Tell Me About Yourselves and PANIO

I’m Cameron Shaw, a multi-exit founder in biotech and longevity, including taking a biotech company through a Nasdaq IPO.

And I’m Moe Hanafy, a multi-time founder and operator across SaaS and AI, with experience launching and scaling 30+ products and platforms globally, generating $Ms in revenue.

We are the co-founders of PANIO, The Dog Longevity Company.

We’re taking many of the principles transforming human longevity; prevention, comprehensive diagnostics, personalised interventions and continuous optimisation and applying them to dogs.

PANIO looks beneath the surface across 400+ health markers to build a much deeper understanding of each individual dog. We then turn that data into meaningful, personalised actions designed to improve health today while giving every dog the best possible chance of a longer, healthier life.

What Inspired You To Start PANIO, and What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

Too many dog parents experience the same heartache: discovering something is wrong when it’s already too late. Behind that is often quiet suffering that, with earlier information and intervention, might have been reduced or avoided.

We wanted to move dog healthcare from reactive to proactive.

Human longevity is increasingly focused on understanding what is happening beneath the surface before disease presents itself. Why shouldn’t we do the same for dogs?

PANIO was built to identify those signals earlier and, crucially, do something meaningful with them. If we can intervene sooner, optimise health and potentially prevent some of that suffering and heartache, that’s an incredibly powerful reason to exist.

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far, and How Did You Overcome It?

One of the biggest challenges has been deciding what not to build.

The opportunity in dog health is enormous. There are diagnostics, genetics, wearables, nutrition, supplements, therapeutics and countless other directions we could pursue. When you can see the bigger vision, there’s a temptation to build everything at once.

We’ve had to become disciplined about sequencing: establish the strongest possible foundation, understand the dog comprehensively, make that information actionable, and build from there.

The ambition hasn’t become smaller. If anything, it has grown. We’ve simply learnt that building something ambitious requires being incredibly focused on what comes first.

Can You Describe a Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of PANIO?

Seeing our first real-world results was pivotal. We were finding significant levels of chronic inflammation, elevated cortisol, parasites and other underlying signals in dogs that appeared perfectly healthy.

But we quickly realised testing alone wasn’t enough. Dog parents naturally asked: “What do I do next?”

It’s all well and good giving someone a sophisticated test result, but saying “here are your results, see you later” doesn’t solve the problem.

That shaped PANIO into what it is today: not simply measuring, but translating data into meaningful insight around diet, nutrition, supplementation, exercise and appropriate interventions, then tracking the dog over time to understand what is actually working.

How Do You Define Success?

For your business:��We want PANIO to change an industry and make a genuinely positive impact while doing it. If we can help shift dog healthcare from predominantly reactive treatment towards proactive, preventative health and ultimately give millions of dogs more healthy years with their families, that is success. Building a significant global company and creating meaningful impact don’t have to be opposing goals.

As a founder (Cameron):��My definition has evolved. Earlier in my career, milestones like fundraising, valuations, exits and an IPO felt like the scorecard. Today, I’m more interested in whether I can build something enduring, surround myself with exceptional people and look back knowing the company genuinely mattered.

As a founder (Moe):��It’s the same as it’s always been for me. Every venture I’ve joined or started has had one thing in common: the ambition to build a genuinely great business that also creates a meaningful, positive impact at scale. Success is being able to do both, create something commercially strong while improving the lives of millions of people along the way.

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

First, be brutally honest with yourself about whether you actually want this life.

Not everyone is supposed to start a company, just as not everyone is supposed to be a professional footballer. That isn’t killing someone’s dream; it’s recognising what the job actually demands.

Are you prepared for years of uncertainty, frustration, rejection and potentially significant personal financial pressure? Are you still going to want it when the excitement of “starting a company” has disappeared?

If the answer is genuinely yes, then start. Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Get something in front of customers, listen obsessively and adapt quickly.

But entrepreneurship shouldn’t be pursued because it sounds exciting. You have to want the reality, not the headline.

What’s Next for PANIO? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

PANIO is now live across the US, UK and UAE, and we’re only at the beginning of what we want to build.

One area we’re particularly excited about is PANIO Frontier, our R&D arm, which has been part of the vision from day one. Frontier is focused on bringing cutting-edge science and new interventions into canine longevity, moving us beyond simply understanding and monitoring health towards finding new ways to actively improve it.

There are some developments there that we’re deliberately keeping under wraps for now.

More broadly, our ambition is for PANIO to become the longevity platform that follows a dog throughout its life, continuously measuring, learning and helping optimise their health as they age.

Want to be featured as 91̽��’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

Founders’ 5 with Cameron Shaw and Moe Hanafy

Want to find out more about the men behind PANIO? Stick around for 91̽��’s exclusive Founders’ 5 with Cameron Shaw and Moe Hanafy.

Favourite Business Tool?

�䲹������Dz�:��Notion. It’s probably the least glamorous answer, but I like anything that creates clarity. Startups become chaotic incredibly quickly: people, ideas, meetings, decisions and priorities all moving simultaneously. Having one place where the team can document what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and what happens next is invaluable. The more ambitious the company becomes, the more important simple organisational discipline becomes.

Moe: Airtable. I love tools that let you turn messy thinking into an operating system, and Airtable does that incredibly well. We’ve used it for everything from CRMs and pipelines to operations, research and internal workflows. It sits in that sweet spot between a spreadsheet and custom software, flexible enough to evolve as the business changes, without needing to build something from scratch every time.

One Lesson You Learned the Hard Way?

�䲹������Dz�:��Establish your culture before you grow your team. It’s crucial to establish the ethos, expectations and standards of a company before you start building a larger team. People need clarity on how you operate, what you expect from each other, and what is and isn’t acceptable. If you don’t define that early, culture starts to form by accident, and every new person can pull it in a different direction. I’ve learnt that skills and experience are only part of building a great team. The best people also understand the standards, values and behaviours expected of them from day one.

�ѴDZ�:��Small communication gaps become fault lines as a company scales. As a business scales, teams naturally become more specialised, but small gaps in alignment quickly turn into duplicated work, conflicting priorities and expensive decisions made without the full picture. I learned that good communication isn’t corporate overhead; it’s operating infrastructure.

One Future Trend You’re Watching?

�䲹������Dz�:��The convergence of AI and preventative healthcare. We’re moving from healthcare based on occasional snapshots towards systems that can continuously learn from genetics, biomarkers, lifestyle and longitudinal data. AI’s ability to connect those enormous datasets and identify patterns humans simply couldn’t process manually could fundamentally change how we think about prevention, ageing and personalised medicine. We’re obviously particularly interested in what that means for animal health.

