Catalyst

Post-pitch story

Shwetha Maddur, a University of Michigan-trained biomedical engineer, called into the show's 2020 helpline episode with a startup called Catalyst, looking for investor guidance from Elizabeth Yin and Hunter Walk. Here's the honest truth about what happened next: we couldn't find it. Catalyst left almost no public trace — no funding announcements, no product launch coverage, no shutdown notice. It isn't mentioned in Maddur's later professional bios, which instead highlight her earlier ventures: Warmilu, the infant-warming blanket company she co-founded around 2012, and Seva Corps, a nonprofit she ran from 2014 to 2021. What we can tell you is where the founder ended up, and it's a good landing. Since September 2022, Maddur has been a MedTech Innovation Advisor at RTI International, the major nonprofit research institute, helping guide the next generation of medical technology. Some startups on the show become breakout successes; others quietly fold into a founder's next chapter. Catalyst appears to be the latter — and if you know more about what happened to it, send us a tip and we'll update this page.