NEW ORLEANS – Thrivvy, an AI-powered market intelligence platform designed for consumer-packaged goods brands, took first place at the Tulane Innovation Institute’s annual $50K Demo Day pitch competition during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week.
Thrivvy won $25,000 in non-dilutive funding at the March 11 Demo Day after pitching alongside nine other startups before an audience of investors, entrepreneurs, and supporters at the A.B. Freeman School of Business.
LumaWave, which is developing portable photoacoustic sensing technology for real-time deep-tissue health monitoring, took second place and received $15,000.
Tahda Baby, a culturally responsive maternal care navigation platform, earned third place and $10,000.
The $500 People’s Choice Award went to Meli, an AI-powered estate-planning tool for financial advisors and their clients. The 2026 competition was funded by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.
The top three finishers will also receive legal support from Stone Pigman and will be fast-tracked for investment consideration by 1834 Ventures, with one finalist set to receive an additional $25,000 investment.
“New Orleans has talent and ideas. $50K Demo Day showcases the programming that turns aspiring entrepreneurs’ ideas into investable, scalable businesses,” said Kimberly Gramm, PhD, David and Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation Officer at the Tulane University Innovation Institute. “Mentorship from our Green Wave Innovation Network is part of our support formula. When founders commit to that process, you will see entrepreneurial success and traction.”
Thrivvy: From Pivot to Platform
Thrivvy founder and CEO Vincenzo “Cenzo” Caronna has participated in two cohorts of the Innovation Institute’s Startup Team Mentoring program. He first pitched at $50K Demo Day in 2024 with a consumer-facing grocery price-comparison app, then pivoted after identifying a larger unmet need among food and beverage brands.
“As we started building the platform and speaking with brands, we realized the same data powering the consumer experience revealed a much bigger opportunity,” Caronna said. “Many companies had limited real-time visibility into how their products were competing across retailers — not just sales results after the fact, but the pricing, promotions, assortment, and distribution conditions driving those outcomes. That was the aha moment.”
He said that Thrivvy is now focused on helping emerging and mid-sized brands monitor competitive performance at the store level so they can price more strategically, identify expansion opportunities, and respond more quickly to market shifts. The company plans to launch its platform and begin onboarding its first brand partners in the coming months, with a longer-term goal of supporting thousands of growing brands navigating increasingly complex retail environments.
“Entrepreneurship is a constant learning process, no matter how much experience you have,” said Caronna, who also serves as Entrepreneur in Residence and Executive Director at STartUP Northshore. “The Tulane Innovation Institute mentor team helped sharpen our go-to-market strategy and prepare us for investor conversations.”
How the Tulane Demo Day Program Works
The $50K Demo Day Competition is open to startups that have participated in the Institute’s year-long Startup Team Mentoring program or received multiple sessions from the Green Wave Innovation Network (GWIN), a group of 109 Tulane alumni, parents, and local executives who volunteer their time and expertise to support early-stage ventures.
The competing startups represented sectors including healthcare, defense technology, fashion commerce, housing, and consumer goods. Prior to the event, all finalists received pitch coaching from Aaron Foss, a serial entrepreneur, investor, and three-time $50K Demo Day coach.
The six-member judging panel included Michael Acks of RMC Capital, Kwamena Aidoo of Corridor Ventures, Lindsey Navarro of El Centro Inc., Evan Nicoll of 1834 Ventures, startup advisor Bong Suh, and Rob Tucci of the Texas Halo Fund. Pitches were evaluated on business uniqueness, scalability, team expertise, clarity, and path to revenue.
In attendance were past first-place winners Informuta (2024) and Cleaved Diagnostics (2025), both of which have since opened laboratories at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center. Informuta later received a $125,000 investment from Tulane Ventures, while Cleaved Diagnostics continued to advance through Startup Team Mentoring.
Prior to the awards ceremony, the Tulane Innovation Institute also introduced the inaugural Green Wave Innovation Network Mentor Awards, recognizing three volunteers whose time and expertise have helped support the growth of local startups
