Who will outlast the competition and take home the grand prize?
Startup Survivor is a 4-month Accelerator and Pitch Competition awarding $85,000 to McMaster University students and alumni with the best business ideas. The program runs annually throughout the Summer Term. To support the growth of these startups, McMaster and The Forge awards $55,000 to the 10 teams while mentoring them through intense business and technical challenges. At the Pitch Competition, finalists will deliver a 5-minute pitch to the audience and esteemed judging panel. After deliberations, we’ll crown our winners and award the remaining $30,000 in our prize pool!
Meet The Final Five
DOT
Pitching: Aaron Roodhart (DeGroote School of Business)
DOT is a paper journal that blends the timeless experience of pen and paper with the power of digital memory. Using embedded NFC tags, any page can seamlessly link to photos, videos, songs, or files, letting users capture their full story without giving up the tactile joy of handwriting.
Innovo Surgica
Pitching: Manvir Bhangu (Faculty of Health Sciences)
Co-Founders: Yazdaan Ahmad (Faculty of Engineering), Dr. Aleksa Cenic
Innovo Surgica is developing a patent-pending surgical tool designed to make spinal decompression surgery safer. In roughly 10% of cases, patients experience cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks caused by accidental damage to the dura mater—a protective layer around the spinal cord—during bone removal. These leaks can lead to serious, long-term complications. Innovo Surgica’s modified Kerrison Rongeur addresses this issue by shielding the dura and standardizing the separation of bone, helping prevent these tears and reduce surgical risks. The tool is currently undergoing prototyping, intellectual property development, and validation testing.
NeuroSpritz
Pitching: Lucas Monter (Faculty of Science)
NeuroSpritz is transforming how brain activity is measured. Right now, EEG tests—used to diagnose conditions like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s—can take nearly an hour per patient, leading to long wait times in most Ontario clinics. NeuroSpritz’s new technology uses wireless, spray-on sensors and smart software to cut setup time by up to 80%. This makes brain testing faster, more comfortable, and more accessible for both patients and researchers.
O2Link
Pitching: Sajroop Mann (Faculty of Health Sciences)
Co-Founder: Selay Momand (Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science Alumni)
O2Link is redefining the standard of care for oxygen therapy by replacing outdated flowmeters with a personalized, data-driven system that improves patient safety, streamlines clinical workflows, and reduces hospital costs. Unlike current solutions that blindly automate the system, O2Link strives to ensure correct dosing through the use of multiple integrated respiratory metrics.
Wonder Guard
Pitching: Manak Bajaj (Faculty of Engineering)
Wonder Guard is an AI-powered catheter adaptor system that transforms passive urine collection into proactive infection monitoring. By integrating low-cost electrochemical biosensors directly into the catheter workflow, the device continuously tracks bacterial load, pH, and temperature in real time. Data is wirelessly transmitted to an app, where machine learning algorithms provide predictive insights and early alerts before symptoms appear. This approach enables faster clinical intervention, reduces hospital-acquired infections, and improves both patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.
The Final Showdown
These five startups will pitch their hearts out in front of a live audience and a panel of expert judges. After deliberations, three winners will be crowned — taking home $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000 respectively. But for all five teams, the spotlight is a chance to spark partnerships, attract investors, and take their ventures to the next level.
Whether you’re a founder, investor, student, or startup enthusiast, this is your front-row seat to the future. Come cheer on the finalists, network with innovators, and witness the next wave of McMaster-born startups.
Register now: startupsurvivor.eventbrite.ca
Check out the excitement from last year
Hear From Previous Participants
Deena Al-Sammak, Co-Founder of Power of Play
The Startup Survivor program has been a game-changer for Power of Play! Within 4 months, this program turned our idea into a tangible product with an early customer base and a market strategy ready to drive us to success. Winning the competition isn’t just about securing funding to execute our plan—it’s about the incredible growth we experienced along the way. Startup Survivor took Power of Play to new heights, boosted awareness for our product and company, and connected us with an incredible network of inspiring, like-minded innovators. Without hesitation, I wholeheartedly recommend this program to every student entrepreneur with a bright idea and the drive to make it a reality!
Evan Ferreira, Co-Founder of Local Reach
After going through four different accelerators, I can confidently say The Forge was as the best. In just four months, I went from not even knowing what “venture capital” meant to pitching my business to investors and securing offers. The Forge’s top-tier mentorship and supportive community didn’t just teach me the skills I needed—it completely transformed my perspective on entrepreneurship. Whether you’re a first-time founder or a seasoned entrepreneur, joining The Forge is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.
Bohdan Mozharivsky, Co-Founder of Winged Wheelchairs
For a team of aspiring yet relatively inexperienced student entrepreneurs, The Forge Start-Up Survivor program is exactly what we needed to develop our medical device start-up. All aspects of the program were critical to helping us expand on our innovation: the mentors were very experienced and helpful with their advice; The workshops were great skill-building experiences and the pitch competition in November was a great way to wrap up this journey.
In addition to helping develop our start-up, the Start-Up Survivor program through experiential learning helped all four members of the team develop key skills and grow as entrepreneurs and innovators.
Hunter Csetri, Co-Founder of Respyra Technologies
Being a part of The Forge through the Startup Survivor program this past year has been an incredible experience for my fellow co-founders and I. We’ve wanted to be a part of this program for years, especially after seeing so many people we knew from McMaster’s startup ecosystem be accepted in 2023. Having now completed the program ourselves, we understand why so many people wanted to be a part of this, and why it offers such a unique learning experience for new founders.
If you’re someone considering applying to Startup Survivor, the first thing I would tell you is that this program moves FAST. There’s always new stakeholders to interview, new prototypes to test, more market information to gather, and more pitch practice to do. There’s never a dull moment. But as fast-paced as Startup Survivor can be, it was never overwhelming. I always felt like we had a solid support system to fall back on, whether that was our fellow student co-founders or the amazing team of mentors that The Forge has put together. They really care about helping you succeed and there are so many resources on offer that will help get your business where you want it to go.
The program helped us validate our initial business idea, conduct rapid prototyping with stakeholders, craft a business plan and create a pitch for potential investors. After months of hard work, determination and a little bit of luck, my co-founders and I were honoured to have been chosen as one of 5 program finalists, ultimately placing third at the 2024 Startup Survivor Pitch Competition. While the prize money is certainly helpful, the most valuable thing about Startup Survivor is the people – the mentors who helped guide us, the other founders who inspired us, and the connections we’ve made that will help our business grow in the years to come.