Moe: Everything personalised, effortlessly. We’re moving from products designed for the average person towards experiences that continuously adapt to the individual. That will extend far beyond personalised medicine into software interfaces, education, nutrition, financial products and even how information is presented to us. The important part is “effortlessly”: people won’t want to configure all of this themselves. AI will increasingly understand context and quietly personalise the world around us.

One Quote You Live By?

Cameron: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I’ve always liked the principle behind that quote. You can’t control when an opportunity appears, who you happen to meet or when circumstances suddenly change in your favour. But you can control whether you’ve done enough work to be ready when it happens.
�ѴDZ�:��“Materiam superabat opus”; the workmanship surpassed the material. I love the idea that what ultimately creates value isn’t necessarily the raw material you start with, but what you make of it. That feels particularly relevant to startups. You almost never begin with enough money, people, information or time. Two teams can start with almost identical resources and create completely different outcomes. The difference is judgement, creativity, execution and craftsmanship. For me, it’s a reminder that constraints don’t determine the quality of the outcome. The work can become more valuable than the materials you were given.

One Book/Podcast You Recommend?

Cameron: “The Hard Thing About Hard Things,”by Ben Horowitz. Building a company is rarely the clean, linear journey people describe afterwards. Most of the genuinely difficult decisions happen when every available option has downsides and there isn’t an obvious right answer. The book captures that reality better than most business books I’ve read.

�ѴDZ�:��Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series. What fascinates me is the idea of psychohistory: taking something as apparently chaotic as civilisation and asking whether, at sufficient scale, it might become understandable and even predictable. One I think about in a similar hierarchy is knowledge: mathematics underpins physics, physics informs chemistry, chemistry gives rise to biology, and eventually you reach psychology and sociology, with each layer becoming exponentially more complex. We’re now reaching a remarkable point where humanity is beginning to understand and manipulate biology with extraordinary precision. “Foundation” makes you wonder whether one day our understanding of societies could become comparably sophisticated.

Want to be featured as 91̽��’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

The post Founders Of The Week: Cameron Shaw And Moe Hanafy appeared first on 91̽��.

From high-street sneaker culture to globally praised luxury knitwear, the country’s fashion ecosystem thrives on originality, storytelling and digital agility. In this article, we explore the vibrant South African fashion scene, how the industry has developed and the innovative startups leading the way.

The Fashion Industry In South Africa

The South African fashion industry is a vibrant economic pillar, with a unique duality between a thriving retail sector dominated by large commercial conglomerates and a fiercely creative, independent designer ecosystem. The sector is supported by rich cultural narratives, diverse traditions and a young, digitally savvy demographic. It ranges from high-end luxury to street culture, artisan crafts and tech-driven manufacturing.��

The industry has demonstrated tremendous resilience despite historical issues like fragmented textile supply chains and retail saturation. Today, it is a key engine for employment, creative expression, and cultural diplomacy, drawing the attention of international buyers, global media houses, and conscious consumers worldwide.

The Evolution Of South African Fashion

Over the last decade, South African fashion has evolved from a consumption-driven market dependent on foreign trends to a proud producer and exporter of authentic design culture. This evolution has been fuelled by the rise of digital platforms, social media connectivity and e-commerce infrastructure that have allowed independent creators to bypass traditional gatekeepers and reach global audiences directly.��

Milestone moments like local designers winning international awards such as the LVMH Prize or streetwear brands becoming mainstream cultural juggernauts have completely shifted global perceptions. The trend toward ‘buying local’ has also taken hold among local consumers, building economic and cultural pride that rewards authenticity, sustainable craftsmanship and brands rooted in real community storytelling.

Top South African Fashion Startups

The pulse of the African creative economy is louder than ever and nowhere is that energy more palpable than in South Africa’s dynamic style sector. Blending a rich indigenous legacy with the latest in digital commerce, the country’s emerging design houses and fashion-tech innovators are turning global retail on its head. The startup world is embracing everything from city streets to eco-friendly handmade products, showing that local can become globally famous. Join us as we take you into the world of visionary entrepreneurs and innovators shaping the future of fashion across the African continent.

Bathu

Theo Baloyi founded Bathu, the ultimate South African success story. The sneaker and lifestyle brand was founded on the story of ‘walking your journey’. Everyday comfort, lasting quality and a strong connection to the community are at the core. Bathu has grown from an agile startup to a nationwide retail powerhouse with flagship stores across the country.

Maxhosa Africa

Founded by Laduma Ngxokolo, Maxhosa Africa interprets traditional Xhosa beadwork, heritage patterns and vibrant colour palettes into contemporary high-end knitwear. The brand has taken over international runways, proving that stories rooted in culture can be massively global luxury.

Thebe Magugu

Thebe Magugu creates luxury ready-to-wear collections that ignite important cultural conversations at the intersection of high fashion, social commentary and historical storytelling. The brand is an international torchbearer for avant-garde African design, being the first African designer to win the coveted LVMH Prize.

Galxboy

Galxboy is a grassroots university startup created by Tebogo Moganedi and is fundamentally rooted in South African hip-hop and youth street culture. Today it’s a key element of urban fashion, setting the tone for the country’s youth with progressive design and collaborative drops.

Cloak Agency

Cape Town based agency Cloak Agency fills the gap for startups and scaling apparel brands by offering specialised product development services. They help new labels streamline their manufacturing processes using modern tools like 3D virtual sampling, accurate tech-pack creation and simplified trend research.

Sindiso Khumalo

This sustainable womenswear brand was founded by an architect-trained designer who tells powerful historical and narrative stories through custom, hand-crafted sustainable textiles. The brand is deeply acclaimed within global sustainable circles.

Pichulik

Pichulik is an ethical accessories atelier based in Cape Town, specialising in sculptural statement pieces made from local materials. The brand cleverly mixes ancient African tribal traditions with modern design minimalism.

The post Top Fashion Startups In South Africa appeared first on 91̽��.

Website:

Tell Us About Quibim

Quibim is a medical imaging AI company focused on unlocking the full potential of imaging data to improve patient outcomes. Founded with the ambition of turning imaging into a catalyst for precision medicine, the company develops advanced algorithms that convert MRI, CT and PET scans into quantitative insights, enabling clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions.��

Its products are designed to fit directly into existing healthcare workflows, allowing hospitals and clinicians to adopt the technology without changing how they work. These tools support the detection and monitoring of diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative conditions, while also helping pharmaceutical companies run more efficient clinical trials.��

Today, Quibim operates globally with offices across Europe and the US, and its technology is already being deployed in real clinical environments, supporting doctors and researchers with more data-driven and consistent insights.

Want to be featured as 91̽��’s Startup of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature, and how to get involved,��here.

What Makes Quibim Unique?

Quibim stands out for its focus on transforming standard medical images into measurable, predictive biomarkers that can be applied across both clinical care and drug development.��

Unlike many AI solutions that sit alongside existing workflows, Quibim’s tools are designed to integrate directly into hospital systems, enabling adoption at scale without disruption.��

The company also operates at the intersection of healthcare and life sciences, supporting not only clinicians but also pharmaceutical companies by improving patient stratification and clinical trial outcomes through imaging-driven insights.

