14 May Bold Ideas Built at IU: Meet the Student Founders Taking the Stage at the 2026 IU Founders and Funders Network Venture Summit
With the 2026 IU Founders & Funders Network Venture Summit now just eight days away, IU Ventures is pleased to announce the full lineup of student founders set to present at the IU Innovates Student Startup Showcase on Thursday, May 21 at Henke Hall at Memorial Stadium, Indiana University.
From radiation-hardened chips for outer space to a vibe coding platform built for non-technical founders, this year’s student presenters reflect the depth and range of entrepreneurial talent developing across IU’s campuses.
Meet the Student Founders
The following student founders will be presenting their startups at the event. Each represents a bold idea backed by hard work, IU mentorship and a drive to build something that matters.
Siddh Akolia recently graduated from the Kelley School of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation. His venture, Viper, is an AI-powered hedge fund for concert tickets that analyzes over 400,000 live listings to surface mispriced inventory and capture spreads through event-driven price discovery, built and operated within Nexus Partners.
Trevor Peyton is a PhD candidate at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, where his research centers on advanced computing systems. His startup, ArrayFold, develops specialized radiation-hardened chips capable of AI processing, post-quantum cryptography and general-purpose computing for demanding environments such as outer space.
Girish Saraswathipura, Saai Vignesh Premanand, and Rohan Kottamasu are three Indiana University recent graduates who each bring a distinct discipline to the table: Girish with an M.S. in Data Science from Luddy, Sai with an M.S. in Computer Science from Luddy, and Rohan with a B.S. in Business from Kelley. Together, they co-founded Deep Variance, a company building the optimization layer for AI infrastructure that helps teams get more performance out of the hardware they already own by improving how training and inference workloads run across existing GPU stacks — reducing costs without requiring a full stack replacement.
Victor Schultz recently earned his Bachelor of Science in Comprehensive Design from IU’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design as part of the Class of 2026. His business, Victor’s Vintage, designs and manufactures hard-to-find replacement parts for antique cars, drawing on over seven years of hands-on restoration experience with a primary focus on vintage Cadillacs.
Eli Serrano recently earned his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Indiana University’s College of Arts + Sciences with a minor in Philosophy, bringing a creative and interdisciplinary lens to technology education. His platform, Vovy AI, is a vibe-code education platform — described commonly as “Duolingo for vibe coding” — that teaches non-technical founders how to build with AI, taking anyone from idea to live product with no coding experience required.
Carter Vermilion is a sophomore at the Kelley School of Business pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Entrepreneurship. His platform, PiranhaPacks, is an online mystery pack marketplace where customers receive one professionally graded trading card slab paired with an animated digital reveal experience, delivering transparent value and strong unit economics at scale.
Aspen Villas recently graduated from the Kelley School of Business, where she earned her Master of Science in Management Consulting with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Her invention, PilliPop, is a child-lock-equipped phone accessory that allows users to discreetly and securely carry medications or small daily essentials — a concept that earned her top honors at the 2026 Vernon Clapp IDEA Competition.
Sophie Wang is a first-year MBA student at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where she is specializing in Startup Fundamentals. Her venture, Humanize, is a creative consulting firm that combats burnout, disengagement and cultural fragmentation by designing story-art installations that engage employees and transform workplace culture.
In addition to the featured presenters, the following student entrepreneurs will be on-site to showcase their businesses:
Gage Pratt, AeroBib; Liam Telford, Balls No Nuts; Nabeel Rabie, Lavé; Jack Wax, The Handless Handle; Kaelyn Flanary, Carefree Crimson; Brendan Cassidy and Reese Boecker, Phylax; Dikshitha K. M., Preetham R. R. & Jahnavi Vemuri, Resonix; Niousha Eslahchi, BendBond; Ja’Niya Smith, Miss CEO Essentials; and Lucy Ruh, Rhuby.
What they’re saying
“Every one of these founders started with an idea and figured out the rest. Our job at IU Innovates is simple: make sure they know where to start, and that they can always access the right resource at the right time. Watching them take the stage on May 21 is proof that it’s working,” said Julie Heath, Executive Director, IU Innovates.
“Resting inside the nearly 800,000 living IU alumni network is a world-class venture ecosystem,” said Tony Armstrong, president and CEO of IU Ventures. “The Summit is a chance to mobilize that ecosystem in service to students, faculty, and alumni founders and funders alike.”
Additional information about the Summit and a complete list of speakers and activities can be found on the IU Ventures website.
About IU Innovates
Launched in Fall 2023, IU Innovates is a university-wide initiative to support and advance Indiana University entrepreneurs through student startup incubation hubs, sponsorship of entrepreneurship resources, and impact storytelling.
About IU Ventures
IU Ventures invests in and supports IU-affiliated early-stage companies. Its investment programs include the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund, the IU Angel Network and the Innovate Indiana Fund. It further supports IU founders through the IU Founders and Funders Network. Each program takes a unique approach to accelerate and support the positive impacts that entrepreneurs affiliated with IU already achieve across the world.