Where Ideas Come to Life
At ZIP Launchpad, San Diego State University student founders turn curiosity into companies. Here’s how they do it.
By Rebecca Nordquist
The Zahn Innovation Platform Launchpad cultivates detectives.
Not the kind who carry badges. The kind who ask the right questions and then turn the answers into businesses.
Erica Snider, the program manager at ZIP Launchpad, San Diego State University’s startup incubator, says the goal is to develop students who approach problems with curiosity, investigate multiple angles and translate insight into solutions.
“The entrepreneurial mindset is going to serve these students in everything they do now and post graduation,” Snider says.
Holland Peil (’25) embodies that mindset.
Nearly seven years ago, Peil read a study that said a single tea bag can release billions of microplastics in one serving. Intrigued, he started digging.
“I couldn’t find anything having to do with microplastic filtration for tea bags, so that would be the start of T-Squeeze,” Peil says.
That instinct to investigate a problem and pursue a solution is exactly what ZIP Launchpad is designed to nurture. With the help of the H.G. Fenton Company Idea Lab on campus, Peil and his partner Thaddeus Okasinski, a senior business major, worked with student engineers to build a prototype of a microplastic filtering tea infuser, and the marketing intern helped guide its social media presence.
With that development, Peil and Okasinski are progressing through ZIP Launchpad’s four-stage path: E-Track, In Flight, Launch Track and Launch. Open to students in all majors, staff and faculty, ZIP provides funding, mentorship and expert guidance to help teams move from concept to company. The program started in 2012 with generous support from the late Irwin Zahn. His son, Peter Zahn, continues his father’s legacy of fostering the entrepreneurial spirit.
Meet more alumni and students who are solving problems one company at a time.
Understanding ZIP Launchpad’s four-stage path: E-Track, In Flight, Launch Track and Launch.
E-Track is the proving ground. Students define a problem, talk to real customers and gather evidence to see whether their idea has traction before moving forward.
COMPANY: DateFlo
SDSU FOUNDER: Qudsi, senior business management major with a minor in leadership
PROBLEM TO SOLVE: When it comes to dating, Qudsi says, people care deeply about their partners but often don’t know where to start when planning something meaningful.
“One thing that really clicked,” Qudsi says, “was when I asked a friend at midnight what he was doing for Valentine’s Day the next day, and he said he was probably just going to reserve a restaurant.”
A creative date planner himself, Qudsi knew how that would end.
THE IDEA: DateFlo is an AI-powered app that plans and customizes dates. Users input preferences—dietary restrictions, budget, likes, dislikes and even love language—and the platform generates a complete plan. It recommends restaurants, suggests menu items, calculates estimated costs and adds nearby activities to enjoy such as farmers markets or unique shops.
THE IMPACT: Through customer research, Qudsi found that people value quality time far more than the planning process itself. DateFlo reduces decision fatigue so couples can focus on connection and quality time.
THE VISION: DateFlo is being optimized for San Diego, and Qudsi plans to expand and customize it for cities across the United States.
COMPANY: College Cubbies
collegecubbies.com, 619-975-4677
SDSU FOUNDERS: Seniors Dawson Gregg (mechanical engineering) and Corbin Yates (economics)
PROBLEM TO SOLVE: For college students, two major life events hit at the worst time.
“Finals and moving,” Dawson Gregg says, “and you don’t want to deal with them at the same time.”
Students, especially out-of-state students, often don’t have the capacity to rent a vehicle, track down boxes, find storage and coordinate help while trying to finish the semester. Plus, parents can’t always take time off to help their children move.
THE IDEA: College Cubbies is a student-run one-stop shop for moving and summer storage. The team delivers boxes a week in advance for students to pack, and College Cubbies picks everything up and stores it over the summer. The items are then delivered when students return. “It’s a flexible solution for students and parents,” Gregg says.
Students reserve a pickup for $49, then pay monthly by item, generally $15 to $40.
THE IMPACT: Gregg hopes to ease the logistics of moving for the students and colleges they serve.
“We want to reduce the crunch that creates traffic and stress each year,” he says. He also notes that parents like the student-to-student model because they feel safer having fellow students working with their children.
THE VISION: In 2025, the company’s first year, College Cubbies served 67 students and brought in $42,000. This summer, Gregg hopes to help 400 to 600 students, with $300,000 to $400,000 in revenue.
“We’re definitely working hard toward that goal,” he says. “It’s something we wake up every day and think about.”
Long term, Gregg and his partners, who also include non-SDSU students Ryan Carney and Shawheen Ghezavat, hope to expand into college towns throughout the U.S., potentially starting with the University of California, Los Angeles or the University of California, San Diego.
COMPANY: Hempress Hygienics
hempresshygienics.com
SDSU FOUNDER: McKenna Avery (’20, sustainability)
PROBLEM TO SOLVE: Most conventional pads and tampons contain synthetic materials and chemical additives, despite being used in one of the most sensitive parts of a woman’s body. The products can also take hundreds of thousands of years to biodegrade.
THE IDEA: With hemp newly legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, McKenna Avery and her founding partner, Marilyn Califano, then an Oregon State University student, saw an opportunity to create nontoxic, plantbased period care that was safer for women and better for the planet. “This bridged my passion for women’s health and sustainability so well,” she says. Avery focused on development, working with a former Johnson & Johnson product developer who had also created the first NASA space diapers and the original plant-based diaper.
THE IMPACT: For Avery, success is measured by health outcomes and environmental responsibility.
“People always tell us, ‘I don’t have these weird symptoms anymore,’ or ‘I feel good about using this product,’” she says. The impact went beyond developing the company.
“Every single skill I learned from having this startup has allowed me to apply that to everything I do,” Avery says. “Everything’s problem-solving, everything’s logistics, everything’s operations.”
THE COMPANY TODAY: In 2023, Harper Hygienics majority acquired Hempress Hygienics. The approximately $3 million deal stabilized and scaled the company through debt relief, financing and manufacturing support. Today, Hempress is available in more than 800 retail locations across the United States.
“For me, it lines up,” Avery says. “We got nontoxic, sustainable products to women who have seen real changes from using them.”
SDSU Innovation Ecosystem
Aspiring CEOs and researchers can engage with these entrepreneurial initiatives to transform their ideas into market-ready ventures.
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Interested in connecting with SDSU’s innovation ecosystem? Visit the ZIP Launchpad website.