Is There A Market For Quibim?

Yes, and it is growing rapidly. Healthcare systems globally are under increasing pressure from rising imaging volumes, workforce shortages and the need for earlier, more accurate diagnoses.��

At the same time, pharmaceutical companies are investing heavily in tools that can improve the efficiency and success rates of clinical trials. Quibim’s technology addresses both challenges by enabling more precise analysis of imaging data and better patient selection.��

The company’s presence across more than 230 sites worldwide, alongside partnerships with healthcare providers and life sciences organisations, further demonstrates strong demand for its solutions.

Where Can We Find Quibim?

Quibim operates internationally, with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and across Spain.��

Its technology is used by hospitals, research centres and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. More information can be found on its website: AI for Medical Imaging – Radiomics & Biomarkers – Quibim.

The post Startup Of The Week: Quibim appeared first on 91̽��.

Harvard’s alumni have gone on to build businesses in just about every industry, spanning finance, healthcare, retail, media and technology. Some have become household names while others are working on problems that most people don’t stop to think about.

And to be honest, that’s what makes Harvard so interesting from a startup perspective. The university isn’t just producing graduates who will go on to work for big corporations. Instead, it’s a place where people meet co-founders, test ideas, find funding and, in some cases, leave with a company already in the works.

Harvard Has A Knack For Producing Successful Founders, Why Is That The Case?

There’s no single Harvard-to-startup pipeline, and the founders who have come out of the university are a pretty good illustration of that. Some built their companies while they were still students and others came to entrepreneurship after years in academia or another career altogether.

The range is arguably one of the most intriguing things about the startup ecosystem at Harvard. The university’s Innovation Labs brings together students and alumni from across multiple disciplines while the President’s Innovation Challenge provides funding and support for founders trying to make something of their ideas.

Then there’s the location. The institution’s proximity to Boston and Cambridge’s biotech and technology hubs puts founders within easy reach of research institutions and investors. Kendall Square, in particular, has become one of the world’s biggest life sciences clusters, giving Harvard’s researchers and entrepreneurs a fairly unique environment in which to develop their vision. You could go from researching a problem to talking to someone who might fund it without travelling very far.

The common thread isn’t really the Harvard degree itself. It’s the combination of intelligent individuals, access to research, money, mentors and a culture where starting something of your own is treated as a perfectly reasonable next move.

10 Successful Harvard Alumni That Founded Startups

We’ve put together a list of ten founders and companies with Harvard connections, spanning some of the university’s biggest success stories as well as younger startups still finding their feet. The problems that they’re tackling are pretty varied too, from healthcare and breast cancer detection to drone recovery and even healthcare delivered through WhatsApp.

1. Michael Bloomberg, Founder & CEO of Bloomberg LP

Michael Bloomberg graduated from Harvard Business School in 1966 with an MBA, joined Salomon Brothers and spent the next fifteen years running the firm’s equity trading and information systems. After he was pushed out in 1981, he built a machine to replace his former employer’s advantage.

Bloomberg LP launched that same year with the Bloomberg Terminal and has since become the most important piece of infrastructure in global finance.

The company’s revenue runs well over $13 billion a year and Bloomberg himself served three terms as Mayor of New York. Today, he’s still one of the most-cited case studies at his old business school.

2. Philippe Rival, Co-founder & CEO of Enlaye

Philippe Rival is a French-Australian civil engineer who went to Harvard Business School to pick ip the management side of things. He partnered with an old high school friend to start Enlaye out of the Harvard i-Lab. The product is an AI-native risk management platform for the construction industry.

It uses graph neural networks to map contracts, schedules, documents and relationships, then flags potential problems before they become costly disputes.

Enlaye raised $5 million earlier this year and won $25,000 at the 2026 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.

3. Michael Brunman, Co-founder & CEO of Clerx AI

Michael Brunman took an unusually winding route to founder. He served as a software engineer in the Israel Defence Forces’ cyber directorate, practiced commercial litigation and IP law, went to PayPal as a product manager and then Harvard Business School for his MBA.

Afterwards, he built Clerx AI, an AI-powered intake and reception platform designed specifically for law firms, handling calls, chats and texts 24/7. It’s bootstrapped with a small team, but is growing through direct partnerships with legal software vendors.

4. Cathy Huyghe, Co-founder of Enolytics

Cathy Huyghe is a two-time Harvard graduate with a Master’s degrees in both Design and Journalism. She spent decades covering the wine industry for Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Harvard Business Review.

In 2016, she launched Enolytics with her husband to bring data analytics to a $970 billion industry that had been running largely on intuition. Enolytics uses natural language processing to analyse what consumers actually say about wine in five languages, then feeds that back to wineries to shape everything from wine club retention to distribution decisions.

The company was later a featured case study at Harvard and Huyghe was named one of the wine industry’s ten Most Inspiring People in 2021.

5. Aditya Ranganathan, Co-founder & CTO at Avix Medical

Aditya holds his Master’s and PhD from Harvard, both from the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where he also worked as a lead teaching fellow developing curriculum for the introductory data science and mathematical modelling courses.

He serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Avix Medical, whose flagship product, Catalina, is a portable handheld device designed to deliver early breast cancer detection in about 60 seconds. It uses a non-invasive sensor with the company’s patented TIS technology to characterise breast lesions in real time.

Avix took the top prize at the 2026 Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Demo Day and is heading to the Startup World Cup Grand Finale in San Francisco later this year.

6. Dr. Moka Lantum, Co-founder & CEO of CheckUps COVA

Dr. Moka Lantum is a Cameroon-born physician and pharmacologist with a PhD from Rochester and an MHCM from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2020, he was named an Expert-in-Residence at the Harvard i-Lab.

In most of East Africa, if someone needs healthcare and they don’t have cash to pay for it upfront, they either skip it, sell an asset or turn to a moneylender. CheckUps COVA delivers healthcare and medical microcredit through WhatsApp, letting patients access nurse dispatch, telemedicine, pharmacy and diagnostics on demand and pay it back over time.

It’s a rare startup that has actually been built for the infrastructure it operates in.

7. Piers MacNaughton, ScD, Co-founder & CEO of SeeAir

Piers MacNaughton is a Harvard-trained public-health researcher whose ScD from the Chan School focused on green buildings, air quality and cognitive function. He went on to lead health strategy at View Inc. and co-authored some of the most-cited studies on how office environments affect thinking.

SeeAir is an AI-powered residential decarbonisation platform that helps homeowners to navigate the maze of energy programmes, incentives and contractor networks needed to get their homes off relying on fossil fuels.

