Niko Zurita has spent his career scaling startups and building intentional workplace cultures. From early talent roles to leading People & Culture at Inbox Health, he’s helped companies grow with clarity, empathy, and operational focus.

Now, he’s applying that same mindset to a new challenge: group travel.

As co-founder of Vamos, Niko is solving the coordination chaos behind company retreats. Built for hybrid and remote teams, Vamos simplifies planning through a data-driven, collaboration-first platform—combining flight tracking, itinerary tools, and real-time input from your whole team.

In this episode of PitchPod, Niko shares how Vamos is helping startups plan smarter, scale faster, and stay connected beyond the screen.

Behind Shaping CT's Future Pitch Competition is the powerhouse team at UConn’s Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI). Executive Director Jennifer Mathieu and Assistant Director Alycia Chrosniak have helped launch and grow hundreds of startups, designing accelerator programs, securing funding opportunities, and mentoring founders.

This episode highlights what makes Connecticut’s startup ecosystem unique, how CCEI supports diverse founders, and why collaborations like PitchPod matter for the state’s economic future.

Restore is a SaaS platform built for restaurants to track and resolve guest issues in real time, whether it’s handling concerns in person, offering rewards through the app, or using insights to improve service. Founder Nathan Catapano is focused on giving restaurant owners a credible, engaging tool that strengthens customer relationships and boosts operational performance. In this episode, Nathan shares how Restore helps hospitality teams respond faster, learn from feedback, and turn guest experiences into lasting loyalty, and why earning credibility with early adopters is key to scaling in the restaurant industry.

Puure is a mission-driven intimate apparel brand putting women’s health first. Founder Christina Phillips was inspired by her personal health journey to design organic, non-toxic lingerie that’s as safe and sustainable as it is beautiful. In this episode, Christina talks about the gaps in the intimate apparel market, how Puure blends wellness with fashion, and why conscious consumer choices can transform an industry.

Orbit Crates is reimagining playtime with a toy rental service designed to reduce clutter, encourage sustainable play, and help families save money. Founder Kim Conti, a three-time AI product founder, left a C-suite role to build a mission-driven business tackling the environmental and financial waste of toy overconsumption. This episode highlights the inspiration behind Orbit Crates, lessons from early customer feedback, and her vision for growing the toy rental economy nationwide.

PatentPlus AI is automating one of the most time-consuming parts of innovation: patent search. Co-founder Massyl Mallem is pioneering a system that delivers premium-quality search reports in less than 24 hours, giving inventors and startups faster paths to protection and commercialization. We take a closer look at how AI can transform IP research, the impact on global innovation, and what’s next for their market-ready autonomous search platform.

Levo International is transforming food security with affordable, accessible hydroponic technology. Founder Christian Heiden started the company as a teenager and has since scaled it into a community-driven enterprise producing fresh, local food with 90% less water and faster growth than traditional farming. We talk about Levo’s journey from small pilot farms to statewide expansion and how their model empowers neighborhoods to grow, and own, their food supply.

Andrea Shields is a physician-entrepreneur and maternal health advocate, co-founding Varda5 to tackle a critical gap in emergency response education: maternal cardiac arrest. Their Obstetric Life Support (OBLS) training is a first-of-its-kind, evidence-based program preparing healthcare teams to save lives in critical moments. In this episode, Andrea discusses the urgent need for OBLS, the challenges of scaling life-saving training, and how innovation in healthcare education can reach underserved communities.