UofL Case Studies

Kela Ivonye

Kela Ivonye is a Nigerian American immigrant who came to the USA with $500 in his pocket and a head full of optimism. He is currently the founder of RiverGuide; Kela is a third time founder with expertise in building consumer facing products and experience in enterprise sales. After his last company was acquired in 2019, Kela has helped state organizations, nonprofits and top universities run mentorship and 1 -1 coaching programs for their accelerator, incubators or entrepreneurship programs. Kela has experience in building founder networks and got the idea for this from a mentorship program for black founders that he started called Protege. Protege partnered with VC firms like Floodgate ventures and Red Swan Ventures to take their network of super founders and connect them with black founders for 1 -1 mentorship and also invest at least $25,000 in the startup. The founders that went through the program all raised subsequent rounds and have raised $65 million in venture capital and $100 million in venture debt from top VCs like GGV, NFX, Softbank, etc.

Gautam’s Bio

Gautam is a forward-thinking AI and robotics leader. Holding a Master’s in Machine Learning and Data Science from UCSD, he has a proven track record of addressing complex challenges through innovative solutions. His most notable achievement is the invention of an audio-based detection system(Patent Pending), drastically improving diverse parcel handling accuracy for the vacuum-based end effectors—a testament to his problem-solving skills and creative thinking.

He has also been involved in the development of the language model based machine-interaction platforms to simplify user interactions with machines and improve robot deployment cycles. Also, during his time at UCSD, he was involved with the statistical visual computing lab working on doing research in accelerating PET/CT scan reconstruction and exploring synthetic data for various applications. And before that, he refined his technical expertise at NXP Semiconductors. His work in simplifying user-machine interactions and leveraging synthetic data for varied applications demonstrates his ability to translate complex AI technologies into practical, user-friendly solutions. Gautam’s diverse experience equips him with a unique blend of technical prowess and visionary leadership crucial for innovating in the educational technology space