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GR DeepTech Pitch Competition · Innovation Day 2026
Pitch your idea.
We’ll help it grow.
Apply for five minutes on stage at the annual College of Computing Innovation Day to pitch your business idea, research innovation, or product. GVSU College of Computing will put student teams, faculty, and mentors behind the winners. Open to every GVSU student and faculty member.
Tuesday, December 8, 2026 · Five pitches · Three awards
Matt Larson pitches Vanly at GR DeepTech, December 2025 — it won.
What Grand Valley puts behind you
You bring the idea. We bring the rest.
Student build teams
Capstone squads and the Applied Computing Institute, building alongside you for a semester.
Faculty expertise
Researchers in computing, health, and engineering who know your hard problem already.
Mentors from the West Michigan ecosystem
Operators and founders who have shipped, raised, and sold before.
A coworking home at bamboo
One year of membership at bamboo Grand Rapids for the overall winner.
A path into SBIR/STTR federal funding
Non-dilutive federal research dollars, and guidance through the application.
A stage in front of investors and operators
Our Fall 2025 judges: Jim Hackett, Grand Ventures, Rapids Ventures, Michigan Software Labs, BizStream, and Array of Engineers.
We do this because Grand Valley wants its people to start successful companies — and we’ve built the support to make that happen.
“Your startup doesn’t need to be ‘deep’ tech. It just needs to do more than ‘we built an AI chatbot.’”
Who can apply
GVSU students and faculty.
GVSU students (any major, any college) and GVSU faculty. Teams or individuals. No company required, no prototype required, no pitch experience needed.
Apply to pitchAny stage counts:
- a question you can't stop thinking about
- a prototype that lives on your laptop
- a product with its first users
- a company ready for its next step
The path
From an idea to a stage to a company.
1
Apply
Tell us the idea in a short form. Applications open October 5, close November 6.
2
Shape it
Two open Pitch Academy workshops (Oct 22 Allendale, Nov 2 DCIH) and a pitch-writing session for applicants. You leave with a two-page brief and a story.
3
Pitch
Five finalists, five minutes each plus questions, on stage at Innovation Day, December 8.
4
Grow
Winners get GVSU student build teams, faculty expertise, mentors, a coworking home at bamboo Grand Rapids, and guidance into SBIR/STTR federal funding.
Innovation Day, Grand Rapids.
Awards
Three awards.
Best Overall Pitch
The strongest case for a venture.
Cash prize (amount TBA) + one year of coworking at bamboo Grand Rapids.
Best Breakthrough Pitch
The most technically ambitious idea.
Cash prize (amount TBA).
Best Early Stage Pitch
The most promising idea at its earliest stage.
Cash prize (amount TBA).
Only Best Overall Pitch includes the bamboo Grand Rapids membership.
Sponsors
Array of Engineers funds the cash prizes. bamboo Grand Rapids provides the coworking membership.
Timeline
Dates to put on the calendar.
Oct 5
Applications open
Oct 15
Orientation session (live and recorded)
Oct 22
Pitch Academy, Allendale campus, 5–7 pm
Nov 2
Pitch Academy, DCIH downtown, 5–7 pm
Nov 6
Application deadline, 11:59 pm ET
Nov 12
Pitch-writing workshop (applicants)
Nov 16
Two-page written pitch due
Nov 20
Five finalists announced
Dec 1
Final deck due
Dec 8
GR DeepTech Pitch Competition at Innovation Day
Past winners
Where they are now
Two competitions in, the people who stood on this stage are running companies with customers, contracts, and users.
- 2
- competitions
- 12
- finalists
- 5
- winners
- $17,500
- awarded
- 40,000+
- users at Vanly
- $260K
- contract at Ledger
Fall 2025 — Innovation Day, December 5, 2025
Single track, three cash prizes.
First place · $10,000
Vanly
Matt Larson
A peer-to-peer network for RV and van travelers to book safe overnight parking on private property.
Where they are now: 40,000+ users and 3,000 host listings across all 50 states; first place and Audience Choice at 20Fathoms' TCNewTech pitch competition (Feb 2026); named a SmartZone “Company to Watch”; launched Vanly Pro with AI trip planning.
H
Second place · $5,000
HelloMyFriend
Amy Stratbucker, with Dan Hungerford and Bill Stratbucker
An AI-powered social-skills practice platform for children, built around an emotionally intelligent AI companion.
Where they are now: Launched the BridgeSpace scenario platform and a Hope Network pilot; returned as a GR DeepTech finalist in Winter 2026.
Third place · $2,500
Wayloom
Fedi Naimi and Halee Belghouthi, mentored by Dr. Suhila Sawesi
Secure digital infrastructure for standardized cognitive screening — bringing trusted early brain-health assessments into the digital age.
Where they are now: Presented in the Web Summit Qatar Alpha program; pursuing clinical letters of intent and pre-seed funding; the founders returned to GR DeepTech in Winter 2026 with a second venture, Prospecter (prospecter.io).
Finalists
- Scalable AI (Josh Ross — AI agent suite for manufacturers)
- EducationAI (Boulbaba Abdeljaouad)
- NextMeal AI (Kamrul Hasan)
Judges
- Brian McKeiver (BizStream)
- James Meeks (Rapids Ventures)
- Jim Hackett (former CEO, Ford and Steelcase)
- Joshua Hulst (Michigan Software Labs)
- Nathan Owen (Grand Ventures)
- Stacy Paul (Array of Engineers)
Winter 2026 — Innovation Day, April 24, 2026
Two tracks, one winner each.
L
Winner
Ledger
Mohamed Aziz Boufaied and Zach DeBruine
Where they are now: Signed a $260,000 contract.
G
Winner
GaitlyAI
Mohamed Iheb Soltana and Nurudeen Showole
Smartphone-camera gait analysis, validated against the GAITRite clinical system; dataset published on IEEE DataPort.
Winter 2026 finalist
MoveFactorX
Sensor-based movement assessment that turns subjective clinical evaluations into quantifiable data.
Finalists
- Cellosyncra
- MindGuard
- PulseGuard Sentinel
- MoveFactorX
- HelloMyFriend
- Prospecter
Sponsors
- Array of Engineers (cash prizes)
- bamboo Grand Rapids (coworking memberships)
Fall 2025 prizes were doubled thanks to College of Computing alumni John Spencer-Taylor and Matthew Shaver, founders of BrainGu.
What makes a strong pitch
Tell a clear story that connects your technology to real-world impact.
01
The innovation itself
What have you made that did not exist before? Be concrete about the thing itself, not the category it sits in.
02
The technical challenge
What is genuinely hard about this, and why is your solution unique?
03
The market opportunity
Who needs this, how many of them are there, and what changes for them when they have it?
04
The strength of your team
Why are you the people to do this? Skills, research background, and obsession all count.
FAQ
Questions people actually ask
Apply to pitch
Applications open October 5 and close November 6 at 11:59 pm ET.