Getting to the other side of exams feels like life begins to glow a little. The sun feels brighter, energy increases and collective joy becomes palpable amongst students☀️.

In this month’s edition we are drawing on the theme of joy and revival, through exploring The Glow Up: pivots, rebrands and growing with your venture. Students have a particular way of approaching feedback response with a hunger for self-improvement, and as you read through the edition this will become increasingly evident.

I now pivot your attention to a different kind of glow, to a unique form of glow in a particular moment in history.  

I transport you to 1950s Las Vegas. The casinos are heaving, the money is flowing and the US has recently decided to conduct nuclear testing in the Nevada desert. 

Picture this, you are stood on the balcony of a casino, glamorously dressed and sipping a glowing cocktail as mushroom clouds mark the skyline. The Atomic Cocktail is laced with uranium salts and the dramatic smoke of dry ice seeps out from the rim. It's dangerous, but the drama and nuclear mimicry is deliciously enchanting. 

Framed by local businesses as a tourist attraction, the masses flocked to casino balconies to sip cocktails and admire the plumes of atomic explosion on the skyline. Yes, the testing of atomic bombs symbolised a new era of warfare and violence, but they also marked an era of US dominance and celebration of technological advancement. 

Though the glow of nuclear arms and uranium is a pretty dark concept, it represents something bigger: a transition from the feared to the phenomenon. Now how is this relevant for you?

Whether you are reading this as an entrepreneur, an artist or a student there is always value in finding the glow within the unknown. Take what makes you nervous, what you don’t quite understand and let it guide you to innovation and intrigue. In an era when so much seems overwhelming, taking chances can be daunting but it is where the real progress begins.

As you read through this edition, I hope you are inspired by the growth and glow of these start ups, and begin to let overcoming fear define your glow up🏆.

— Lauren Manby (Editor in Chief)

📍University of Cambridge

Vibesdoc began as an ambitious vision to transform fast diagnostic testing into actionable health insights.

I am Roberto Baldizon, a biomedical engineer from Guatemala, and I am soon to complete my MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School. 

My experience in Latin American healthcare, managing diagnostics and radiology, and building hospital infrastructure and software revealed a common problem: patients and clinicians often lack timely guidance despite having data.

Vibesdoc grew from that frustration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team collaborated with external researchers, now advisors, to explore how antibody lateral flow assays could be more useful when interpreted alongside symptoms, exposure history, geography, and individual risk factors. That experience shaped one of our core beliefs: a test result alone is rarely enough. Its value increases when it is connected to the person, their context, and the next decision to be made.

Our “glow up” has been learning to turn that broad insight into a clearer product. At first, Vibesdoc could have become many things: a rapid testing platform, a preventive health tool, an occupational safety solution, or an AI healthcare assistant. Through feedback and stakeholder conversations, we realised the real opportunity was simpler: helping people move from uncertainty to action.

Our beachhead market is Guatemala, where our team has deep roots and direct experience in healthcare delivery. Vibesdoc Lite is being prepared for deployment in a newly built diagnostic centre in Guatemala City. The first version will support smart patient intake for services such as MRI, CT, ultrasound, and X-ray. Before arrival, patients can share symptoms, referral details, prior studies, allergies, pregnancy status, implant history, contrast risk information, and expectations. This helps reduce staff confusion, improve preparation, decrease no-shows, and capture better data before the appointment.

From here, Vibesdoc aims to expand into preventive screening recommendations, helping patients discuss relevant packages with physicians, such as metabolic health, kidney health, cardiovascular risk, fatty liver risk, women’s preventive imaging, executive checkups, and sports-performance assessments. In parallel, we are exploring corporate worker health screening for construction, agriculture, logistics, and industrial teams exposed to heat, stress, dehydration, fatigue, and kidney risks.

There is, however, ample room for the venture’s mission and core capabilities, as diagnostic pathways can currently be improved across the board. In conversations with UK stakeholders, we identified a potential use case for privacy-first rapid STI testing, in which many people delay acting due to embarrassment, uncertainty, or a lack of knowledge about which test is appropriate.

