2.28-29.24-Ethics-Madeira

CATARINA MADEIRA: Hi, everyone. I'm Catarina Madeira, the Director of MIT Startup Exchange. It is my pleasure to present you our program and today's startup lightning talks.

Startup Exchange was created about eight years ago to support MIT-connected startups by fostering collaboration and partnerships with industry, primarily ILP corporate members, as well as with the MIT Innovation Ecosystem and beyond. So when we look at startups, we look mostly at two criteria. One is the MIT connection. That might come through the founding team, the technology, as well as through the affiliation to some of our peers on campus, like the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, CSAIL, Engineering Ventures, just to name a few.

Then we also look at stage of development. At Startup Exchange, we typically start engaging with startups when they reach pilot stage-- I mean, when they have a technology or a product that is ready to be tested or used in a real environment. Sector-wise and location, we're agnostic. Most startups are B2B.

And today, our program has a network of about 1,000 companies. But within these broad networks, there is a subset of startups which we call STEX25. And to these companies, we provide customized support throughout one year. This entails mostly increased feasibility and connections to industry.

Now, when it comes to value, startups part of our program are exposed to a global network of industry and to its decision-makers. While corporates will collaborate with us, they have curated access to MIT-connected startups. Everyone in our network can participate at our events, conferences with startup lightning talks, like today, startup demo days, workshops.

And while some events take place on campus, we do host many events across the globe. Our team launches many calls for startups throughout the year. These calls are based on corporates' priorities and their own internal challenges. Any startup from our network can apply to it. And then we can introduce them either through organizing curated meetings between both parties, pitch sessions, or speed networking events.

So as I mentioned earlier, our program exists to support startups by fostering collaborations with industry. This slide features a very small sample of the success cases we have to date, which include proof of concepts, pilots, manufacturing deals, all the way through acquisitions. And before passing the word to the entrepreneurs, I'd like to invite you to our upcoming events.

Next, we're going to-- we're hosting one event in Dubai and two in Chile. Mid-March, we're hosting our first demo day of the year. This is entirely virtual. Early April, we're back on campus for the annual Health Technology Conference. On April 30, we're hosting our annual Startup Ecosystem Conference entirely dedicated to entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, and startup and corporate engagement.

And so without further ado, it is my pleasure to kick off the lightning talks. We've invited nine startups to present today, all of them with a strong AI component. Each entrepreneur is presenting for five minutes. And then at the end, you can meet them all in the room next door.