Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. and the Queens Economic Development Corporation have announced the 15 finalists in the 2024 Queens Tech + Innovation Challenge, a five-month instruction-and-funding competition.
A panel of business experts selected the finalists — three each in five distinct categories — from a pool of 132 applications. These finalists will make live pitches to a second panel of judges as they vie for $20,000 grants in each category at Resorts World New York City on May 8. More information on them follows.
Consumer Tech
Truffle Health Inc. (Rui Maki + Kristján Ari Tómasson) helps patients understand and reduce their medical bills by detecting errors and overcharges.
GPTGC (Taha Mohamad + Jesse Strauss) uses AI to transform legal service access and lawyer discovery.
Neuemoon Health (Michelle Ng) helps women treat endometriosis, fibroids, and other menstruation-related health issues.
Enterprise Tech
TheraMotive (Lola Omishore) designs, builds, and delivers AI-powered physical therapy.
Taperk (Uyen Nguyen) offers a one-tap loyalty program to earn rewards while merchants can decrease checkout wait time, respond to consumers, and generate sales.
MabLab (Skye Lam + Vienna Sparks) produces accurate, affordable, and easy-to-use, 5-in-1 test strips to screen for the five deadliest lacing agents in recreational drugs.
Sustainability
Afterlife Ag Inc. (Winson Wong + Sierra Alea) upcycles food waste to grow fresh and sustainable mushrooms. The company, which strives to reduce landfill waste while also feeding populations, currently works with more than 35 customers in NYC, supplying 15 types of mushrooms.
Yeong Zero (Vivian Lee) offers planet-friendly home goods and lifestyle products without the plastic waste that burdens the environment.
Esger (Advait Raykar, Aparajita Thakker, Eesha Khanna + Ken He) maintains an AI platform to help companies measure, document, and improve their supply chains’ social and environmental impact.
Community
I Am Yogi Studies (Felicia Robertson) blends Yoga techniques, education, culture, and empowerment.
On the Easel (Justin Kinney) is a community arts center that hosts after-school art clubs, painting-and-craft nights, and more extensive art courses.
Bella’s Day Care LLC (Shanelle Pierre) is a Woodside space for children (six weeks to 12 years) that provides alternative programs to bridge the gap in mismatch learning and teaching styles.
Food & Beverage
Resist Nutrition Inc. (Drew Lederman + Emily Cohen) makes blood sugar balance easy and delicious through all natural, plant-based, and doctor-recommended protein bars with a clinically-backed stable blood sugar response.
Little Chef Little Cafe (Diana Leah Manalang) is a Long Island City-based cafe that provides snacks, meals, and drinks as well as catering for all events.
Huwa (Bilal Othman) produces and distributes sustainably harvested olive oil rooted in Palestinian farming practices.
Offered to borough-based entrepreneurs in search of funds to launch or grow their startups, QTIC provides workshops on such topics as operations, marketing, and financial statements, one-on-one consultations, and in-person networking events. Now in its second year, the program is a continuation of the Queens StartUP! Business Plan Competition, which QEDC administered annually from 2006 to 2023.
“Congratulations to this year’s finalists and best of luck as you pursue your business dreams,” stated QEDC Executive Director Seth Bornstein. “I’d like to remind those who didn’t advance that they can try again next year.”
QEDC and the Borough President’s Office administer QTIC. The sponsors are Resorts World New York City, AT&T, Patrick B. Jenkins & Associates, and JetBlue Ventures.
The Vivian
As part of the ceremony, QEDC’s Bornstein gave the 2024 Vivian Award to Central Astoria LDC Executive Director Marie Torniali. The prestigious recognition — awarded annually to a woman who helped business development in Queens — is named after Vivian Meyers, who ran Gotham Realty for several decades. Vivian’s mother, Gladys Mills, founded the Long Island City-based real estate company in 1944. These days, Vivian’s daughter, Sarah Cohen, is in charge of the family-run, three-generation, women-owned, 80-year-old operation.
Torniali, who was born in France, but moved to Astoria as a child, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Queens College in 1986. Soon thereafter, she got an entry level job at Central Astoria, where she’s been ever since. The Executive Director since 2003, her resume includes dining promotions, cultural events, outdoor festivals, tree lightings, concerts, movies, graffiti-removal, business development, and even the restoration of the Steinway Landmarked Clock.
Caption: Some of the 2024 QTIC finalists celebrate at Flushing Town Hall on March 28. QEDC Board President Ben Guttmann is at far left with Sarah Liu, the Deputy Director for Innovation, and Exeutive Director Seth Bornstein.
Image: Victor Prado