The biggest upgrade in Vibesdoc has been focus. We moved from asking, “How can we use AI in healthcare?” to asking, “How can we help specific users make better health decisions when they need them?” That shift has made Vibesdoc more practical, more human, and more ready for real-world adoption. As we continue this path, our mission remains clear: empowering people and healthcare teams to transform uncertainty into confident, timely action and make health intelligence accessible to all.

— Roberto Baldizon

📍University College London (UCL)

As a mother navigating the beautiful but challenging early years of raising my daughter, I constantly searched for engaging resources to help her understand her growing world. I quickly realised that foundational daily habits, like potty training, brushing teeth, and healthy eating are vital milestones that shape a child's entire future.

Drawing from my professional background as a clinical dentist and personal journey as a parent, I authored five physical lift-the-flap children's books in Indonesia. I wanted tangible resources to spark meaningful conversations, whether exploring the "Sugar Clock" to understand sweet snacking or going on adventures to learn about potty training.

But my mission did not stop at books. Recognizing the deep anxiety parents face over developmental milestones, I saw a critical need to address early speech delays, which are too often hindered by geographic barriers and high clinical costs. 

Through my startup Hai Booca, I am building an accessible, AI-driven speech analysis system, which synthesises a parent's familiar voice to gently and naturally guide toddlers through speech assessments. Hai Bocca takes the stress out of early screening, allowing parents to provide care for children’s speech delays in the early stages when it matters most.

The platform goes far beyond basic gaming; it provides deeply inclusive educational content that integrates robust clinical frameworks like Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). This approach actively shifts the narrative around digital devices, proving that gadgets are profound educational tools for students and families, not mere children's toys. 

Now, this journey is expanding even further. To perfectly complement our digital innovations, my books are being translated into English for international publication in late 2026. Taking these deeply personal stories and solutions from my home in Indonesia to a global audience feels absolutely surreal. It is a beautiful extension of my core mission to empower parents worldwide with accessible, engaging tools to guide their little ones through life's most important first steps.

— Sabathania Pamilaar

📍University College London (UCL)

When I was 12, my mother and I volunteered to help run slipper-decorating art classes for kids who didn’t have shoes. We drove through a lush forest, which transitioned into palm oil plantations. I was shocked to find the trees abruptly ended, and mountains of rubbish emerged. The slippers turned out to be to protect the kids’ feet from the shards of glass in the rubbish dump. We were later told that the rubbish came from Western countries, providing the children’s clothing and supplying scavenged items to sell.

I moved to the UK when I was 14, and started Wclothing, an upcycling business distributing online and through popups, to combat the ever growing trend of fast fashion. My assistant social media manager, Megan, received an opportunity to pitch our business to the Mayor Of London’s office, and we ended up winning a £15,000 grant to launch a sports related business. My social media manager (turned business-partner) and I needed to start a separate entity, with the same mission, in order to match the sports related criteria for the grant. 

Wclothing was on a mission to end fast fashion, reusing old clothes to follow new trends. Fashion represents people, and people want to be seen a certain way, which changes constantly. Wsports on the other hand, could not follow this business model. It would be much harder to persuade people to wear old clothes people have already sweated in, and sports clothes tend to have low reusability. 

The solution? Pivot our entire look and branding, to create an entirely new entity, with a completely different business model, that we had no idea would work or not. The main issue with sportswear is that it is literally made from plastic, contributes to climate change, and does not biodegrade. The solution? A biodegradable top made from bamboo, that is softer and sustainably produced. 

To succeed in this rebrand, we needed an entirely new, sleeker, more luxurious logo, a new instagram page with a different marketing approach, packaging, and a completely different website, with a different message. We were going for a totally different audience, but with familiar pain points: clothes that don’t harm the environment. 

So… if anything, what should you take away from our completely 180 degree rebrand? 

— Jeremy Wiliams

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References:

Ian Harvey, “Watching Atomic Bombs Explode Was a Big Tourist Attraction in Las Vegas,” The Vintage. News, January 29, 2020, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2020/01/29/atomic-bombs-las-vegas/