It launched through the Harvard i-Lab’s Launch Lab X programme in 2025 and is now expanding from Massachusetts into New York.

8. Akonkwa Mubagwa, Co-founder & CEO of Winko Solar

Akonkwa Mubagwa’s route to Winko began with a childhood memory of burglars breaking into his family home in Zimbabwe during a power outage. He went on to study at Berkeley Haas before heading to the Harvard Kennedy School for a mid-career MPA.

Winko builds resilient solar power systems for hospitals across Africa, keeping oxygen concentrators, vaccine cold chains and lifesaving equipment running through the routine grid outages that plague much of the continent’s healthcare infrastructure.

The company won $75,000 at the 2026 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge and Mubagwa is a 2025 Echoing Green Fellow.

9. Jeffrey McChesney, Founder & CEO of Target Arm Inc.

Jeffrey McChesney has quite a history. USAF Academy graduate, TopGun (Fighter Weapons School) alumnus, Columbia grad and Harvard National Security Fellow. It’s the kind of CV that suggests deep tech hardware was somewhere in his future.

Target Arm builds Tular, a patented platform that allows rotary and fixed-wing drones to launch and land from moving vehicles, even in windy conditions. It has obvious commercial use cases like last-mile delivery and mobile sorting, as well as obvious defence ones.

The company won the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Startup World Cup in 2025.

10. Scott Cook, Founder of Intuit

Scott Cook got his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976 after working at Procter & Gamble for some time. In 1983, he co-founded Intuit with Stanford-trained programmer Tom Proulx. Their first product was Quicken, personal finance software that undercut every competitor by actually being usable. TurboTax and QuickBooks followed.

Intuit went public in 1993 and is now worth well over $175 billion, sitting behind an enormous amount of American small business accounting and tax filing.

Cook has stayed close to the business as founder and chairman of the executive committee.

The post Harvard University: Successful Alumni Who Founded Startups appeared first on 91̽��.

Now it’s starting to look a little different as more creators are taking things a step further and becoming founders themselves. These aren’t quick merch drops or one-off collaborations – they’re businesses with teams, customers and plenty of work happening behind the Instagram posts.

From Creator To Company Owner

Having an established audience definitely gives businesses a better head start. Instead of launching businesses straight into the internet and hoping someone notices, creators are able to put their companies in front of people who already know who they are. And once you look past the usual beauty brands and merch drops, there are some really cool businesses being built by people who started out by posting online.

1. Emma Chamberlain

Emma Chamberlain built her huge YouTube following through unfiltered vlogs where coffee became a recurring part of her content. Turning that obsession into a business was probably one of the more predictable moves she could have made.

According to Chamberlain Coffee’s website, that personal interest eventually became a standalone beverage company selling coffee, matcha and ready-to-drink drinks. It has since grown into a proper retail operation with distribution beyond Emma’s own social channels.

2. Alix Earle

Alix Earle became one of TikTok’s biggest names thanks to her seriously unfiltered “get ready with me” videos and her knack for making viewers feel like they’re catching up with a friend. Now she’s putting that audience behind her own business; Alix co-founded Reale Actives with dermatologist Dr Kiran Mian, moving into skincare rather than just promoting someone else’s products.

This business just makes so much sense given how much of Earle’s career has been built around recommending products to her followers. With Reale Actives, she’s now gone from telling people what she uses to helping create the product herself.

3. Niko Omilana

Niko Omilana built his following through high-energy YouTube videos, pranks and loads of general chaos. His move into business has taken him into a very different category with Shades. Launched in 2025, the sweets brand sells sunglasses-shaped gummies in three flavours – The Originals, Tropical Blast and Straight Up Strawberry.

Niko has also stated that he wants Shades to become one of the biggest sweets company in the world – and having tried the sweets myself, I can confidently back his vision.

4. Cassey Ho

Cassey Ho started building her online audience more than a decade ago through Blogilates and free Pilates workouts. Over time, that fitness community gave her a pretty good idea of what people actually wanted from their workout gear.

POPFLEX describes itself as a fitness and lifestyle brand, creating activewear, gym bags and fitness accessories designed to solve the kinds of problems Cassey had come across herself. What started with online workouts eventually became a retail business of its own.

5. Magui Corceiro

Magui Corceiro was already a well known Portuguese model, actress and influencer before becoming a co-owner and partner of Portuguese swimwear brand Missus. She has taken an active role in the business and is involved in developing the brand.

According to the company’s site Missus focuses on locally manufactured swimwear made with recycled materials. Magui has gone from being the person modelling clothes to having a say in the brand creating them.

6. Caspar Lee

Caspar Lee spent years building one of the biggest YouTube careers of his generation before moving into a completely different area of business. He co-founded Proper Living, a company that is focused on accommodation for students and young professionals in South Africa.

The company started with student accommodation and has since expanded its portfolio into boutique hotels and more, with Caspar saying it was approaching 1000 rooms. I’d say that’s quite a big change from making YouTube videos in your bedroom, but it shows just how far a creator’s career can go once they start looking beyond content and brand deals.

7. Kat and Deja Clark

Australian TikTok creator Kat Clark has built a huge online following alongside her two daughters Latisha and Déjà, who have also developed their own audience across social media.

Kat went on to launch Kaladé, a personal care brand, while Déjà founded Sunny Dé, which is a lifestyle and swimwear business. Their companies are separate, but both have been able to build on audiences they already had online.

8. Jess Hunt

Jess Hunt was already established as a fashion and beauty creator when she co-founded REFY along with entrepreneur Jenna Meek. The brand initially launched with a brow product before expanding into a much wider makeup range.

That first product gave them a starting point, but REFY has now grown into a full beauty brand stocked by major retailers including Sephora and Selfridges, which has given it a life way past her personal Instagram account.

9. Tamara Francesconi

Tamara Francesconi built her online presence around fashion, lifestyle and travel before taking her experience into the business world with OSAI. The company describes its business as a travel consulting service that creates tailored trips and experiences for its clients.

There’s no lipstick, activewear or coffee involved here – instead, Tamara has turned her knowledge and connections in the travel world into a really useful business.

10. Aimee Smale

Aimee Smale built her online presence alongside her work in fashion before launching Odd Muse. The brand focuses on structured, timeless pieces designed to sit outside the usual fast-fashion cycle.

Social media has played a really important role in its growth, giving Aimee a direct way to put the brand in front of an audience; her story also proves that you don’t need millions of followers before you can start building a business with ambitions of its own.

11. Josh Suggs

Josh Suggs took something he was already doing as a creator and turned it into a business. His street-interview videos became the foundation for StreetTalk, a media and advertising company that creates social campaigns for brands.

The company has taken a format that started as creator content and turned it into something brands can actually use in their own marketing. Instead of making sponsored videos for other companies, Suggs built a company that makes those campaigns itself.

