NEW ORLEANS — A retail intelligence startup from the New Orleans area that helps food and beverage brands better understand how their products compete across retailers took first place at the Tulane Innovation Institute’s annual $50K Demo Day pitch competition during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week.
Thrivvy, an AI-powered market intelligence platform designed for consumer packaged goods brands, won $25,000 in award funding on March 11, 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 law firm Stone Pigman and will be fast-tracked for investment consideration by 1834 Ventures, with one finalist set to receive an additional $25,000 investment.
Kimberly Gramm, the David and Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation Officer at the Tulane University Innovation Institute, said the competition reflects the university’s ongoing focus on strengthening the regional startup pipeline.
“New Orleans has talent and ideas. $50K Demo Day showcases the programming that turns aspiring entrepreneurs’ ideas into investable, scalable businesses,” Gramm said. “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 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.”
Today, Thrivvy is 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 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.
Caronna, who also serves as entrepreneur-in-residence and executive director at STartUP Northshore, said ongoing mentorship has played a key role in refining the company’s positioning and investor readiness.
“Entrepreneurship is a constant learning process, no matter how much experience you have,” he said. “The Tulane Innovation Institute mentor team helped sharpen our go-to-market strategy and prepare us for investor conversations.”
Thrivvy’s dedicated mentors include business leaders from across the country: Kevin Bratcher, Michael Lisse, Chris Meaux, Scott Reamer and Jerome Stewart.
The $50K Demo Day competition is open to startups that have received mentorship 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 $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: Guillermo Morales, Paul Daitz and Jeremy Reimann, whose time and expertise have helped support the growth of local startups.
As startups like Thrivvy prepare to launch products, onboard brand partners and enter new markets, the Tulane Innovation Institute will continue supporting the next generation of aspiring entrepreneurs with mentorship, education and funding — helping drive the growth of New Orleans’ emerging innovation economy. Aspiring entrepreneurs in the greater New Orleans area are invited to apply for complimentary one-on-one consultations through the Idea Bank to start their path to the next $50K Demo Day, which will be held during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2027.