On March 13, a panel of NYU Law alumni judges named Andy Guan ’26 and Patrick Li ’25 winners of the Spring business pitch competition hosted by the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital (EVC) Program. Guan and Li’s winning pitch was for ClaimRapid, a hypothetical business that would use AI tools to simplify filing and tracking small claims in US courts.
The EVC program hosts two annual pitch competitions—one in the Spring and another in the Fall—that are open to students and recent graduates, working as individuals or in teams. After participants submit a pitch deck and video explanation of their concept, finalists are invited to make their pitches live before a panel of alumni judges with expertise in venture capital and startup spaces. The winning pitch is awarded a $1,500 cash prize.
Guan and Li say they decided to pitch together after chatting as members of the Law School’s Social Enterprise & Startup Law Group, where Li serves as co-chair. Li had been thinking about pitching a concept to help ease the challenges of filing small claims, and Guan had previous experience making pitch decks as the co-founder of a startup incubator during his undergraduate studies. They decided to pool their knowledge and team up.
While Guan and Li have no immediately plans to launch a business based on their pitch, Li says they have been approached by students and alumni offering their legal and business expertise should they decide to develop their concept further. “The conversations have definitely given us energy and motivation,” he says.
This semester’s alumni judges were Lydia Cheuk ’97, general counsel of the luggage brand Away; Andrea Inokon ’03, co-founder and chief operating officer of Cadence Cash, an AI-powered platform to help grow small businesses; and Ed Stelzer ’93, entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture group Loeb.nyc.
Posted April 11, 2024.