Senior Maximilian Renieris will pitch an AI-based app for trade services
April 2025 – Maximilian Renieris C‘25 will represent Drew University in the upcoming statewide UPitchNJ collegiate startup competition, sponsored by Nokia Bell Labs.
The tenth annual competition will be held at The Hatchery Innovation Studio at Rutgers University, where 13 college and university student teams will pitch their startup ideas.
Renieris was inspired to create Apprentice Intelligence, an app that closes the gap between the number of qualified trade technicians and the growing demand for their services, after spending a year managing more than 60 units as a maintenance supervisor with Conifer Realty. The company manages nearly 13,000 apartments in 150 communities and is dedicated to providing high-quality, affordable housing to underserved populations across the northeastern United States.
“During my time as a maintenance supervisor, I saw firsthand how essential this work is to people’s daily lives,” said Renieris. “Working in affordable housing highlighted how deeply property maintenance affects comfort, safety, and dignity. With Apprentice Intelligence, I want to reinvent how people enter the trades by making apprenticeships more accessible and improving service across all communities, especially those that are often underserved.”
Through his coursework in the business course The Work of Innovation: Creating Organizations That Solve Problems, Renieris was able to develop a scalable solution to the skills trade gap he had witnessed firsthand.
In the course, students read Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future and spend the semester creating innovative solutions in their areas of interest. Ultimately, students get real-world experience presenting all of the key components of a pitch deck, including a go-to-market strategy, revenue model, evidence of market validation, and competitor analysis.
Renieris’ Apprentice Intelligence offers real-time collaboration and skill tracking for technicians working in critical trades at both residential and commercial properties.
Using heatmap analytics to help identify properties with high-volume issues, the app helps property managers better allocate resources, contracts, and staffing. In addition, Apprentice Intelligence leverages technology to provide a live knowledge base and mentoring by experienced technicians to help their less experienced peers. Eventually, Renieris’ company would offer scholarships and apprenticeships to upskill and train more people in critical trades.
“Maximilian Renieris combined his real-world experience and learnings from the classroom to create a compelling early-stage startup,” said Sarah Abramowitz, John H. Evans Professor and Chair of Business. “The sequence of courses in our business major helps students build, develop, and promote their own business ideas. It is a lot of effort to supervise a class where students do so much individual work, but (Assistant Professor of Practice in Business) Ann Mills nails it. She is an excellent mentor, and I am delighted that our students challenge themselves in this state competition.”
To learn more about the Drew business track, please visit here.
