Startup is first from Carolina to win ACC Inventure Prize

Vaishnavi Kode, Nandini Kanthi and Vrutika Soneji — hold the ACC InVenture Prize trophy in front of a display of ACC university logos. — Sensible founders Vaishnavi Kode, Nandini Kanthi and Vrutika Soneji are the first Tar Heels to win the ACC InVenture Prize championship with their groundbreaking biotech proposal focusing on women's health. (Submitted photo)

Sensible, a startup founded by Carolina students, is the first Tar Heel student innovation team to win first place at the ACC InVenture Prize — a battle of the best student entrepreneurs in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Sensible is developing a pad-attachable patch that turns menstrual blood into wellness signals. Its patent-pending diagnostic technology could enable earlier detection of conditions like endometriosis without invasive testing.

In March, a trio representing the startup competed against teams from 13 other schools in South Bend, Indiana, returning to Chapel Hill with a $15,000 first-place prize:

Nandini Kanthi ’28, CEO, majoring in neuroscience and community and global public health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
Vaishnavi Kode, vice president of growth, majoring in economics and biology in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences
Vrutika Soneji ’27, chief operating officer, majoring in health policy and management at Gillings and in neuroscience in the College

Before the event, the team won a 2024 pitch competition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, competed in Carolina Pitch Fest and participated in practice sessions organized by Launch Chapel Hill and Innovate Carolina.

Six people pose together in front of an ACC InVenture Prize sign, with three young women holding the first-place trophy in the center.

Adrienne Watson, chief scientific officer of World Precision Instruments; Vrutika Soneji, Vaishnavi Kode and Nandini Kanthi (Sensible); Sri Divakaruni, vice president of global business development at Rhizome Network; and M. Cole Jones, managing partner of RISE Ventures. (Submitted photo)

“We wouldn’t have had the same confidence going into the room at the ACC InVenture Prize if we weren’t so well prepared,” Kanthi said.

What does winning the ACC InVenture Prize mean to you?

Kode:It’s incredibly reassuring for us to get on stage and share our story. Our idea may seem like a wild one, but we’ve seen so much promise in what we’re building. We love interacting with a new audience and seeing their faces change and react to the idea that we’re throwing at them. At first, they may seem a bit confused, but then there’s the moment of clarity. You see it toward the end of our pitch when we talk about our solution, physically take a step forward and ask everyone in the crowd to join us. That’s the moment when everyone gets excited.

What inspired you to create the technology and company?

Kanthi:There hasn’t been enough research on women’s health or tools that women can access to learn about their bodies, whether they’re at risk for life-threatening cancers or extremely painful conditions. We’re creating a technology — a patch placed within an existing menstrual pad — designed to give women a better understanding of their health from the comfort of their own homes. Menstrual blood contains about 385 proteins that the systemic blood you normally get drawn at the doctor’s office does not. That means many women go their entire lives not knowing 385 data points about their bodies that could lead to early diagnoses or tell them more about their health.

How are you building industry partnerships with OBGYN clinics and hospitals?

Soneji:We approach partnerships from multiple angles. One is customer discovery. We’re having conversations with OBGYN clinics and hospital system clinicians to understand what a day in the life is like for them, the challenges they face, how our product can address those pain points, and how we can adjust what we’re designing to fit into their clinical workflows. The more touch points we have with the people who will eventually use our product, the better. Second, we’re thinking about long-term relationships. We’d eventually love to pilot and roll out our product in these clinics, so we’re starting now by having these open conversations to build a deep foundation of trust for the future.

What’s next for Sensible?

Kode:Now is our time to get down and dirty in the lab and focus on clinical validation. We’ll collect a lot of samples and work to validate the technology that we’ve been working hard to build and the science that we’ve researched so deeply.