12. Kayley Reed

Kayley Reed moved from creating fashion content to founding Hermana Agency, a talent management business for content creators. Rather than building a company around products, she built one around the people making the content. Hermana says the agency helps creators in areas that include brand partnerships, strategy and the business side of their careers.

Her smaller audience compared with some of the other names on this list shows that you don’t really need celebrity-level reach to build a company around an opportunity.

More Than Just An Audience

These founders are working across some pretty different industries – there’s coffee, property, travel, advertising, talent management, fashion, beauty and fitness. Some built companies around interests their audiences already knew them for, while others took skills and connections from their online careers into completely different areas.

Having an audience can open the door to all sorts of opportunities beyond social media. A camera, a phone and a loyal following can take creators into completely different industries. For these creators, that has meant becoming business owners as well as content creators – and building something that exists past their next sponsored post.

The post 12 Influencers Who Have Become Successful Startup Founders appeared first on 91̽��.

Still, it may not significantly affect their business at large. The size of such a business and the funding necessary to keep it going provide some financial flexibility. However, for small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs), such decisions may have a more noticeable operational or financial impact.

If an SME makes a poor hiring choice and only realises it after the fact, it can affect team productivity and the company’s finances. These smaller ventures often operate on much tighter budgets and may have less capacity for costly course corrections. CAD software can represent another significant decision because its cost and capabilities can affect an SME’s design workflows.

There is a wide range of options when selecting CAD software, from a to a monthly subscription, each with its own advantages and limitations. Small business owners should consider the needs of their operations when comparing available systems and licensing models.

What Should SMEs Look For In CAD Software?

When deciding which CAD software to use, SME leaders should assess their company’s current design requirements. Factors such as the complexity and type of products being designed, and whether the business primarily needs 2D drafting, 3D modeling, assemblies, drawings, simulation or other capabilities, can help inform such decisions.

Businesses can then compare those requirements with the features offered by different systems, avoiding functionality that may not be relevant to their workflows. Team size and the number of users who require access should also form part of the assessment. These considerations can help narrow the available options to those that align more closely with the company’s needs.

How Much Does CAD Software Cost For An SME?

When considering the cost of CAD software, it’s important to note that the purchase price is only one part of the overall cost. Many systems involve subscription fees and recurring expenses, while others offer a one-time purchase option with the full price paid upfront. A one-time purchase may still involve subsequent expenses such as maintenance, upgrades, support, training and hardware.

Factoring in these expenses can give businesses a clearer estimate of the total cost of ownership and allow them to , regardless of whether it uses a subscription or upfront purchasing model.

CAD Software Features SMEs Actually Need

Depending on the company’s work, relevant CAD software features may include:

• 2D drafting and 3D modelling
• Assemblies and technical drawings
• Simulation and analysis where relevant
• Rendering and visualisation where useful
• File import/export capabilities
• Collaboration tools
• Integrations with other business and manufacturing software

Why Scalability Matters When Choosing CAD Software

Expected business growth is another consideration when comparing CAD systems. A company may need software that meets its current requirements while also accommodating additional users, more complex projects or new workflows over time.

Businesses can change CAD systems as their needs evolve. However, migration may involve additional costs, employee training, file conversion and temporary disruption, making future compatibility worth considering during the initial selection process.

Selecting An Appropriate System

Comparing CAD options against defined operational requirements can help an SME identify software that fits its workflows and budget. The most appropriate choice will depend on factors such as the work being completed, the features required, the number of users, and the company’s anticipated development.

What CAD Software Is Best For A Small Business?

The best option depends on the company’s design requirements, budget, users, workflows, compatibility needs and growth plans.

Should An SME Buy Or Subscribe To CAD Software?

Subscriptions involve recurring payments, while perpetual licenses generally require a larger upfront payment and may carry separate maintenance or upgrade costs. The appropriate model depends on the business’s financial and operational priorities.

How Much Should An SME Budget For CAD Software?

SMEs should calculate total cost of ownership rather than considering only the advertised software price.

What CAD Features Does A Small Business Actually Need?

SMEs should prioritise features directly related to their design and manufacturing workflows rather than paying for unnecessary capabilities.

How Can An SME Compare CAD Software Before Buying?

An SME can compare pricing, licencing, usability, compatibility, integrations, support, scalability and performance against its business requirements and representative projects.

The post What SMEs Should Consider When Choosing CAD Software appeared first on 91̽��.

It’s a new week and there’s a new group of startups pitching their case to the crowd. This week’s roundup is a strong showcase of deep tech solving practical, tangible problems.

One startup has created patented acoustic-AI technology to digitise and scale recycling, while another is developing fridge-free pharmaceuticals and vaccines. A third has built an AI-powered indoor plant growing system, bringing serious tech to the humble houseplant. Founders taking on real-world problems with this kind of technical depth are set to make a real difference.

So, who are the startups crowdfunding this week? Here they are.

1. Candam Technologies

How much are they raising: €300,060

Website: www.candam.eu/

SEIS/EIS? N/A

About: Candam Technologies has developed a patented acoustic-AI technology to digitise and scale recycling, using sound and machine learning to bring a level of intelligence to a process that has long relied on manual sorting.

Sorting is one of the biggest bottlenecks in recycling, with facilities struggling to identify and separate materials at speed, and huge quantities of otherwise recyclable waste ends up in a landfill because the system can’t keep up. Candam’s acoustic-AI approach opens up a new way of tackling that, using sound to identify materials with a level of precision that visual sorting alone can’t match.

Where to invest: Europe Republic

2. Camden Town WFC

How much are they raising: £50,002

Website: www.camdentownwfc.com

SEIS/EIS? Yes, EIS

About: Camden Town Women’s Football Club is inviting investors to be part of the future of women’s football, a corner of the game growing faster than almost any other.

Women’s football has undergone quite the transformation over the past few years, with attendances, sponsorship and commercial interest climbing at scale. The clubs that will define the next chapter of sport are being built at present, and Camden Town WFC is offering supporters and investors alike a chance to be a part of that story from a relatively early stage.

Where to invest: Europe Republic

3. Stablepharma Ltd

How much are they raising: N/A

Website: www.stablepharma.com

SEIS/EIS? Yes, EIS

About: Stablepharma is developing fridge-free pharmaceuticals and vaccines to remove reliance on cold-chain storage and delivery.

Vaccines and many pharmaceuticals lose effectiveness or can become unstable if the temperature slips at any point between manufacture and patient. However, maintaining that chain is costly, energy-intensive and often just not possible in the places where it’s needed most. Stablepharma’s technology makes products thermostable at room temperature so they can reach the people who need them without the constraints of refrigeration.

Where to invest: Crowdcube

4. Jay & Joy

How much are they raising: N/A

Website: www.jay-joy.com

SEIS/EIS? N/A

About: Jay & Joy is a French pioneer in plant-based cheese, drawing on traditional cheesemaking knowledge to create products with their own taste while offering a better proposition for the environment and animal welfare.

