Tufts Entrepreneurial Alumni Network (TEAN), a part of the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center (TEC) ecosystem, is pleased to bring you the third event in its series of monitor-side chats. On Tuesday, July 14th, we'll be chatting with past winners of the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition about the changing nature of their business operations during COVID-19.

The annual Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition draws entries from alumni, faculty, staff, undergraduate students, and graduate students from all ten schools across the university to compete for prizes and in-kind services totaling more than $100,000 to grow their business ideas and is hosted by TEC.

Please join us as we hear from past winners Anodyne Nanotech, Potencia, ZwitterCo, and Adelante Shoes about resilience and growing business in the time of COVID-19.

You can find a detail description of the presenting companies below:

Potencia (2020) - Amanda Wang (EG19), Jun Hyung Yoon (EG19)
We believe that human connections in the community are the key to tackling social challenges. Potencia is a non-profit startup that offers accessible, affordable, and effective English classes for refugees and immigrants. We start with training college students as our tutors.

Anodyne Nanotech (2019) - Jake Lombardo (EG19), Konstantinos Tzortzakis (EG19)
Anodyne Nanotech is redefining drug delivery. Using the Hero Patch, we can deliver clinically meaningful amounts of large molecule drugs, painlessly through the skin for the first time. Our first application, monoclonal antibodies, will allow patients to easily self-administer medications at home that would normally require injections or infusions.

ZwitterCo (2018) - Alex Rappaport (E17, EG18)
ZwitterCo’s membrane solutions are built for the toughest industrial wastewater and enable next-generation water efficiency and environmental stewardship. Our patented material chemistry can remove nanoscale organic contaminants while maintaining unprecedented resistance to chemical and physical degradation. Our elements operate for years in streams that would ruin other filtration technologies in weeks, ensuring that users can safely and cost-effectively manage their wastewater onsite.

Adelante (2016) - Peter Sacco (F17)
Adelante is a mission-driven startup that delivers handmade, made-to-order shoes direct to your door in 10 days. We connect Cobbler-to-Customer via multimedia while their shoes are being made, effectively turning each pair into the vehicle for a personal experience. Adelante sells the most impactful shoes that ever lived.


Tufts Entrepreneurial Alumni Network, in connection with the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center, are joining forces to host a series of "monitor-side" chats to explore how alums are forging through the new challenges that COVID-19 seems to bring on a daily basis.

Alumni will share stories of how they've turned the petri-dish of germs around them into a petri dish of ideas, how they've found support in their communities, how their entrepreneurial determination and resilience has helped them find success, and of course the power of a Tufts education.

Together, we can all come out of COVID-19 stronger, wiser, and better prepared for any future challenges our industries face.