🎇 4th of July Edition: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Purpose at Scale
Founder Friday (July 3, 2025): A mission-driven biotech, a culture-led beverage featured in Rolling Stone, and a no-code AI game engine. This week’s founders are chasing freedom on their own terms..
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Every standout founder we know has one thing in common: a clear why.
This weekend, as we celebrate the 4th of July, we’re honoring founders who’ve embraced their own independence and bring that purpose to the surface.
In how they build, who they serve, and why they won’t stop.
Whether it’s a therapy that restores cellular energy, a drink that restores label trust, or a game engine that restores creative agency.
These founders didn’t wait for permission.
They didn’t just spot broken systems, they set out to build through them on their own terms. Their companies are smart. But their conviction?
That’s what makes them memorable.
Let’s meet them, shall we?
🧬 Dr. Laura Hix Glickman, PhD | Founder & CEO
Dr. Laura Hix Glickman is a serial biotech founder with deep roots in immunology and a track record of building science-first companies from the ground up. With a PhD in immunology and prior success raising a $34M Series A during the height of the pandemic, Glickman is known for turning early-stage discoveries into clinically guided companies. Her career has spanned immuno-oncology, infectious disease, and now a personal focus: mitochondrial medicine.
Adjuvia Therapeutics is a preclinical biopharma company developing oral therapies for rare diseases driven by mitochondrial dysfunction. The initial focus is on Friedreich’s Ataxia and Leigh Syndrome, two inherited conditions with no approved therapies. Early preclinical data shows strong tissue uptake, and the company holds issued and pending IP covering both extraction and formulation.
Adjuvia has been accepted into the J&J MBC BioLabs incubator and is working in collaboration with researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where clinical trials are planned post-IND. Company LinkedIn
💡 Backed by strong patents
💡 Designed to scale into aging, neurodegeneration, and autism
💡 Founded with purpose, led with precision
🔗 One Pager | Founder LinkedIn | Book an Intro Call
🧃 Bill Butrymowicz | Founder & CEO, Loom
Bill Butrymowicz grew up in the beverage industry. As a second-generation distributor, he helped introduce brands like Bai, Vita Coco, and Celsius to market - gaining early exposure to how iconic consumer products are built and scaled. Over the years, he transitioned from distributor to investor, backing several successful beverage brands. That front-row seat to CPG success shaped his perspective on timing, taste, and white space. With Loom, he’s stepping out from behind the scenes to build his own.
Loom is a low-sugar, prebiotic juice water that offers the taste of real fruit with none of the legacy baggage (no preservatives, no added sugar, and no plastic waste). Loom delivers on clean-label wellness while staying culturally relevant - its partnerships span pro athletes, emerging musicians, and summer-long venue activations through The Bowery Presents.
Loom is already in 3,000+ stores including ShopRite (the leading grocery chain in the NY metro area), and has been named BevNET’s Best New Brand. Clean-label. Plastic Neutral. No sugar bombs. Just smart formulation and sharper storytelling by an second gen industry pro. Company LinkedIn
💡 Early Bai investor with deep Direct Store Delivery know-how
💡 Featured in Rolling Stone & Sports Illustrated
🔗 Pitch Deck | One Pager | Founder LinkedIn | Book an Intro Call
🎮 Fernando Cortes | Co-Founder, Bloomverse
Fernando Cortes is a founder with rare range - a former pro gamer, Oracle technologist, and trained psychologist who’s launched startups across gaming, AI, and enterprise systems. He’s spent the last two decades building tools that lower the barrier to digital creation. With Bloomverse, he’s aiming even higher.
Bloomverse is a no-code AI platform that lets anyone build and monetize games, branded experiences, and tokenized economies, without needing to code. The platform already has 10,000+ users on its waitlist and pilots live with Amazon Prime Gaming and Solana Labs.
With a model that supports both equity and crypto participation, three patents granted, and a scalable infrastructure in place. Fernando has positioned Bloomverse at the intersection of AI, gaming, and Web3. Company LinkedIn
💡 Pilots with Solana Labs & Amazon Prime Gaming
💡 10K+ waitlist ahead of Q3
🔗 Investor Deck | One Pager | Meet the Founder | Book an Intro Call
🧠A Thought to Take Into the Weekend
Independence isn’t just about launching something new.
It’s about building systems that give people more control over their health, their finance, their habits, and their value.
Founding a company is the highest form of modern independence.
It's uncertain, uncomfortable, and often under-appreciated.
But it’s also the path to real impact.
This week’s founders remind us: freedom isn’t just a value, it’s a skillset.
As the country reflects on what freedom means, these builders are actively redefining it. In labs, on shelves, and inside digital ecosystems..
Their work isn’t performative, it’s permission-giving.
And that’s what real innovation looks like.
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