The group of startups below passed the Big Problem Challenge by targeting markets that, in one way or another, are stuck in the past, with status quo practices that hold businesses back.
In Challenge #2, 42 startups participated, and 20 passed this test. For the startups that didn’t move on in this round, the main issue was either 1) they never detailed the problem, instead jumping right ahead to the solution, or 2) their description of the problem was confusing, unbelievable, or both.
The 20 startups that passed the test all clearly detailed the problem they solve in terms that non-experts can understand. They illustrated the scope of the problem, and they gave evidence for why the problem they target will continue to get worse if it’s not addressed. The four startups featured today operate in very different markets, but each one focuses on the need to discover new workflows and businesses to meet modern challenges.
New workflows, from hospitality to mapping to drug discovery
| Startup | The problem they solve | Why it matters |
| Exodigo | Companies and governments spend more than $100 billion annually on excavation and drilling to discover what’s underground. But the maps they rely on are incomplete and inaccurate, leading to spiraling costs from change orders and redesigns, wasted time and labor, and unnecessary machinery use. | Capital projects require precise knowledge of subsurface assets, but there are entire buried networks for which no records exist at all. Many cities have never digitized their utility records and haven’t properly updated them in decades. This problem affects countless industries from construction, utilities, and transportation to mining and archaeology. |
| FOUNT Global, Inc. | According to Gartner, the average employee wastes as much as 2 hours a day due to “work friction,” such as outdated policies, cumbersome workflows, and complex tools. The status quo approach to addressing work friction is one-sided (either operational or individual focused) and not designed from the employee’s perspective. Because work friction can only be seen by the people doing the work, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. | For a 10,000-person company, work friction can drain as much as $78M per year in lost productivity, but there is no one-size-fits all fix. The issue is not a lack of data. Companies are doing plenty of listening. But understanding how employees *feel* about work is not leading to clear fixes. |
| Quris-AI | Drug discovery is a costly and time-consuming process, with a high failure rate. The overwhelming majority of novel drugs fail in clinical trials. This results in a significant financial loss for pharma companies, and the human cost is also enormous, as potentially life-saving treatments are delayed or never reach the market. | The status quo of drug discovery, rooted in animal testing, poses significant challenges. A central issue lies in the discrepancy between animal models and human physiology, a difference that leads to nearly 90% of new drugs failing in clinical trials due to unexpected human responses. This, in turn, results in tremendous financial losses for pharmaceutical companies, with estimates exceeding $30 billion annually. |
| Virdee | The hospitality industry struggles with two major challenges: 1) unending staffing shortages and 2) guests’ increasing demand for contactless technology. | According to numerous hospitality statistics, staffing issues will not ease up, and the staff that is being hired is more expensive than it was in the past. At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated the demand for contactless technology options at properties, which are being deployed slowly and unevenly. |
