Contest winners prove entrepreneurship is open to all at CSULB

Students’ vision to use technology to help aspiring healthcare professionals have better conversations with patients led to the formation of their start-up, CuraVoice, and engagement with Beach programs cultivating entrepreneurial thinking.

With two CSULB graduate computer science alumni on its roster, CuraVoice is proposing to develop an AI tool simulating patients’ voices. The team won top honors at this year’s Sunstone Innovation Challenge, a business planning competition. Members also sat in on Apostle Incubator gatherings that focus on the ins and outs of starting a business.

“It was very challenging for us, but the IIE (Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship) program really helped us understand what components a business has,” said Shrey Dharmendra Modi '24, one of CuraVoice’s computer science alumni.

The Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship runs the Innovation Challenge and Apostle Incubator. These and other programs, including College of Business courses, can help students from any academic background think like a company founder.

“The programs that we offer, such as the Sunstone Innovation Challenge, offer students from across campus, regardless of discipline, the opportunity to take their expertise and experience to see what it is like to create a business, non-profit or social enterprise,” IIE director Wade Martin said, noting that students from six CSULB colleges participated in the 2025 challenge.

Experiencing Innovation

CuraVoice’s three members are Modi, graduate computer science alumnus Rahul Deo Vishwakarma '24 and UC Irvine doctoral pharmacy student Sakhi Patel. The Innovation Challenge’s final round is a Shark Tank-like exhibition during which teams present their plans to local business leaders. The win came with $15,000 and access to professional services.

CuraVoice’s technology, still in development, is intended to emulate the vocal characteristics of patients experiencing distinct ailments, such as chest pain, Patel said. Users would be able to access CuraVoice via the likes of laptops and cell phones.

“We wanted to make sure that students get a real feel for what they may be dealing with,” Patel said.

Another successful team, Rise and Unwind, also exemplifies how uniting people with distinct skills is essential to entrepreneurship. The all-undergraduate team, composed of three business students and a College of the Arts design student, combined their talents and shared interest in creating a new kind of gathering place to propose a 24-hour business that cyclically morphs from a cafe into a bar. The team’s planning involved researching Southern California market conditions to scout potential locations and designing a layout for a bar-cafe hybrid.

“It was much more educational doing the entrepreneurial process, rather than just doing it in a classroom,” design student Jessica Voskanian said.

The colleges of art, business and engineering organized the inaugural competition as an interdisciplinary endeavor in 2011. Sunstone Management, Inc., an investment firm with offices in Irvine, has sponsored the competition since 2019.

“Sunstone is proud to sponsor the annual Sunstone Innovation Challenge at CSULB, where we continue to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and thinkers,” Sunstone Chief Executive John Keisler said. “This partnership reflects our belief in the power of public institutions and private capital working together to fuel innovation."

Open Access

The Innovation Challenge is embedded into CSULB’s approach to business education. Students enrolled in the Day-Time MBA program focus much of their second-year studies on entrepreneurship and are required to enter the competition.

The College of Business also has courses for undergraduates who want to learn about start-ups. The two-course Apostle Enterprise Lab is open to business administration majors and undergrads minoring in entrepreneurship, an option for students majoring in subjects offered by other colleges. The lab and Apostle Incubator were established in 2020 with support from the John Apostle and Helen Apostle Foundation.

“In terms of academic backgrounds, the class is pretty diverse,” said assistant professor of management Ho Wook Shin, noting that design and engineering students can find their way to these classes.

Apostle Incubator welcomes guest speakers to share advice and insights with students and interested members of the public.

CuraVoice members attended incubator sessions, and Modi said sessions on protecting intellectual property and University Library research tools were particularly helpful.

His teammate, Vishwakarma, said his experiences helped him to see technological challenges from the perspectives of prospective customers.

“I started to put myself in their shoes ... it was a real discovery,” he said.