UVA Founders Pitch Ventures at i.Lab Incubator Demo Night

Christina Washington’s (Class of 2026) venture inspiration came during a yearlong break from drinking alcohol. While abstaining, Washington said she felt happier and healthier, but also often isolated when socializing with drinkers, tiring of answering questions about her choices.

Addressing an audience in the Rotunda as part of the i.Lab Incubator Demo Night, Washington described — in a tight 90 seconds — how subsequent research showed that she wasn’t alone, with significant percentages of young people choosing not to drink. Ori, a non-alcoholic beverage, entertainment and lifestyle brand with the mission to “help people celebrate without compromising their faith or health,” was born.

Coordinating with the Common Wealth Crush winemaking facility, co-founded by i.Lab mentor and Darden alum Patt Eagan (MBA ‘21), the Darden School of Business Second Year student is working towards launching non-alcoholic red and white wines into the marketplace.

Christina Washington (Class of 2026) speaks about her venture Ori at a tabling event during the i.Lab incubator.

Washington’s Ori was one of 23 ventures accepted into the i.Lab Incubator in the 2025 cohort, joining a range of ventures led by students and alumni of seven University of Virginia schools. The i.Lab, a program of Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology, is an intensive 10-week summer program supporting members of the UVA community as they test ideas, engage in customer discovery and propel their ventures forward.

The 2025 i.Lab cohort encompasses a range of products and services in various stages of development, including a venture focused on AI security; accessible rideshare services for those with mobility issues; a reimagined birthing experience; various apps for work and play; and a pickleball club, among many others. Each founder or group of founders delivered their well-honed pitches to the Rotunda audience, which included a broad cross-section of the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In most cases, founders made a direct ask for some form of assistance from the assembled, making the most of their time in front of a connected community.

While founders aspire toward various measures of tangible success, Omar Garriott, executive director of the Batten Institute, said the program aims to facilitate personal growth alongside the professional.

“We want their ventures to succeed, but our metric is not venture success; our metric is founder development,” Garriott said. “We are really here to develop the founders, and their ventures are a vehicle for doing that.”

Over the course of 10 weeks, founders embrace the Darden ethos of effectuation and learning by doing, intentionally demystifying the entrepreneurial process as they create their unique paths. The 10-week journey is one of both venture creation and self-discovery, with the inevitable setbacks amid the progress becoming invaluable experience for whatever professional path the founders eventually take.

UVA School of Engineering & Applied Science Dean Jennifer West, a founder of multiple biotechnology ventures, said if one has created something innovative that has an opportunity to make the world a better place, they nearly have an “ethical responsibility” to develop the creation, with entrepreneurship often being the most expedient path.

There are many wise and responsible reasons to pursue entrepreneurship, West said, and as many misguided ones. One should not choose the path solely because it seems “cool and glamorous” or if motivated by money, noting that most entrepreneurs work incredibly hard for uncertain reward.

So why pursue entrepreneurship? It may be the only path to bring your novel idea into the world, West said, and it often allows a level of control and ownership absent from other options. Seeing your creation come to fruition is a uniquely rewarding experience, West said.

“The entrepreneurial path is also a lot of fun,” West said, adding that if the founders were able to summon the “fun and excitement,” throughout the summer while working on their venture, entrepreneurship could be a path worthy of pursuit.

Jack Ross, a 2017 UVA graduate and i.Lab alum, shared his journey growing the indoor farming company Beanstalk Farms, and reflected on the evident growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem across the University since he graduated, with a celebration of entrepreneurship in front of a packed room in the heart of the Academical Village.

Jack Ross, i.Lab alum and founder of Beanstalk, speaks at the i.Lab Demo Night event. Photo by Amanda Maglione.

“The i.Lab has really filled a role at the University, and it’s an incredible resource,” Ross said. “To be here in the Rotunda for i.Lab pitch night is truly an accomplishment, and I think it’s something everybody here should be very proud of.”

Ross described the support he and his cofounder brother have received from the UVA community throughout Beanstalk’s journey, noting the alumnus who helped find a place for them to stay rent-free in Palo Alto after being accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator venture incubator, for instance.

Ross, whose company is building the world’s largest vertical farm in Northern Virginia, encouraged founders to cultivate a daily practice he described as “exciting mornings, calm evenings.”

Wake up every morning with the goal of focusing your time and energy on doing what’s exciting, and then transition to a calm evening, content that you’ve “left it all out on the field that day,” Ross said.

Then, plan ahead to ensure that you have an exciting morning in store for you the next day. It’s a simple recipe for finding sustainable joy in what can be a difficult journey, said Ross.