Four WashU students among five honorees for the 2023 ‘Inno under 25’ class

In the third year for Inno’s recognition of young business innovators, the spinoff publication from the St. Louis Business Journal has named four WashU students or alums among its class of five new honorees.

The Inno under 25 program “seeks to spotlight some of St. Louis’ up-and-coming innovators. This year’s group is impressive, notably for its ambition,” the publication wrote in its recognition story in early September.

Minju Lee, BSME 2023. Olin connection: He has taken Olin’s Hatchery business plan course and the follow up, the League of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs course. Lee used the pandemic summer of 2020—and time from a canceled internship—to take an entrepreneurship course from the University of Chicago. That, combined with his WashU Olin degree, has propelled him to found Mozi, a startup focused on creating an app to bring people together for events and hangouts. Read more from the St. Louis Business Journal’s Inno interview with Lee.

Helen Telahun, EN 2024. Olin connection: She’s earning a second major in entrepreneurship. She gained her inspiration from a personal finance class she took at WashU—but not the kind of inspiration you might have expected. It compelled her to launch Article 26, which focuses on an AI-driven app to help provide a personalized approach to users for their money management and financial literacy questions. Read more from the St. Louis Business Journal’s Inno interview with Telahun.

Rachel Johns, AB 2025, has no Olin connection. She pivoted at WashU from aspirations in veterinary medicine to earth science and geospatial analysis. She’s received a US Department of Defense Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation Scholarship and has made a two-year commitment to work at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency following graduation. Read more from the St. Louis Business Journal’s Inno interview with Johns.

Heath Rutledge-Jukes, MD 2026. Olin connection: He took the summer innovation pathway on the medical school campus taught by Doug Villhard, entrepreneurship director, and Linda Wu, adjunct professor. He used his lackluster reaction to available medical school test preparation tools to create a better mousetrap: King of the Curve is a startup that produces a mobile app that gamifies the process of MCAT test prep, as well as other standardized tests. It makes prep more like a video game. Read more from the St. Louis Business Journal’s interview with Rutledge-Jukes.