A new idea for the healthcare industry wins $100K at Cultivate 269 student pitch contest

Editor’s Note: This story is part of Momentum: The people and companies shaping what’s next, a weekly series that explores new ventures, founder support, and the resources powering entrepreneurship and small businesses across seven counties in Southwest Michigan. This project is sponsored by Southwest Michigan First. Fran Dwight took all the photos.

KALAMAZOO, MI — As he wrapped up his presentation for potential investors, Samuel Marseille spoke with confidence.

He explained what he would do WHEN his fledgling company won $100,000 in start-up money — rather than IF it received the funding.

An hour later, the Western Michigan University graduate student held back tears when he and his company were awarded that amount based on voting by a five-person panel of business people and voting by other WMU students at large. 

“Right now in Kalamazoo, you can dare to dream big,” said Marseille, after thanking Kalamazoo Forward Ventures and Western Michigan University, the private-public partnership that created Cultivate 269, a business pitch contest for WMU students.

On Friday, April 10, 2026, Marseille and his AI-based language-interpretation platform were the winners of the inaugural Cultivate 269 contest. The event invited students to present ideas for new businesses with high growth potential — in a Shark Tank-style format. The pay-off was the chance to win up to $100,000 in start-up funding, courtesy of capital investment firm Kalamazoo Forward Ventures.

Marseille’s endeavor, called Oneshot AI, is a fully automatic language-interpretation system that is built for medical environments. It is HIPAA compliant and uses artificial intelligence to recognize multiple languages and provide fast two-way language translations, including often-complicated medical terminology. That is expected to allow healthcare workers to start treatments with accurate information about a patient’s symptoms, medical history, and drug tolerances. 

That is necessary in situations “where cultural accuracy matters, compliance is mandatory, and every second counts,” according to Marseille.

It is one of many innovative ideas that the contest “cultivated” from burgeoning young entrepreneurs, says Dwayne Powell Jr., chief operating officer of capital investment firm Kalamazoo Forward Ventures.

“We absolutely support entrepreneurs,” Powell said of Kalamazoo’s growing ecosystems for new businesses. “But I believe we’re headed in a direction to support them on another whole level. And Cultivate 269 is a representation of that.”

A standing-room-only audience of about 400 people listened to business “pitches” from nine WMU students, each seeking seed money to start or grow a business with great growth potential.

Cultivate 269 considered ideas from 49 WMU students with the intention of choosing two for funding. The nine students with the most viable ideas pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and the general public on Friday evening at the WMU Student Center. 

The finalists were chosen by a committee that included representatives from WMU, financial institutions, venture capital firms, technology companies, community leaders, and economic development groups. A month-long public vote attracted input from more than 2,000 WMU students.

Voting by the five judges on Friday, April 10, 2026, determined the winner of $75,000 in seed money. Voting by the public determined the winner of another $25,000 in seed money. Marseille’s business won in both scenarios.

What other professionals had to say

“Now is better than any other time would be to come to Kalamazoo and start a business,” said Joshua Gray, chief operating officer of small business consulting firm Room 35. “The most opportunities are here, the most investment that there has ever been concentrated, and some of the most cohesiveness with the different support organizations for entrepreneurs at multiple levels — at the starting stage, to the growing stage, to the acceleration stage, to be able to get connected to people at Google, Amazon, all over. You can get it right here.”

Tanya Thompson, owner of The Aroma Labs, keynoted the event by encouraging new business owners to keep pushing forward. The WMU grad was a struggling single mother when she began selling scented personal care items that she produced in the basement of her home in 2019. She pivoted to sell special fragrances for businesses when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March of 2020. Since then, she has grown the business to include seven locations (from here to Nashville, Tenn.) that allow people to create their own specialized fragrances.

Despite that success, she says she has just started to pay herself a regular salary, and the whole operation was started with her maxing out credit cards and putting 70,000 miles on her car driving back and forth to Grand Rapids to get set up there.

Powell was elated by the attendance of organizations that have the potential to help entrepreneurs. They included representatives of large and small companies as well as the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Southwest Michigan First, Ka-Zoo Angels, the Small Business Development Center, Can-Do Kalamazoo, Black Wall Street Kalamazoo, and the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.

Dr. Remzi Seker, vice president for research and innovation at WMU, says the university is anxious to host events that empower students to move from ideas to real-world solutions.

About the winner

Marseille, age 30, was born in Haiti and speaks four languages. He has worked as an interpreter for about 15 years. The need for his system was demonstrated about eight months ago, he said, when a local hospital called for an interpreter at 1 a.m. and no interpreters were available. The patient who needed to communicate ultimately waited for five hours until one was found.

“That is exactly how I understand this business better than anyone —  because I have lived the situation,” said Marseille, who is completing a master’s degree in International Development Administration at WMU. “And this is the situation that I am trying to help other people get out (of).”

He summarized his pitch on Friday by saying, “I want to have a world where everyone can speak the same language.”

Other innovative ideas

The Cultivate 269 selection committee that chose the nine finalists liked them all, Powell said. They included:

• Volt — a power and utility service tracker that lets homeowners monitor their energy usage and energy costs in real time. With a thermostat-like wall monitor, it translates the usage into dollars and cents “so that monthly utility bills are no longer a surprise.”  Connor Burkett, who is studying product design at WMU (and a member of the Broncos men’s soccer team), says utility service is usually invisible. He says, “Volt makes energy visible.”

