Babson Entrepreneurs Sweep Boston Titles

Deborah Cohen
Listen

Boston competitions – BostInno’s 50 On Fire and 25 Under 25, the Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, and the MassChallenge Boston Top 20 finalists cohort – have honored many Babson student and alumni entrepreneurs this fall.

Under 25

Deborah Cohen ’19, founder and CEO of Yad, and Ryan Laverty ’20, co-founder and COO of Arist, are leading the Boston pack, earning spots on BostInno’s 25 Under 25.

At the same time Cohen is also a finalist in this year’s MassChallenge Boston cohort.

Yad is a social enterprise that aims to empower people with disabilities by giving them a vehicle to express themselves through art and to profit from their work. It manufactures unique home decor products featuring artwork created by people with intellectual disabilities. “Artwork, for me, it brings life,” Cohen told BostInno. “It’s a great medium for people to express themselves.” Yad is also winner of the 2019 Babson Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® (B.E.T.A.) undergraduate challenge.

BostInno shares that Laverty, in his junior year at Babson, and his team of co-founders, Michael Ioffe ’21, Maxine Anderson ’22, and Joe Passanante, “stumbled upon research that proved text messages are an effective learning method. Now a senior, Laverty runs Arist, a successful text message learning service that partners with companies to create corporate learning programs.”

Arist participated in The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship’s 2019 Summer Venture Program, and Laverty recently pitched Arist at the Babson ePitch: Second Century Challenge, where only three finalists earned the chance to win personal investment and $100,000 in funding.

On Fire

This fall, BostInno additionally honored five Babson startups with recognition on its 2019 50 On Fire list of “the 50 people and companies that are heating up Boston’s ecosystem.” They include Ambi, Examity, Forefront, Unruly Studios, and Wanderful.

Ambi, co-founded by Soham Khaitan ’16 and Saad El Yamani ‘16, is a learner engagement platform with $6.4 million in funding, designed for students first and creating a more engaged, involved, and immersive learning experience for everyone.

Examity, led by CEO and founder Michael London ’92, is the world leader in learning validation and online proctoring, and has raised $121 million in funding.

Forefront, co-founded by Josuel Plasencia ’17 and Yulkendy Valdez ’17, is a digital platform to learn about a new culture. It is a recipient of the $10,000 B.E.T.A. Challenge Social Impact Award, announced at this year’s B.E.T.A. Challenge finale.

Unruly Studios, founded by Bryanne Leeming MBA’16, empowers students to learn critical STEM skills through active, social, recess-style play. It has raised $1.8 million and was a finalist in BostInno’s 2019 Tech Madness competition. Leeming is one of the Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honorees.

Beth Santos, an alumna of Babson’s Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab®, is founder and CEO of Wanderful, the world’s homesharing network and travel community for women. Wanderful is the creator of the annual Women in Travel Summit, a leading B2B event for 500 female travel influencers and industry members, now in its fifth year, and is also creator of Wanderfest, an annual retreat to celebrate global connectedness and sisterhood.

Under 40

Bryanne Leeming MBA’16 and Unruly Studios join John Goscha ’06 and Rich Palmer MBA’16 on Boston Business Journal’s 2019 40 Under 40 list – “an impressive group of burgeoning leaders making an impact on Massachusetts’ industries.”

John Goscha is founder and chairman of Lucidity Lights, which develops home lighting systems, intended to create high-quality and energy-efficient bulbs.

Rich Palmer is co-founder and CTO of Gravyty, the first and leading artificial intelligence company focused solely on social good.

Posted in Community, Entrepreneurial Leadership

More from Community »

Latest Stories

Three photos in a side-by-side collage depict Michael Kopelman coaching, Brady Anderson in action, and the doubles team celebrating
Courting Success: How Babson Tennis Teams Transformed into National Powerhouses With championships and top-tier recruiting classes, Babson Director of Tennis Michael Kopelman has overseen the transformation of the men’s and women’s programs into national powerhouses.
By
Scott Dietz
Writer
Scott Dietz
Scott Dietz is Babson College's Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications. Dietz is responsible for the department's internal and external communications, including branding, campus engagement, marketing, social media, sponsorships and website management. Additional duties consist of event coverage, facilitation of interview requests, media pitching, video content, writing and editing. Before Babson, Dietz spent 13-plus years at fellow NEWMAC institution Wheaton College, worked for the NFL, New England Patriots, and in the media relations department with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. A native of South Park, PA, Dietz began his sports information career at Westminster College.
September 2, 2025

Posted in Community

Babson Build students from HBCUs participate in an exercise in the Weissman Foundry
An Entrepreneurial Summer: How Babson Impacts Communities Year-Round The school year may be over, but Babson’s work of educating entrepreneurial leaders doesn’t stop. In the summer, many entrepreneurs, educators, and leaders descend on campus. They come from around the globe to connect and to learn. What they take away from the College can impact their companies, their classrooms, and their communities.
By
John Crawford
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.
August 29, 2025

Posted in Community, Entrepreneurial Leadership

Juan “JC” Grullon ’27 and Ty Bradford ’29 shake hands outside Publishers Hall
Publishers Hall Welcomes First-Year Students to Its Cozy Confines During move-in day, a new crop of first-year students made Publishers Hall their home. The small residence hall, built over a century ago, is known for the tight-knit communities that form there.
By
John Crawford
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.
August 28, 2025

Posted in Community