RapidEye Wins $50,000 at CMU's 2026 McGinnis Venture Competition
Mar 4, 2026
On March 17, 2026, Rohan and I pitched RapidEye at Carnegie Mellon's McGinnis Venture Competition and walked away with $50,000 in total prize value: $25,000 cash as a Second Place McGinnis Prize winner in the Graduate Track, plus $25,000 in AWS Activate credits.
This was CMU's most competitive McGinnis cycle to date, with 70% more entries than last year. The final round took place at McConomy Auditorium in Pittsburgh, with opening remarks from Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O'Connor, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, and U.S. Senator Dave McCormick. Serious people taking student startups seriously.
What the Judges Saw
CMU's official description of RapidEye: "AI-powered property inspection platform that automates quality assurance for vacation rental managers, reducing inspection time by 75% and eliminating costly guest complaints."
That's the pitch in one sentence. If you want the longer version, here's what RapidEye actually is.
The Competition
We were up against some genuinely impressive teams. In the Graduate Track alone:
Analogical Engines took First Place with the Morgenthaler Prize ($50,000 cash + $100,000 AWS credits)
Hermes Vision tied with us for Second Place McGinnis Prize ($25,000 + $25,000 AWS)
The McGinnis Venture Competition was originally endowed by Gerald E. McGinnis, founder of Respironics, and has been running since 2003. This year, the new David and Lindsay Morgenthaler Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fund expanded the prize pool to $125,000 in cash and $375,000 total, including AWS credits.
Thank You
A few people who made this possible:
Spencer Whitman for advice throughout and constantly challenging our thinking
Steven Welles for presenting the award
The judges who asked hard questions and actually engaged with our product
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and Project Olympus team at CMU for running a competition that takes student founders seriously
What This Means
The cash helps. The AWS credits help more. We're processing millions of inspection photos through computer vision models, and compute costs add up.
But honestly, the biggest thing is the signal. Third-party validation from a top university startup competition, in a record year, is useful when you're talking to property managers who are deciding whether to trust their inspection data to a company run by two students.
We're heads down building. If you manage vacation rentals and want to see what we're working on, check out real examples of what RapidEye catches.
More updates soon.
On March 17, 2026, Rohan and I pitched RapidEye at Carnegie Mellon's McGinnis Venture Competition and walked away with $50,000 in total prize value: $25,000 cash as a Second Place McGinnis Prize winner in the Graduate Track, plus $25,000 in AWS Activate credits.
This was CMU's most competitive McGinnis cycle to date, with 70% more entries than last year. The final round took place at McConomy Auditorium in Pittsburgh, with opening remarks from Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O'Connor, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, and U.S. Senator Dave McCormick. Serious people taking student startups seriously.
What the Judges Saw
CMU's official description of RapidEye: "AI-powered property inspection platform that automates quality assurance for vacation rental managers, reducing inspection time by 75% and eliminating costly guest complaints."
That's the pitch in one sentence. If you want the longer version, here's what RapidEye actually is.
The Competition
We were up against some genuinely impressive teams. In the Graduate Track alone:
Analogical Engines took First Place with the Morgenthaler Prize ($50,000 cash + $100,000 AWS credits)
Hermes Vision tied with us for Second Place McGinnis Prize ($25,000 + $25,000 AWS)
The McGinnis Venture Competition was originally endowed by Gerald E. McGinnis, founder of Respironics, and has been running since 2003. This year, the new David and Lindsay Morgenthaler Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fund expanded the prize pool to $125,000 in cash and $375,000 total, including AWS credits.
Thank You
A few people who made this possible:
Spencer Whitman for advice throughout and constantly challenging our thinking
Steven Welles for presenting the award
The judges who asked hard questions and actually engaged with our product
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and Project Olympus team at CMU for running a competition that takes student founders seriously
What This Means
The cash helps. The AWS credits help more. We're processing millions of inspection photos through computer vision models, and compute costs add up.
But honestly, the biggest thing is the signal. Third-party validation from a top university startup competition, in a record year, is useful when you're talking to property managers who are deciding whether to trust their inspection data to a company run by two students.
We're heads down building. If you manage vacation rentals and want to see what we're working on, check out real examples of what RapidEye catches.
More updates soon.