Plant-based cheese has, for the most part, been the most compromised category in the plant-based world. While meat and milk substitutes have made huge strides, cheese has stubbornly resisted. As a result, many alternatives end up falling short of the real thing. Jay & Joy wants to change that, applying traditional cheesemaking craft to plant-based ingredients in a way that other brands don’t.

Where to invest: Crowdcube

5. Evogro

How much are they raising: N/A

Website: www.evogro.com

SEIS/EIS? Yes, EIS

About: Evogro makes AI-powered indoor plant growing systems that deliver high-quality fresh produce consistently, sustainably and without needing a green thumb.

Growing at home has the appeal on paper but in reality, it’s a lot tougher with variable results, wasted effort and produce that doesn’t really match what you buy at the store. Evogro’s system lets AI handle the tricky parts – light, water, nutrients and timing – while the user has to plant and harvest. For anyone interested in the idea of homegrown food but put off by the effort or unreliability, it’s a compelling product.

Where to invest: Crowdcube

6. Aqua Glow

How much are they raising: N/A

Website: www.aqua-glow.com

SEIS/EIS? Yes, EIS

About: Aqua Glow makes award-winning collagen drinks that have already picked up some serious recognition after launching just a year ago.

Collagen has moved from niche wellness product to the mainstream, with drinkable formats leading the way because they fit so naturally into daily routines. In a category where new entrants appear almost weekly and fade out just as quickly, early traction and industry recognition matter enormously. Aqua Glow’s products are already in Boots, Ocado and WHSmith across the UK and Europe.

Where to invest: Crowdcube

The post 6 Startups Crowdfunding w/c 07.09.2026 appeared first on 91̽��.

These companies thrive on the intersection of private domain client engagement, automated workforce logistics and AI decision engines, not a rehash of Silicon Valley models.

What Is Software As A Service (SaaS)?

Software as a service (SaaS) is a cloud computing delivery model where a vendor hosts software applications in the cloud and makes them available to customers over the Internet on a subscription basis. Instead of traditional on-premises software that requires organisations to purchase perpetual licenses, install complex binaries on local servers and manage dedicated IT infrastructure, SaaS abstracts the entire technical stack away from the end user.

The SaaS model fundamentally democratises access to cutting-edge enterprise technology. Cloud vendors handle database management, scaling, cyber defence, bug fixes and feature upgrades on a multi-tenant infrastructure. This lets users access powerful operational tools through web browsers or mobile devices with minimal setup time and lower upfront capital expenditure (CapEx), while shifting technology investment to predictable operational expenditure (OpEx).

How SaaS Has Changed Over The Last Few Years?

The enterprise SaaS landscape has changed dramatically over the past 5 years, shifting from basic, horizontal productivity software to deeply integrated, intelligence-driven systems.

Vertical SaaS Pivot

Back in the day, the market was full of horizontal tools like vanilla CRMs, simple billing engines or generic project management apps. Recently, specialised Vertical SaaS solutions targeted to specific industries (heavy manufacturing, cross-border e-commerce, construction and healthcare compliance) have taken the spotlight, given their better product-market fit and higher retention.

Deep Ecosystem And Social Integration

Today’s SaaS isn’t an isolated island. In markets like China, SaaS platforms are natively integrated with private-domain messaging channels like WeChat, Work WeChat and DingTalk, making communication apps into interactive business operational hubs.

From Systems Of Record To Systems Of Engagement and Intelligence

The first generation of SaaS products were largely digital filing cabinets. Modern SaaS platforms now build in machine learning, natural language processing and automated workflow logic to make proactive decisions, initiate processes and provide useful information.

Hybrid Product-Led And Enterprise Motion

Platforms have merged Product-Led Growth (PLG), allowing end-users to adopt software seamlessly from the bottom up, with the enterprise-grade security and customisation controls enterprise procurement departments require.

10 SaaS Startups Changing China’s Tech Industry

High-volume e-commerce, cross-border supply chains, hyper-automated labour operations and intelligent social engagement uniquely propel China’s enterprise software environment.

Dianxiaomi

Dianxiaomi provides a dedicated multi-channel e-commerce management SaaS for cross-border merchants. It serves as a cloud hub, enabling sellers to link stores on global marketplaces like Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, eBay and TikTok Shop. Dianxiaomi’s SaaS platform automates multi-platform inventory syncing, automated order routing, parcel tracking and listing generation, removing operational bottlenecks for international trade.

Laiye

Laiye is an all-in-one automation SaaS suite that combines Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) and conversational AI. Delivered in the cloud, Laiye lets enterprises deploy digital workers or bots, that automate repetitive, cross-system tasks such as invoice processing, customer onboarding and data entry, dramatically reducing human operational error and administrative costs.

Moka

Moka is an AI-powered human resource and talent acquisition SaaS platform. Moka uses data analytics and natural language processing to streamline recruitment pipelines. It automates resume parsing, candidate scoring, interview scheduling and feedback collection. In the U.S., it’s tightly integrated with messaging tools, creating a seamless conversational experience for recruiters and applicants alike.

GaiaWorks

GaiaWorks is a cloud-based SaaS platform for Workforce Management (WFM) for shift-based and frontline workforces. GaiaWorks provides cloud-based algorithms for complex shift scheduling, real-time attendance tracking, labour cost optimisation and compliance management for retail, hospitality, automotive and high-tech manufacturing.

SleekFlow

SleekFlow is an omnichannel customer conversation and social commerce SaaS that connects messaging platforms (WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Instagram and SMS) into a centralised collaborative inbox. SleekFlow automates broadcast campaigns, routes customer conversations and handles instant in-chat payments via cloud integration for marketing, sales and support teams.

Teambition

Teambition is a large SaaS project management product embedded in Alibaba’s enterprise cloud ecosystem, providing modular software for work execution. It offers Kanban boards, live document collaboration, task tracking, Gantt charts and resource management tools to improve organisational transparency and cross-departmental agile execution.

Glodon

Glodon has built a vertical SaaS suite that is changing the traditional construction and civil engineering industry. Its platform includes cloud BIM tools, digital cost estimating software, on-site construction monitoring and supply chain management, supporting digitised, transparent project execution through the build lifecycle.

The post Top SaaS Startups In China appeared first on 91̽��.

Tell Me About Yourself and Interlink

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Interlink, a B2B lead generation company approaching our ninth year in business. We’ve grown on average 75% year on year since we started in 2018 and so we’ve had to become specialists in reinventing ourselves year after year.

We specialise in AI-driven demand generation for enterprise technology companies operating in global markets, combining advanced intent-targeting technology with highly personalised, human-led engagement to deliver quality demand generation at scale. In short, we help enterprise tech businesses connect prospective clients with their sales teams.

