Eight weeks ago, 11 founders entered Immerse with big ideas and a mission to use AI for good. Yesterday, four finalists pitched working MVPs that tackle everything from family legacy preservation to creative employment access, all built with Bubble and AI.
Watch the replay below, or keep reading to find out the Community Favorite and Best Pitch winners.
What is Immerse?
Immerse is our fully-funded, eight-week pre-accelerator for socially conscious founders. The program takes founders from wireframe sketches to market-ready MVPs through intensive training, mentorship, and hands-on building with Bubble.
This year's cohort focused on “AI for good,” empowering mission-driven entrepreneurs to build meaningful solutions using AI and visual development. Read about the full Cohort 8 and all participating founders here.
The Demo Day winners
Demo Day is our celebration of what founders accomplish during Immerse. What that looks like is four finalists taking to the stage and live pitching their MVPs in front of a panel of judges and audience. It’s their chance to showcase how they turned their ideas into fully functional products.
We host it because these stories matter — every pitch proves that meaningful technology can come from anyone with vision and the right tools.
After hearing all four pitches, our judges and community voted. Here are this year's winners.
Community Favorite
Katie Kirk captured our community’s hearts with her artist-centered support platform, Makerlist, and was awarded the Community Favorite title. Katie’s award also includes six months of free Bubble services.
Best Pitch
Quinn Cummings took home the Best Pitch title, along with a $5,000 prize and one year of free Bubble services. Judges appreciated Quinn’s clear pitch and demo, showcasing how her AI-powered app Reading To Connect solves a relatable problem for parents all around the world.
Meet the four finalists
Erica Terry (11:01)
Founder of Love On 'Em — Newnan, Georgia
After her husband survived stage 4 cancer, Erica witnessed firsthand how inaccessible estate planning is for underserved families. Love On 'Em uses AI to help families preserve love, wisdom, and legacy across generations.
With over 20 years in education and as CEO of AI Business U, Erica built a platform that makes milestone messaging and planning simple, secure, and meaningful.
"We spend years preparing for what we’ll leave behind but almost no time preparing for how we’ll keep showing up after we’re gone. That’s why during Immerse, I built Love On ‘Em, a native mobile app that helps families close that connection gap through three simple and powerful experiences."
Katie Kirk (25:47)
Founder of Makerlist — Los Angeles, California
Katie is solving a problem she knows well as both a Lead Product Designer and practicing artist with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She founded Makerlist which helps artists co-create with AI and connect with skilled providers to bring their visions to life.
Makerlist is the infrastructure Katie wished existed, helping artists move seamlessly from vision to execution.
"In 2025, when our world feels increasingly chaotic — politically, socially, culturally — art isn’t a luxury. It’s how we make sense of what’s happening around us. It’s how we process, protest, and imagine better futures [..] My mission is to create the creative infrastructure that doesn’t exist, so any artist with a vision can execute it.”
Quinn Cummings (40:34)
Founder of Reading To Connect — Richardson, Texas
Quinn created Reading To Connect after her own parenting journey showed her how reading time could become a source of trust and generational connection. Her AI-powered app helps families choose and engage with books that meet their real needs in the moment.
Drawing from The ENGAGE Method, her six-phase framework, Quinn is transforming reading from a benchmark into a bridge between families.
"I wanted to be an engaged parent, but I had no idea how with the time that I had. Turns out, I wasn’t alone. [..] Families needed something they could use tonight — so the app became inevitable.”
Stephanie LaScala-Lodato (56:00)
Founder of VerbaVista — Brockport, New York
After teaching English in Rio de Janeiro and spending 14 years in language education, Stephanie saw how much time teachers spend on lesson planning. VerbaVista's AI-powered lesson builder, Verbi, delivers context-relevant, standards-aligned lesson plans in minutes instead of hours.
VerbaVista specifically serves teachers working with adult learners, a community Stephanie knows well from her years in the field.
"Every learner deserves lessons that accelerate them towards their goals and acknowledge their individuality regardless of their budget. Teachers must be free from the threat of burnout without being displaced. [..] What does it take to fix it? Meet Verbi — it turns lesson prep from an hour-long burden into a five-minute co-creation process."
What's next for Immerse
We want to thank our incredible judges, our program mentors, program sponsors, and the broader Bubble community, and everyone who attended Demo Day to support these founders.
Interested in following along with these entrepreneurs or learning more about the program? Keep tabs on bubble.io/immerse for updates on these founders and announcements from the Immerse team.
Past Immerse graduates have gone on to incredible things: Lisa Michelle built a thriving festival business and Renee Jackson created an AI-powered legal tech app that's transforming dispute resolution, just to name a few.
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