Holekamp Seed Fund boosts record number of student entrepreneurs

The largest-ever group of WashU entrepreneurs got their start via Olin’s Holekamp Seed Fund this year — and two especially promising startups got additional follow-on grants to help scale up.

“We’re fortunate at Olin to have generous donors like the Holekamp Family who not only love student startup founders, but desire always to be the first to support them financially,” said Professor Doug Villhard, Olin’s academic director for entrepreneurship. “These grants are a way of saying, ‘You appear to be on to something. Keep going!’ That’s exactly the type of encouragement all founders, and especially young ones, need.”

The Holekamp Seed Fund was launched in 2018 through the generosity of Clifford Holekamp, former academic director for entrepreneurship at Olin, and his father, Bill. Each year, the fund distributes grants of $1,000 each to student entrepreneurs from across the university to help cover the initial costs of starting a business.

This year, 31 students received funding for 25 startups (some companies had more than one grant winner).

We are delighted to see that entrepreneurialism within the WashU student body is stronger than ever.

—Clifford Holekamp

“These students are all legitimate entrepreneurs and are passionately pursuing their business ideas while also juggling the high demands of academic life,” he said. 

In 2023, the fund expanded its focus, adding annual Follow-On Awards to founders who have flourished since their initial grant and plan to carry the business forward full-time after graduating.

For the 2024–2025 academic year, those two winners were Jacob Tubis, JD 2025, founder of Byte’M mini-brownies, and Sandy Montgomery, BSBE/MSBE 2025, cofounder of CERV, a medical device company seeking to improve monitoring of cervical dilation during labor. Each was awarded $5,000 for their startup.

“Jacob Tubis of Byte’M mini-brownies, and Sandy Montgomery, of CERV, are pursuing very different kinds of ventures, but both have made impressive traction since winning their initial Holekamp Seed Fund Awards, and both have demonstrated that there is significant opportunity for them to pursue their ventures post-graduation,” Holekamp said.

The 2025–2026 Holekamp Seed Fund awards are open to any WashU student who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and who will be a junior, senior, or graduate student during the coming academic year. Applicants must have 25% or greater ownership of a startup.

They will have the chance to present to one of four fund directors, who will vote to approve the $1,000 awards on a rolling basis until May 1 or until funds for that year are exhausted.

Students who have previously won a $1,000 award, have graduated in the past year, and plan to work full-time on their business may apply for the Follow-On Awards by emailing Villhard before May 1.

Winners' circle

For the 2024–2025 academic year, the $1,000 winners included Tubis, Montgomery, and these other student entrepreneurs:

• Sergiu Celebidachi, MBA 2025, Ascend
• Elizabeth Buzbee, BS 2024/MSBE 2025, also of CERV
• Wendy Wang and Nick Agostin, both BA 2024, Heart EDU
• Jeffrey Clorissaint, MBA 2026, Melanted
• Rohan Kamalakantha, BSBA 2025, and Harry Gao, BSCS 2024, Uni Link
• Michael Lee and Fortuna Kadima, both EN 2026, Connect
• Zach Cohen, JD/MBA 2026, Shocker
• Jack Zhang, BSBA 2026, Eagleland
• Arjun Mathur, BA 2026, Nexus Labs
• Jared Mantell, BSCS 2026, Comet
• John “Mac” Barnes, BSCS 2026, and Lucia Umbreit, BSChE 2026, WUWA
• Diana Donoslovic, MBA 2025, RacketZone
• Justin Lapid, Flex MBA 2026, CarePath
• Rami Hahami, BSBA 2026, Dorm Clean
• Joe Poole, BSBA 2026, Brain Battle
• Harry Feng, and Christien Wong, both BUCS 2027, QuintinAI
• Zoe Hsu, BA/MSCS 2025, Echo Sync
• Brad Raizner, BSBA 2026, Portal
• Jack Junker, MBA 2026, The Board Project
• Myan Sudharsanan BSCS/MSCE 2025, SchematicSense
• James Njue, MBA 2026, Centurion
• Hamasa Ebadi, PhD 2028, NeuroFore
• Austin Perez, BSCS 2026, Quture
• Zariah Taylor, BFA 2027, The Hair Vault