Featuring Radicle Science, TheQwikFix, and Yatiri Bio
We don’t know about you, but we’re still riding the high of Innovation Day 2023. There were so many incredible companies in attendance and the spirit of innovation was evident. Let’s take a deeper look at a few Class of 2023 Cool Companies who were at Petco Park on September 14th, in case you missed it.
Radicle Science is history’s first Proof-as-a-Service company, enabling non-pharmaceuticals to clinically prove their true effects beyond placebo. On a mission to close the proof gap between supplements and pharmaceuticals, the company’s “radical” approach democratizes access to clinical trials.
For the very first time, any natural health product or dietary supplement company can use clinical evidence at every stage of their business to develop the most effective products and make strong, clinically-proven claims, building trust and customer loyalty.
Since launching in 2021, Radicle has conducted clinical trials on 25,000+ Americans for clients ranging from startups to billion-dollar, publicly-traded companies.
Radicle Science at Innovation Day 2023
Founders Dr. Jeff Chen & Pelin Thorogood
Dr. Jeff Chen and Pelin Thorogood met while pursuing parallel missions to prove the potential of non-pharmaceuticals in the health industry. Pelin started a non-profit foundation funding natural medicine trials, while Jeff was leading clinical trials at UCLA. Both started to realize that the traditional clinical trial approach was slow and costly and the small scale and homogeneous populations of those studies would not help achieve their mission of creating personalized medicines that were affordable and accessible to all. Radicle Science was born from their desire to create a fundamentally new approach to research.
Radicle Science has been honored as a Fast Company World Changing Idea, a Top 10 US “Tech Innovator” by KPMG, a Rising Star in Consumer Wellness by UCSF and, of course, a Connect Cool Company.
Pelin Thorogood | The Radicle Proof Engine™
Pelin Thorogood, Co-founder and Executive Chairwoman, discusses how with the Radicle Proof Engine™, history's first Proof-as-a-Service offering, we enable non-pharmaceuticals to clinically prove their true effects beyond placebo.
TheQwikFix at Innovation Day 2023
The future of real estate buying and selling is here! TheQwikFix is a nationwide general contractor – without any tools. Using Artificial Intelligence, TheQwikFix turns home inspection reports into repair quotes in 24 hours or less. Real estate agents often spend up to a week coordinating multiple estimates from multiple contractors after receiving a home inspection report. With TheQwikFix, they simply upload any home inspection report to the platform and receive an itemized repair quote within 24 hours, allowing them to negotiate repair credits quickly and focus on their transaction. The company also has a network of licensed contractors ready to complete all of the home repairs they quoted with the click of a button. TheQwikFix is all about revolutionizing the home repair process.
With the recent developments in AI and the future of technology impacting every single industry, TheQwikFix is bringing cutting edge technology directly to the real estate industry, which historically lags in innovation. Their software will eventually allow ANY homeowner to snap a quick picture, describe an issue and ultimately be connected with a local contractor to fix the problem for the price presented to them.
As a real estate investor, CEO and Founder Jeremy Henley saw first-hand the incredible hurdles that come with finding, hiring and working with contractors, especially when buying a home. It took weeks to price out repairs after receiving a home inspection report, and contractors didn’t want to come out to a property to estimate work they may not actually get. He was determined to take the friction out of this process, which led him to launch TheQwikFix. With a corporate background in selling software and years of experience buying and selling homes, Jeremy found himself uniquely qualified to solve this huge problem in the real estate transaction process.
By quickly and easily pricing home repairs and connecting contractors to work, TheQwikFix is taking the friction out of the real estate transaction process for agents, home buyers and home sellers, all while providing enormous value to contractors on its platform.
Jeremy Henley, CEO
What is TheQwikFix?
We turn home inspection reports into quotes for repairs in 24 hours or less. We even have licensed contractors ready to do the work!
Yatiri Bio integrates cutting edge technologies in proteomics, machine learning and organoid biology to blaze a new path in therapeutic discovery and revolutionize translational medicine. Their proprietary patient dataset and corresponding clinical samples produce models that mimic complex disease biology and drug efficacy. The Yatiri Bio platform expedites drug discovery, reduces risk in clinical trials, and delivers novel therapies in the fight against cancer.
Yatiri Bio approaches oncology with a whole system perspective, incorporating patient data, micro-environment, organoids, and cellular systems to predict patient outcomes more accurately. Their cutting-edge technologies and machine learning pipelines not only generate high-quality data but also turn that data into actionable knowledge that will guide clinical decisions.
Yatiri Bio at Innovation Day 2023
Pilgrim Jackson, CEO
Over a decade of work in the pharmaceutical industry made it abundantly clear that the current drug discovery pipeline is broken. Over 95% of oncology drugs that make it all the way to the clinic fail to achieve FDA approval. This failure rate is what drives the $2B drug development price tag and is the key point for innovation to have the most impact. By taking a step back and looking at the system as a whole, Yatiri Bio is determined to do better for the biotechnology industry, the healthcare ecosystem, and most importantly, the patients.
Yatiri Bio is a company driven by high-quality science that will directly impact patient lives. They believe ex-vivo clinical trials will revolutionize the way drug discovery is done. They are excited to be part of a vibrant entrepreneurial environment in San Diego.
At Connect, our mission is to help San Diego’s incredible startup companies grow and succeed. Stay tuned for more upcoming spotlights!