2022

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Coach: Bob Vogel
Peer: Lindsay Tabas (’18)
Social: parkavelabs.com

Venture Description

Borne out of frustration over poorly run meetings, UnDelay helps teams avoid common pitfalls. With the goal of helping anyone to run an efficient meeting, this online software-as-a-service empowers everyone in the meeting, regardless of location, to keep things on topic and on target.

About the Founder

Michael has been a software developer for eight years and correspondingly has spent plenty of time in meetings. He has leveraged his engineering skills to analyze meeting ineffectiveness and create a tool to make teams more productive and regain valuable time. Michael hopes for more time in which to bike, sail, and build his houseplant collection.

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Coach: Matt Pincus
Peer: Sam Fischer (’19)

Venture Description

Roots of Resilience supports Jewish youth and their peers in cultivating and maintaining strong resilience and mental health. This new venture will address this issue on a national level using research-backed methods and practices.

About the Founder

Sam (he/him) is a Philadelphia-based educator and facilitator. He serves as Repair the World’s Director of National Partnerships, working towards building and equipping a broad coalition of Jewish organizations to engage in social justice through relationship building, volunteering, and education.

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Coach: Amy Kaissar
Peer: Rory Michelle Sullivan (’18)
Social: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Lev-Ukrainian-relief

Venture Description

Lev of Leningrad, a comedy-drama, tells the true story of Lev and Marina Furman, Jewish refusniks who were denied the right to emigrate from the former Soviet Union. The playwright’s family are longtime family friends of the Furmans, who now reside in Philadelphia, and their remarkable journey was the inspiration for the play. Lev of Leningrad received a staged reading at the Fulton Theatre’s inaugural ‘Stories of Diversity’ Festival in 2021. The next performance will be a staged reading in Philadelphia to raise relief funds those in Marina’s home country, Ukraine.

About the Founder

Noah is an emerging playwright. He spent five years working as an analyst on the commodities desk at Susquehanna International Group (SIG). While there he wrote his first play, Lev of Leningrad. Noah lives in center city with his fiancée, Colleen.

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Coach: Scott Aronow
Peer: David Fine (’11)
Social: website, facebook, instagram

Venture Description

Rhonda is the co-owner of Second Daughter Baking Co. a Philadelphia-based online bakery she created with her sister, Mercedes, after they both lost their jobs due to the pandemic. In 2021, the bakery won a Best of Philly award for their brownies and in 2022, the sisters were James Beard Award semifinalists in the category of Outstanding Baker. The bakery is currently run out of a commercial kitchen in the BOK Building and operating exclusively on a pre-order basis.

About the Founder

Rhonda is a classically trained chef-turned-baker and graduate of The Culinary Institute of America. She has a bachelors degree in culinary and hospitality management and five years of experience in Philadelphia’s restaurant industry. Rhonda’s fascination with pastry was the spark that led to opening Second Daughter Baking Co. in 2021.

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Coach: Rebecca Bar
Peer: Molly Wernick (’13)

Venture Description

What We Never Expected is a memoir about Lizzy’s experience having her first child at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and navigating parenthood, postpartum depression and anxiety in a world that presented an entirely new set of challenges. This story is raw, heartfelt, sometimes funny, and always honest.

About the Founder

Lizzy is a journalist, mom, wife and lover of words. She is passionate about sharing stories as a way to connect, find common ground, and pursue a better world.

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Coach: Carolyn Hochstadter
Peer: Ariella Werden-Greenfield (’15)
Social: website,  facebook, twitter, instagram, LinkedIn

Venture Description

Faces of the Few: Peering Through as a Jew is a forthcoming coffee table book and accompanying web experience which showcases the work of Jewish artists of all backgrounds, lineages and ethnicities. The positive images serve to dispel entrenched stereotypes and begin a collective conversation about what a Jew ‘should’ look like.

About the Founder

Issa Kabeer is a special education teacher. A perennial student, he holds his Doctorate of Ministry as well as degrees in Peace and Conflict Resolution and in Animation. He specializes in the fields of interfaith dialogue, spirituality and diplomacy.

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Coach: Carolyn Hochstadter
Peer: Danielle Abrams (’19)
Social: zoepeninabaker.net

Venture Description

Zoe’s venture is a seasonal Jewish art residency that will support deep learning, community building, and professional development for professional artists working with Jewish themes.

About the Founder

Zoe (they/them) is an artist, curator, and Jewish arts educator exploring themes of memory, ritual, and Jewish culture through community-centered social practice. They are deeply invested in creating spaces that cultivate excitement for inquiry, and a sense of play through making, talking, and always eating. Zoe graduated with their Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, where they were awarded the Louis Schwarz and Elaine Friedman Schwartz Memorial Fund Award in Jewish Studies and a Sachs Grant for Arts Innovation to continue work on their ongoing project, “Calling Home.”