Another Crop of Babson Entrepreneurs Makes the Boston Business Journal’s 25 Under 25 List

Senior Journalist

John Crawford

A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.

November 6, 2026

Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship on an autumn day

A collaborative entrepreneurial spirit, seen on campus in places such as the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, has helped propel young Babson founders to success, says Cindy Klein Marmer MBA’02, P’29, the center’s executive director. That success of Babson students and alumni is again recognized in the latest 25 Under 25 list of the Boston Business Journal. (Photo: Nic Czarnecki/Babson College)

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Another year has brought another round of recognition for a crop of Babson College students and young alumni.

The Boston Business Journal just released the latest installment of its 25 Under 25 list, and not surprisingly, Babson is again well-represented, with 10 College entrepreneurs representing nine ventures making the list.

This continues the large presence that Babson has enjoyed on the annual prestigious list. Last year, a dozen Babson entrepreneurs were named to 25 Under 25. Three made it in 2024, while four in 2023 (former lists were compiled by BostInno, a sister news site of the Boston Business Journal).

For Cindy Klein Marmer MBA’02, P’29, who has worked at Babson for more than two decades, this ongoing recognition of Babson’s young entrepreneurs feels like a natural outcome of everything that defines Babson and its entrepreneurial community. “Seeing so many Babson founders on the list feels like a reflection of who we are,” says Klein Marmer, the executive director of The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson.

Yes, Babson’s young entrepreneurs are successful in large part because of the education and support they receive from the College, but there’s also something else driving their accomplishments.

“Entrepreneurship is in Babson’s DNA, but so is helping other entrepreneurs succeed,” says Klein Marmer, who also serves as the director of Babson’s John E. and Alice L. Butler Launch Pad and Butler Institute for Free Enterprise Through Entrepreneurship. “Babson entrepreneurs don’t just build businesses. They help each other build.”

That help takes many forms. “Our students and alumni share opportunities, make connections, offer advice, and show up for one another when entrepreneurship gets hard,” Klein Marmer says. “It’s all part of the connective tissue that reinforces the collaborative culture at Babson.”

The 25 Under 25 list showcases the Babson entrepreneurs who are a product of that collaborative culture. The ventures from the College students and alumni on this year’s list represent a host of industries, including AI, music, marketing, restaurants, event planning, community building, and two of the bigger forces shaping society today: artificial intelligence and, yes, pickleball.

Mateo Acosta-Rubio ’27: Clave and LetAllGirls

Acosta-Rubio co-founded Clave, a provider of AI agents for the back-office operations of quick-service restaurants, with his brother, Tadeo Acosta-Rubio MSEL’24, and Carlos Emanuele MSEL’24. Chains such as Wendy’s, Ben & Jerry’s, and Cinnabon use Clave’s agents, and in a pre-seed round of founding, the venture recently raised more than $1 million.

Acosta-Rubio also serves as the executive director of LetAllGirls, a nonprofit that carries on the legacy of Ding “Didi” Mayen Kuai Mayen, a Babson student from South Sudan who passed away in 2024 during her first year at the College. Not long before she died, Didi and Acosta-Rubio began working on the nonprofit, which is devoted to educating girls in underdeveloped communities. Today, it provides an AI-powered educational device that serves as a personal tutor and teacher assistant and doesn’t require an Internet connection.

Michael Berenstein ’24 and Max Singer ’24: ORRO Events

ORRO knows how to put on a party. Co-founded by Berenstein and Singer five years ago when they were Babson students, the entertainment and hospitality venture has hosted more than 500 events attended by a combined 100,000-plus guests in the United States, Spain, and the Dominican Republic.

Carmelo Carbone ’25: PickleBOS

Grab a paddle. Pickleball is seemingly everywhere. Carbone serves as co-founder and director of pickleball at PickleBOS, Boston’s first indoor pickleball club. In 2025, it opened its first location in South Boston, with a second location following in the Charlestown neighborhood this year. So far, 14,000 pickleball enthusiasts have played on its courts.

Harry Chow MBA’28: Pinetree Research

AI is also everywhere and is a focus of several Babson ventures on the 25 Under 25 list. Consider Pinetree Research, the AI research lab where Chow is a member of the founding team. On its site, Pinetree pledges to “close the gap between thinking and doing.” Chow worked on Pinetree’s Solari, an infrastructure product that was adopted by more than 100 companies within 60 days of its launch.

Ethan Ide ’26: Boston Queer Club

A welcoming, inclusive environment. That’s what Ide, who served as president of Babson Pride as a student, wanted to create when he founded the Boston Queer Club. He was inspired to act because of statistics showing that LGBTQ+ youth have significantly lower suicide attempt rates when living in an accepting community. Launched in 2024, the club has hosted 26 events so far. Those events include concerts, comedy shows, and open mic nights.

Julia Lawlor ’27: Lawlor Lessons

Lawlor has spent a lot of time in the pool. That led her to be a swimming state champion in Massachusetts, and it also led her to business. Back in high school, Lawlor founded Lawlor Lessons, which gives private swimming lessons. Since its founding in 2020, the venture has taught more than 100 children to swim. To help with her business, she developed an administrative assistant fueled by AI, and she’s sharing what she has learned about tech with other business owners.

Ryan Lytle ’24: Build You Marketing

Back in 2023, Jake Ross ’24 of Build You Marketing was named to the 25 Under 25 list. Now, several years later, his fellow co-founder, Lytle, has followed in his footsteps. The pair met at Babson, and both lived in eTower. A LinkedIn content and media relations firm, Build You Marketing has worked with more than 120 clients since its founding in 2022. It has earned more than $1 million in revenue.

Emily Weinberg ’27: Skipit

Weinberg doesn’t let an uncomfortable scene ruin an otherwise great movie. In 2024, she founded Skipit, which offers a Google Chrome extension allowing viewers to skip (or be notified of) troublesome movie or TV scenes. The extension was made available on the Chrome Web Store in August. In the spring, Skipit was selected as one of the top seven pre-seed startups at the Global Startup Accelerator and Showcase at the eMerge Americas Conference + Expo in Miami.

Daijun Yao ’27: Tales of Echo

Yao knows how challenging trying to make a career in music can be for artists, so that’s why he founded Tales of Echo, an independent music label that’s embracing technology. At the label, Yao developed a music production platform called Echorya that’s powered by AI. Not that Yao believes AI should take the place of musicians, but as he told the Boston Business Journal, “We see it as a way to expand their creative possibilities, reduce technical barriers, and create new opportunities.”