{"id":131,"date":"2026-08-18T22:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/?p=131"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:23:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:23:25","slug":"whistle-while-you-cold-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/whistle-while-you-cold-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistle While You \u201cCold Cake\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Entrepreneurs Kevin Xia \u201928 and Daniel Zhu \u201929, alongside James G\u00f3mez CMC \u201927, earned first place and a $5,000 prize at the spring SageTank pitch competition where 5C teams pitch their startups to a panel of VC partners and investors in front of a live audience. Their startup, Whistle, is an agentic software platform that streamlines the complex process of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trio, all teammates on the CMS men\u2019s soccer team, developed Whistle to provide athletic departments with precise answers to regulatory questions quickly. \u201cThe impact is twofold,\u201d says Xia. \u201cIt helps the compliance officer find answers faster [within 30 seconds] and with extreme precision so NCAA compliance infractions don\u2019t occur.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2026\/08\/H2_article-image-1-1024x664.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2026\/08\/H2_article-image-1-1024x664.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2026\/08\/H2_article-image-1-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2026\/08\/H2_article-image-1-768x498.jpg 768w, https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2026\/08\/H2_article-image-1.jpg 1307w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Whistle team presents during the HMC Entrepreneurial Network Summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team\u2019s journey from the soccer field to the boardroom was fueled by HMC\u2019s Enterprise and Entrepreneurs course taught by Josh Jones \u201998 and Benson Tsai \u201906 and the Entrepreneurship Studio, directed by computer science professor Zach Dodds. Xia also attended the Claremont Accelerator program, a 5C student-run accelerator that helps student founders scale their ventures by providing capital, mentorship and staffing. Their journey even included some \u201ccold caking\u201d\u2014literally wooing prospective customers with cake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With their SageTank winnings, the founders worked full-time this summer to scale Whistle. \u201cBuilding something of your own and growing it with your best friends\u2014that feeling is indescribable,\u201d says Xia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Entrepreneurs Kevin Xia \u201928 and Daniel Zhu \u201929, alongside James G\u00f3mez CMC \u201927, earned first place and a $5,000 prize at the spring SageTank pitch competition where 5C teams pitch their startups to a panel of VC partners and investors in front of a live audience. Their startup, Whistle, is an agentic software platform that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}