We identify as a market disruptor and try to achieve this by developing cutting-edge solutions for our clients but also creating the best possible workplace for our staff. An example of how we do this is working a 4-day work week (with 5 days’ pay).

What Inspired You To Start Interlink, and What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

I always wanted to start a business and experience fast growth and scale from the driving seat. The opportunity to do it in the digital media industry came to my co-founder Jay and I when we were both working in sales roles but becoming increasingly frustrated at what we were selling.

We experienced low client retention driven by poor-quality leads, lack of transparency and misaligned incentives. Too often, technology companies were investing heavily in demand generation without seeing meaningful, long-term results. We believed there was a better way to operate. We founded Interlink in 2018 to focus on quality, trust and outcomes, not volume for its own sake. By combining AI-driven insight with human judgement and ethical practice, we set out to build a more effective, transparent and people-first approach to lead generation.

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far, and How Did You Overcome It?

My biggest challenge has been having the patience to build the right foundations before scaling. There were moments when we could have grown faster by hiring aggressively, but that would have meant taking something to market before it was truly best in class. Instead, we focused on mastering the fundamentals: our technology, client success and delivery. Over time, we’ve had to rebuild structures and processes repeatedly, not because they failed, but because we outgrew them.

I’ve learned there is no finish line in business. Embracing constant evolution and learning has shaped how I lead and enabled sustainable growth.

Can You Describe a Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Interlink?

A major turning point was deciding to move away from an outsourced model and start generating leads in-house. While we had been working with a small number of high-quality external data partners, we realised that relying on third parties ultimately put a ceiling on our growth and limited how much control we had over quality and innovation.

Bringing creation of our product in-house allowed us to build and train our own teams, embed our values into the work and scale without compromising standards. It also gave us greater transparency for clients and ensured we stayed aligned with the principles the business was founded on.

How Do You Define Success?

For your business:��Success is being the best lead generation company in the industry. That’s always been our reason for existing. While our goals and objectives have changed over time, that “why” has stayed the same and continues to guide our decisions. As well, we know our success is directly tied to the wellbeing and satisfaction of our team and this reinforces our commitment to making Interlink a place where everyone can do their best work, be their authentic selves and grow alongside the business.

As a founder:��We often talk about a goal or a ‘destination’ when planning our next phases of growth, but the truth is those destinations change again before you ever get to them. As the saying goes, it’s the journey, not the destination. Success for me is staying present and finding joy in the often-messy growth phase, rather than waiting for it all to come at once at a destination we may never arrive at.

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

I have only been a founder of one business, and I have a co-founder. Neither of us had any experience of running a business and so having each other for support and company in the early days was crucial. If it’s your first time running a business, I would encourage looking at starting with a co-founder.

Coaching has been incredibly valuable to me on this journey. Often people do not see the extent of the pressure and stress behind the scenes for founders and having an outlet where you can embrace the difficult moments, learn about why you feel how you do and predict future patterns is incredibly valuable.

Be clear on your DNA as a business and don’t feel like you should change it to suit an opportunity that presents itself. Be your authentic self because authenticity is rare. I feel like when you speak about your business as your authentic self, passion can take over in a positive way and people listen to you.

Know your numbers, all the time. Learn how to spot future trends by knowing your core metrics inside out and track them meticulously. When you know your numbers, they turn into dials that you can turn as and when you need to.
Don’t be afraid to let people know that you enjoy it. Life is too short not to.

What’s Next for Interlink? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

Over the last couple of years, our focus has been on global expansion after getting the foundations right. We now operate across London, India, Singapore and New York, and in the past 12–18 months we’ve built a formal sales function, which was the final piece of that groundwork. With those fundamentals in place, we’re now focused on scaling with intent.

The next phase is about going deeper into what matters most to our clients. That means understanding their challenges, identifying where we can unlock opportunity, and evolving our technology and services around genuine needs. Client success sits at the centre of everything we do.

Want to be featured as 91̽��’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

Founder’s 5 with Interlink

We wanted to know a bit more about the man behind Interlink, so we’ve put together the exclusive Founders’ 5 with Andrew McLernon.

Favourite business tool

Coaching.

One lesson you learned the hard way?

Never hire a ‘top performer’ when you have a feeling they might not be a good culture fit. We learned this early, and the best thing we did was take decisive action as soon as we realised we had made a mistake.

One future trend you’re watching?

The ever-evolving workplace trend towards flexibility with intentional connection. How can a business foster the optimal working environment that provides balance between remote flexibility and in -person mentorship?

One quote you live by

Culture is what happens when nobody is watching. It is a company’s immune system.

One book/podcast you recommend

A book, “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant”.

Want to be featured as 91̽��’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

The post Founder Of The Week: Andrew McLernon appeared first on 91̽��.

In fact, according to UC Berkeley, its graduates have founded nearly 80 billion-dollar startups, while PitchBook’s 2025 university rankings placed Berkeley first for the number of venture-backed companies founded by its undergraduate alumni.

But what makes Berkeley’s founder network particularly interesting is its sheer variety, something that’s an incredibly difficult thing to achieve for even the most successful tertiary education institutiions. Having one or two faculties or departments that produce world-class entrepreneurs and founders is one thing, but having several is astounding.

Indeed, UC Berkely’s alumni entrepreneurs aren’t confined to one particular area of technology or business. They include scientists, engineers, economists, computer scientists and public health experts, with companies spanning semiconductors, AI, robotics, electric vehicles, social networking, education and renewable energy.

UC Berkeley’s Unique Network of Founders

In addition to the broad range of industries from which the university’s most successful founders come, there also isn’t just one obvious route from UC Berkeley to entrepreneurship. The founders in this list come from remarkably different academic and professional backgrounds, and they’ve gone on to tackle very different problems in a variety of ways.

Gordon Moore, possibly the most well-known and most successful entrepreneur on the list, studied chemistry before helping to build Intel and becoming virtually synonymous with Moore’s Law. Meanwhile, Masayoshi Son studied economics before building SoftBank into a global technology investment giant. The university is also responsible for producing computer scientists developing autonomous drones, engineers working on advanced EV tech, a product leader tackling the challenges of AI in education and a public health expert using solar technology to address problems in healthcare. This group of university of alumni couldn’t cover a broader range of industries if they tried.

Indeed, this diversity is arguably one of the most interesting things about Berkeley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The university’s startup community stretches across disciplines, with programmes like Berkeley SkyDeck, UC LAUNCH and the Haas Entrepreneurship Hub supporting students and alumni looking to turn ideas into businesses. Furthermore, Berkeley Haas also says its CalFounders network now includes more than 500 founders.

We’ve put together a list of the most successful founders to come out of UC Berkeley, from different departments and across industries, demonstrating that there isn’t necessarily a single formula for startup success. For many of these Berkeley alumni, it all started with spotting a major technological shift early on. But for others, it was about solving a very specific problem, or figuring out how to apply expertise from one field to a completely different challenge.

