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USD School of Law Graduate's Startup Wins UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge

University of San Diego School of Law alumnus and Nasseo, Inc. Co-founder Kayvon Pourmirzaie, ’10, accepted the first-place prize of $57,000 in cash and legal services at the Sixth Annual University of California San Diego (UCSD) Entrepreneur Challenge Business Plan Competition in late June. The company was also awarded the first place prize of $7,500 in cash and legal services at the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge’s Executive Summary Competition in April, making Nasseo, Inc. the first startup to win both the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge Executive Summary and Business Plan Competitions in the same year.

The entrepreneurial challenge recognizes inspiring startups and has been a turning point for a number of successful San Diego-based startup companies. The challenge allows cross-disciplinary teams in a number of industries to compete for the prize. Each challenge is judged by an esteemed panel of science, technology and business professionals.

"This competition is about finding emerging startups that have developed ground-breaking technologies, so we are excited to receive this recognition,” said Pourmirzaie in a company press release. “Nasseo's science is well-documented and we look forward to developing our proprietary dental implant system."

Nasseo's initial product, the TiArray™ dental implant system, integrates a proprietary surface modification technology to create significantly stronger bone-to-implant bonding at the molecular level. By developing this dental implant system, Nasseo hopes to create new treatment options for previously unreached patients who are discouraged from receiving implants because of poor circulatory and bone growth issues.

Pourmirzaie co-founded Nasseo with CEO Dr. Garrett Cale Smith, who holds a PhD in bioengineering from UCSD and is a Stanford Biodesign Fellow Alumni. Pourmirzaie holds a JD degree cum laude from University of San Diego School of Law and a BS degree in bioengineering from UCSD.