Isenberg Students Win Venture Funding at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy Awards Night

“It was a moment where opportunity and preparation paid off,” said finance major Noah Faverman ’26 about his soap-making venture’s first-place win on November 14, when the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship held its annual Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy Awards night at the Old Chapel. “I was ecstatic winning the Executive Pitch. There was a lot of talent at the I&E Award Night, and it was truly surreal taking home first place!”

Faverman’s venture—a company called Nate’s Natty, which seeks to create quality, affordable, sustainable soaps—was one of six led by Isenberg students who took home funding for ventures they worked on for the Berthiaume Center’s pitch competitions during the fall semester. The Executive Pitch, which used long-form boardroom-style pitches to impress judges with startups’ business models, was actually swept by Isenberg students.

Faverman worked with fellow finance major Nathan Simon on Nate’s Natty. “I think it truly was how well we executed the pitch. Nathan and I put a lot of time and thought into our presentation and spent countless nights rehearsing. When it came time, we proved to the judges we had a strong upcoming venture and backed it through rehearsal and excellent presentation skills.”

In addition to Faverman’s first prize, which earned him $8,000, the second-place winner, Caitlin Sullivan ’24, won $4,000 for a venture called Rota. An honorable mention prize worth $2,000 went to MBA student Bruna Passos Amaral ’24, and two honorable mention awards of $500 went to Daniel Jaffe ’26 and Shreya Karri ’23.

Carpool, a venture by Isenberg undergraduate Jad El Aouji '26 and OIM PhD student Amir El Moghrabi, was the winner of the Hult Prize: Unlimited, which is a year-long entrepreneurship competition that works to address the annual Call to Action through the creation of high-impact startups. This call to action is in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. The venture, which looks to cut transportation costs across the UMass community, was the winner of the $8,000 first place prize and will be moving on to the Hult Prize Regional Summit to represent Isenberg and the university at the next level. An Isenberg student also won second place in the Hult Prize: Unlimited. Kurstin Burnham ’24, an operations and information management major, won second place and $1,000 for a venture called LEAP, which looks to enhance environmentally and socially responsible decision-making within consumerism and fashion through a web extension app. Burnham’s team consisted of Hannah Lee, a managerial economics major, and Ian McCarron, a management major. Grant Cooney ’25, a management major, won honorable mention in the same competition.

Funding was also awarded to the winners of the fall Tech Challenge—over the course of the evening, checks for a total of $40,000 went to student venture teams.

When asked how Nate’s Natty will use the prize money, Faverman noted, “We had a very in-depth road map that demonstrated all of the steps we were planning to take in the future. This prize money will be a major catalyst in developing our display packaging for retail stores, marketing expansion, as well as expanding our product selection. Stay tuned!”

Click here for more details about the Berthiaume Center’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy Awards.