Here are 8 successful founders who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.

1. Gordon Moore, Co-Founder at Intel

Gordon Moore was a chemist, physicist and entrepreneur who played an influential role in shaping the modern semiconductor industry before the current era of semiconductors in the AI industry as we now know it. After studying chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, he went on to co-found Intel in 1968 alongside Robert Noyce. The company became one of the world’s most influential semiconductor businesses, helping drive the development of microprocessors and modern computing, and the name is still very much identifiable today.

However, Moore is also really well known, perhaps better known in some circles, for Moore’s Law: his prediction that the number of transistors on integrated circuits would roughly double over time. His combination of scientific expertise, long-term thinking and ability to business acumen (specifically in recognising the commercial potential of emerging tech) played a major role in Intel’s success and cemented his place in the tech “hall of fame”.

2. Masayoshi Son, Founder and CEO of SoftBank Group

Masayoshi Son is a Japanese entrepreneur and investor who founded SoftBank in 1981 after studying economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He initially launched the company as a distributor of computer software before expanding into telecommunications, internet businesses and technology investment.

Son is particularly known for identifying major tech trends early and making ambitious investments, including SoftBank’s stake in Alibaba, its acquisition of Arm and the creation of the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Today, he continues to lead SoftBank Group as Chairman and CEO, with the company increasingly focused on AI. His success has largely been driven by his willingness to make bold, long-term bets on technologies that he believes will shape the future. Indeed, Son has achieved widespread success, having been named Japan’s richest man in 2025, although the title has since been given to somebody else.

3. Ghazaleh Sadooghi, Co-Founder at Rumi

Ghazaleh Sadooghi is a tech entrepreneur and product leader who co-founded Rumi, an EdTech platform designed to help schools and universities comfortably and safely manage the responsible use of AI in tertiary education. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and previously worked in techno roles at both LinkedIn and Patreon.

Sadooghi co-founded Rumi after the emergence of ChatGPT made her question how students could use AI without being labelled as cheaters. The platform allows educators to set AI policies for individual assignments, and it gives them visibility into how students use are actually AI during their work. Rumi won UC LAUNCH’s 2023 startup cohort and has secured contracts with educational institutions.

Sadooghi’s success reflects an ability to identify a new problem she could see firsthand, created by rapidly changing technology, and build a practical solution for it by means of combining her technical and product expertise with her real-world experience as a student navigating AI herself.

4. Eddy Lu, Co-Founder and CEO at GOAT Group

Eddy Lu is the co-founder and CEO of GOAT Group, the company behind the popular sneaker and streetwear marketplace GOAT. A UC Berkeley computer science alumnus, Lu co-founded GOAT in 2015 with Daishin Sugano after they identified an opportunity to tackle the problem of counterfeit sneakers that, at the time, seemed to be becoming increasingly prevalant.

GOAT built trust into its marketplace by implementing product authentication, helping differentiate it from traditional peer-to-peer resale platforms. The company later expanded through acquisitions, and under Lu’s leadership, GOAT Group has since grown into a multibillion-dollar business, valued at $3.7 billion in 2021.

5. Abraham Bachrach, Co-Founder and CTO at Skydio

Abraham Bachrach is a robotics and AI entrepreneur and the co-founder and CTO of Skydio, the autonomous drone company he founded alongside Adam Bry and Matt Donahoe in 2014. Bachrach is a UC Berkeley graduate who holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He also went on to get an MS and PhD in robotics at MIT after graduating from Berkeley.

Before co-founding Skydio, he led autonomous-flight research at MIT and was a co-founder and technical lead at Google’s Project Wing. His expertise includes computer vision, machine learning, robotics and autonomous flight technology, giving him a broad range of knowledge and experience.

At Skydio, Bachrach has helped develop the technology behind drones that are able to navigate and avoid obstacles autonomously. His combination of deep robotics research and practical engineering has been central to turning autonomous flight from a research problem into an actual commercial product.

6. Sam Weng, Co-Founder at Lucid Motors/Atieva

Sam Weng is the co-founder of Atieva, the electric vehicle technology company that most people now know as Lucid Motors. Weng co-founded Atieva in 2007 with Bernard Tse, and initially, they were focusing on developing batteries and electric powertrains for other vehicle manufacturers.

A UC Berkeley alumnus, Weng earned both a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Berkeley. Before Atieva, he held senior engineering and commercial roles at companies including Xerox, Redback Networks and Oracle, giving him a combination of technical and business expertise with experience at some reputable companies.

Weng’s success lies partly in recognising the potential of electric vehicle technology before EVs became mainstream. Under his leadership, Atieva evolved from a battery and powertrain company into the luxury EV manufacturer that we know today as Lucid. According to the Cal Alumni Association, when Lucid went public in 2021, it was valued at around $24 billion.

7. Prakash Janakiraman, Co-Founder at Nextdoor

Prakash Janakiraman is the co-founder of Nextdoor, the neighbourhood-focused social network. He served as the company’s Chief Architect and previously led its engineering team, helping build the technology behind a platform that expanded to millions of neighbours across multiple countries, connecting people living in close proximity to one another.

According to Crunchbase, the UC Berkeley graduate, Janakiraman, began his career as a software engineer at Excite@Home before moving into engineering management at Shopping.com and Google, where he managed teams working on Google Maps, Google Base and Froogle. His expertise lies in software engineering, scalable systems and consumer internet platforms.

Janakiraman’s success comes from combining strong technical expertise with an understanding of how technology can solve everyday problems. At Nextdoor, he helped turn the simple idea of connecting neighbours online into a platform operating at significant scale, taking the company through its 2021 public listing.

8. Laura Stachel, Co-Founder at We Care Solar

Dr. Laura Stachel is a public health innovator and the co-founder and Executive Director of We Care Solar, a nonprofit organisation that provides solar electricity to health facilities in areas that don’t have reliable access to power. A former obstetrician-gynaecologist, Stachel was researching maternal mortality in Nigeria in 2008 when she saw first-hand how power outages could prevent doctors and midwives from safely treating women in labour, according to We Care Solar.

Stachel holds an MD from the University of California, San Francisco, as well as an MPH and DrPH from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. She co-founded We Care Solar with her husband, Hal Aronson, in 2010, developing the Solar Suitcase, a portable solar-electric system that provides lighting and power for essential medical equipment.

Her success comes from turning a problem she witnessed firsthand into a practical, scalable solution. According to We Care Solaar’s own records, the company has since deployed the Solar Suitcase to thousands of health facilities across more than 30 countries, while Stachel has received numerous awards for her work in global health and sustainable energy.

The post 8 Successful Founders Who Attended The University Of California, Berkeley appeared first on 91̽��.