OralExam.ai Takes Top Prize at Tulane’s Fall 2026 Open Season Pitch Competition

Winners of the Tulane Innovation Institute’s Open Season pitch competition on Sept. 15. (Photo by Cheryl Gerber)

By Jeanne Exnicios
September 21, 2026

Darryl Glade, professor of practice in the Tulane Real Estate Development Program, and his co-founders, John Renne, director of Tulane’s Real Estate Development Program in the Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment, and Kevin Truong, took home first place and $3,000 at the Tulane Innovation Institute’s Open Season pitch competition Sept. 15 for OralExam.ai. The team also won the $250 People’s Choice Award.

The winning idea addresses a new challenge for professors and teachers in assessing learning in the age of artificial intelligence, when AI tools are becoming part of the writing process. If a professor wants to know whether a student understands an assignment, why not ask the student to talk about it instead of writing about it, while still using AI tools for evaluation? That is the idea behind OralExam.ai, which gives each student a brief, spoken conversation with an AI examiner about the assignment they turned in. Professors will receive two results within minutes, one on the student’s understanding and one on authorship. Instructors can use these results to support their grading process; OralExam.ai does not grade the paper. The company is currently running pilots in high schools, at Tulane University and at other institutions.
 

OralExam.ai co-founders from left to right, Darryl Glade, Kevin Truong and John Renne (Photo by Cheryl Gerber)

The format also fits a pitch competition. Explaining your reasoning out loud is how aspiring founders test ideas and learn how to build startups.

A packed house turned out at The Josephine for Open Season Fall 2026, bringing together Tulane students, Tulane Innovation Institute program participants, entrepreneurs from the greater New Orleans community and supporters.

“Open Season is one step in a founder’s journey,” said Kimberly Gramm, the David and Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer of the Tulane Innovation Institute. “When you have an idea for a business or innovation, you should present it for feedback and determine if there is a market need. What makes Open Season special is that founders can do that in front of a room of people who are mentoring, investing and cheering them on. That is what Tulane Innovate is about. It is a community, and everyone has a role in helping ideas move forward to make our city, state and world a better place.”

For Glade, Open Season was a valuable chance to showcase his company to people who could help improve it and support his vision.

“Winning Open Season means a great deal to our team,” Glade said. “I am grateful to the Tulane Innovation Institute for creating a stage where a young company can test its ideas in front of people who push you to sharpen them.”

Additional winners included Usufruct, founded by Tulane A. B. Freeman School of Business alumnus and Tulane Office of Human Resources staff member Michael Ambrosia, who won second place and $1,500. The company publishes the Louisiana Civil Code and Louisiana Revised Statutes as a clean, searchable web resource for legal professionals and other users.

Loratone, led by Shivang Thakor and Akintunde Pounds, took third place and $750. The two are current participants in the Tulane Innovation Institute’s free Startup Team Mentoring program, which pairs startups with a team of mentors for yearlong mentoring. Loratone is a narrative-synced sensory regulation platform designed to make reading more accessible and engaging for neurodivergent learners.

Marzonet Palmer, a cybersecurity and information technology major on the premed track in the School of Professional Advancement, a participant in Startup Team Mentoring and founder of NeuraSynced, was also one of the 10 event finalists.

The competition also brought together competitors from other Tulane Innovation Institute programs, including Emy Foster, co-founder of ParTee NOLA and a senior at Benjamin Franklin High School, and Payton Anderson, founder of ShellCycle and a junior at St. Augustine High School. Both students recently graduated from the Young Entrepreneurs Academy.

GiVV, a team of Tulane undergraduates who developed their idea through the inaugural Startup Strategy Lab course in the Tulane School of Liberal Arts, was also represented. The team includes Yoav Alperson, a finance major in the A. B. Freeman School of Business and a political economy major in the School of Liberal Arts; Avi Gorodetski, a sociology and social policy and practice major in the School of Liberal Arts; Jaret Solomon, a mathematics and computer science major in the School of Science and Engineering; and Catherine MacConnell, a recent graduate in public health in the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. After winning the Startup Strategy Lab final competition in spring 2026, the students continue to pursue the business.

For the first time, the Open Season pitch application was open to the greater New Orleans community, bringing founders from outside Tulane into the competition. Community finalists included Jasmine Reine-Walker of Seams Sew Good, Shannon Liston of LouisianaBarTutor.ai and Johny Lopez of Solara.

The 10 finalists pitched their ideas to a panel of judges that included Robert Priddy, a Tulane alumnus who provided the lead gift for the establishment of the Tulane Innovation Institute and was its founding champion; Melissa Lavigne-Delville, Tulane A. B. Freeman School of Business alum and founder of Culture Co-op and a Green Wave Innovation Mentor; Jordan Raffray, an investment associate at Benson Capital; and Sonia Kamboj, Tulane School of Medicine alum and founder of Breathe Easy Allergy & Asthma.
 

From left to right: Robert Priddy, Dr. Sonia Kamboj, Jordan Raffray and Melissa Lavigne-Delville (Photo by Cheryl Gerber)

Event attendance was open to anyone interested in learning more about innovation and entrepreneurship, and it included interactive experiences to explore the stages of building a startup.

Funding is only part of the support participants receive. The Tulane Innovation Institute aims to support all founders selected to present that evening, as well as the 37 additional applicants who submitted an Open Season idea, with resources that include mentorship and education.

The Innovation Institute is also hosting a free Startup Sprint Bootcamp on Friday, Sept. 25, open to all aspiring founders from the greater New Orleans community. Open Season and Startup Sprint Bootcamp are two early-stage programs offered by the Innovation Institute team, helping participants move from ideation and proof of concept toward startup formation and investment readiness.  

“The Tulane Innovation Institute is here to support anyone interested in pursuing entrepreneurship. Even if you don’t have an idea yet, we have programs that may help you find one,” Gramm said.