• Parisian Dream Desserts — a community-centered bakery that creates handcrafted, visually pleasing desserts with customizable dietary-friendly options. Those include vegan, gluten-free, and sugar-free desserts, so more people can enjoy specialty sweets without feeling excluded,” says company founder Kalea Barnes. Along with being a student and entrepreneur, she is the author of a children’s book, a marketing intern, and a U.S. Army soldier. According to Barnes, “Many bakeries either prioritize aesthetics over flavor or offer limited alternatives for customers with dietary restrictions, allergies, or health-conscious lifestyles. Parisian Dream Desserts fills this gap by providing beautiful, celebration-worthy treats that do not sacrifice quality, inclusivity, or affordability.”

• Dekree — an all-in-one computer compliance platform that is designed to allow Michigan townships to comply with 14 state statutes covering such things as Freedom of Information Act requests, the Open Meetings Act, budgeting, and elections. Company founder Garrett Patnoude says Michigan’s 1,240 townships face lawsuits, fines, and public trust violations. But clerks generally operate with spreadsheets and their memory. Dekree should help them provide faster FOIA responses, properly noticed meetings, and accountable governance. “When a township runs smoothly, the whole community benefits,” according to Patnoude.

• The Deranda Institute — a digital performance platform that can help a busy woman organize and maximize her time — properly allocating time needed for work, for school, for children, for home, and for recuperation. According to founder Dericka S. Bellamy, the platform is being built for ambitious women who are trying to balance work, motherhood, and higher education all at once. “Through the ADEPA Framework, Aspire, Discipline, Execute, Progress, Achieve, the Institute provides repeatable systems that convert ambition into measurable outcomes.” Bellamy began college while still in high school. But after becoming a mother at age 18, she learned to balance work, raising children, and school. She earned an associate’s degree and is working to finish her bachelor’s degree. She says, “I had to learn how to stay organized and keep moving forward in systems that weren’t built for my reality. The Deranda Institute grows from that lived experience.”

• UnionOPS — software that correctly calculates and tracks the pay rates, hours, and benefits for unionized tradespeople as they work on multiple job sites — some union, some not. Caden Boynton, a senior in construction engineering at WMU, said his new company, UnionOPS, could take hours of tedious, sometimes inaccurate, and less-than-uniform administrative work off the shoulders of staffers at trade unions and job sites.

• Thirsty Lemon — an elevated, alcohol-free social lounge for college students and young adults who are seeking connection, creativity, and community without pressure to drink. Founder Chy’ah Smith is a WMU student who began selling lemonade in 2019 as a high school freshman. More recently, she has been working to grow the Thirsty Lemon concept through pop-up events and private events. She says, “I’m building this now because my generation is ready for premium, inclusive social spaces without alcohol at the center.”

• Ground Loop — a smart, dual-purpose extraction and conversion system designed to transform organic waste (specifically spent coffee grounds) into high-quality raw materials, usable as fertilizers and for skincare products. Ground Loop is engineering a versatile device in two forms: a compact version for household use and a high-capacity industrial model for cafes and corporations,” according to founder Genesis Erhabor. “It automates the process of drying, refining, and mixing grounds to create nutrient-dense fertilizer and premium skincare bases at the touch of a button.” Erhabor is an engineering management major at WMU who says, “After seeing the sheer volume of waste generated at the Valley Dining Center and campus Starbucks, my friends and I realized that ‘waste’ is simply a resource waiting for the right system.”

• Volleynet-Subfinder — an app for sports teams to find substitute players, and that allows players to find teams. According to company founder Khang Nguyen, “Teams have dropouts all the time, and people sometimes just want to play a sport for the night spontaneously. What if there’s an app where people can find a match that meets both sides’ desires?” Nguyen, who has played volleyball from high school to college club level, says, “If you’re a team, imagine putting in your highlights and game details, then hop on queue whenever you need a sub, then you swipe on compatible queued-up players, chat with them, and then send out meetup instructions when you’re comfortable.”

Some other things to know:

• Along with its reference to Southwest Michigan’s area code, the “269” represents 2 awards, decided after 6-minute pitches, made by a field of 9 finalists. 

• Kabundant, a community innovation and economic firm led by former Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell, announced it will provide $25,000 to help the other finalists of Cultivate 269 obtain support services. Hopewell, who is a general partner of the 18-month-old Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, announced the investment at Friday’s gathering.

• Kalamazoo will be the location for a $250,000 regional pitch event later this year, conducted by PitchMI, a statewide startup business pitch competition. Pete Martin, director of Portfolio Management at the MSU Research Foundation, announced Friday that the competition will focus on ideas for new AI and software companies. It will be held on Sept. 22, 2026, in Kalamazoo. PitchMI (pronounced Pitch-Me) is intended to “provide serious capital, rigorous evaluation, and meaningful visibility to Michigan’s most promising startups,” according to its website. Information on how to apply and compete has not yet been released.

• Kalamazoo-based pitch competition Startup Zoo continues to host competitions, with the next set for May 15, 2026, at 229 E. Michigan Ave., Suite 335. 

• Judges for the event included: Monica Wheat of Global Ecosystem Architect; Johnnie Turnage of Black Tech Saturdays; Joe Cekola of Imperial Beverage; Bob Wallis of 61 Keys LLC; and David Johnson, director of Technology and Innovation Advancement at WMU.

The award total in Friday’s event makes Cultivate 269 the highest-funded pitch program for students in the state of Michigan, according to Kalamazoo Forward Ventures. The project began taking suggestions from students in March. Finalists were announced late that month and were mentored to help them improve their presentations.