🏆 E-Cup Concept Winners, ChatGPT in The Group Chat, and Rare Coins

Hey Everyone!

As the semester marches on, and the chilly fall weather arrives, lots of interesting startup activity is buzzing around cville. Over 300 Hoos participated in Concept with really novel ideas ranging from AI powered fraud detection tools to optical nerve implants.

We encourage all of you, those who participated and those who couldn’t get your idea in on time to book some time with us and see if we can help brainstorm and guide your idea to reality. The race is now on to gear up for the Spring Launch competition which details will be made available in early 2026. In the meantime keep an eye on this newsletter, the Foundry events calendar, and our social media to find out about our upcoming workshops and grand prix events.

We’ll be cohosting a happy hour after Thanksgiving break with the Galant Center; details forthcoming. We will also re-run the vibecoding workshop before Finals so keep an eye out for those details as well.

Thanks!

Brian Breslin (CLAS ‘04) Director of Student Entrepreneurship / The Foundry

Learn more about The Foundry @ UVA here.

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🏆 E-Cup Winners

Congratulations to the 20 Winners of the 2025 E-Cup Concept Competition.

Here are the winning ventures broken out by track:

Healthcare:

Operative InsightsFlowMoVestAITempoMatNurtura

B2B:

ClubHUBForemanCambrientAIMySBIRDerive

B2C:

ConvexParadigmPretusCaddy.AiFinance Buddy

Social Impact:

KynesGirls Who InnovateWormiSafe StepsStudio Link

🚀 Startup News

Group Chats coming to ChatGPT App

You asked for it (apparently) and OpenAI is answering with a pilot program testing group ChatGPT chats where multiple users can collaborate at the same time along with Chat. If you’ve gotten access, drop us a line an let us know how it looks.

Meet the UVA student building a rare coin empire

This is a great UVA Today piece about Hunter Hicks, a student entrepreneur who has turned his passion for rare coins into a million dollar business.

Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code - Kevin Rose and Anish Acharya

This is a long but a great conversation between two investors (and founders of their own projects) about the future of creation, coding, product, and ultimately creativity itself in a Generative AI world.

🗓️ Upcoming eShip Events

BeCamp 2025: Friday Night Pitch Night

Pitch your startup ideas and meet other entrepreneurs and technologists

When: November 14, 6pmLocation: The Looking Glass Art Bar, Ix Art Park

Register

Claude for Good Hackathon

Claude For Good 2025 brings together students to create meaningful AI-powered solutions that address the daily challenges facing educators, staff, and students

When: November 15, 10amWhere: Rouss Hall

Register

Did You Know? Databricks, a $100B company, was co-founded by a UVA Alum Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji who graduated with a degree from the E school in 2005.

That’s all for this week! Stick around for even more good stuff. And please share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested.

✌️ The Foundry Crew

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