The Curry Ballroom was filled with sharp suits and matching loafers. The low buzz of hopeful entrepreneurs practicing their last-minute pitches echoed throughout the room. Friends, family and business enthusiasts began to take their seats as the lights dimmed.
It was time to pitch a company.
Northeastern University Entrepreneurs Club, or NUEC, hosted its annual Demo Day April 1 through its flagship program Husky Startup Challenge — or HSC — a semester-long initiative that transforms students’ business dreams into reality.
Eight finalists pitched their company to a panel of judges, vying to win up to $10,000 in cash prizes.
The venture group that took home the award for first place and the audience’s favorite award, totaling $5,000, was SugarScope, a non-invasive glucose monitor that allows people with diabetes to track their blood sugar painlessly. Patients can insert their index finger into the device and receive their glucose result in one minute.
Claire Adner, fourth-year electrical engineering major, and Ethan Kjersgard, fourth-year electrical engineering and physics combined major, are the company’s founders.
“We found this really great idea with some newly-budding research and decided to run with it,” Kjersgard said.
SugarScope uses light intensity data to turn raw data into a blood sugar estimate using proprietary algorithms.
“Our casing is 3D printed, and the circuit boards are custom designed. And all of our software is also custom programmed,” Adner said.
SugarScope is initially going to be launched as a wellness device but will be labeled a medical device in 2026 and distributed to hospitals and ambulances across Boston and the nation.
“Probably next year, we’re going to file with the Food [and] Drug Administration for approval for it to be a medical device,” Adner said.
NUEC has more than 1,000 members and runs four different programs, making it one of Northeastern’s largest clubs. The first program, Tuesday Speaker Series, invites CEOs and founders of companies to talk to budding entrepreneurs through fireside chats. The second is an ambassadorship program, where a cohort of leaders teach underclassmen the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. The third program is called Engage and hosts a series of workshops to teach students about hard and soft skills.
The fourth and most notable program is the HSC, which helps students build a company from the ground up and culminates in Demo Day.
“A lot of [companies] come in with little to no idea of what they want to build, but we’ll help them throughout the semester [to] figure out ‘How am I going to build this, who is it important to, why am I doing this and why am I the best person to do this,’” said Manvi Kottakota, third-year data science major and co-president of NUEC.
Though these ventures are small businesses, the markets for their products are large. The third-place winner, Chaos, will be entering the billion-dollar dating app market. Chaos connects users based on their preferences for a first date, focusing on achieving an in-person date instead of just a match.
The Everything Flat, a shoe company led by Eleanor Bussey, fourth-year business administration major, and Margaret Fou, fourth-year international business major, aims to produce affordable, eco-friendly and versatile footwear.
“The idea that we have is basically a base flat coupled with a shoe cover that goes over it,” Bussey said. “The idea is just to have one flat but infinite possibility.”
Currently, The Everything Flat is going through the final stages of prototyping.
“Hopefully by quarter three of 2026, we’re going to be launching [the beta version] to collegiate women’s organizations, like sororities,” Bussey said.
Two of the top-placing ventures were housing resources, targeting Northeastern students searching for off-campus accommodation in Boston, one of the United States’ priciest zip codes.
Housefly is an app designed to eliminate broker fees by connecting renters directly with tenants. Its service automates the job of a housing realtor and pays tenants to give apartment tours to prospective renters. The app schedules tours and screens tenants beforehand, allowing students to sidestep realtor fees, which often equal one month’s rent. HouseFly took home $3,000 after winning both the Social Media Challenge Award and second place overall.
The other venture targeting housing was Burrow Housing, which helps university students find secure and reliable subleases online. Renters in the system are rated based on timeliness of rental payments and property damage reviews. If users live far away from a rental, a Burrow company ambassador will inspect the rental and rate it. Burrow Housing took home The G.O.A.T. Award and $500.
Judging the ventures was a panel made up of Northeastern professors and industry experts. On the panel were Aidan Kittredge, program manager at TechStars, Ishan Sachdev, general partner at Deciens Capital, Aidan Nevin, vice-president of GTM Operations & Business Intelligence at Fidelity Labs, and Cheryl Mitteness, entrepreneurship professor at Northeastern.
“My favorite part is seeing kids come up with really cool ideas I hadn’t thought of before,” Mitteness said.
