," Kishan shares. "I wanted to create a platform that blends AI with trained professionals to help other immigrant entrepreneurs understand complex business documents in their own language or in simpler terms. Launching this venture feels like the first real step toward making that vision a reality, and it motivates me to keep building tools that empower communities like mine."