The Fall 2024 Orange Innovation Fund award winners are (from left to right): Brianna Gillfillian, Waqar Hussain, Emeka Ossai, Ava Lubkemann, and Tosin Alabi.

���ϲ����� Libraries announced the seven award recipients for the Fall 2024 grant. Each of the following will receive a $5,000 grant to pursue research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. Recipients are:

• Angelo Niforatos G’25 (), founded Niffy Drone Solutions LLC, a drone operation and data analysis solution to improve decision-making, for its stage two prototype. “I finally pursued what I’d been discussing for five years thanks to ���ϲ�����,” says Niforatos. “I had no idea ���ϲ����� offered so many opportunities like the Innovation Grant to help me gain enough confidence to take that leap and chase my dream.”
• Ava Lubkemann ’27 (), founded Revamped, an eco-conscious initiative reimagining thrift shopping and waste reduction through a mobile model using an upcycled school bus pop-up and donation platform. “This funding gives me the ability to create a venture that addresses the problem of textile waste, particularly on college campuses,” says Lubkemann. “I am excited to build my minimally viable product this spring and become part of the projected $82 billion secondhand retail market,�� meeting the demand for sustainable and affordable fashion.”
• Brianna Gillfillian ’24, G’25 (Engineering and Computer Science), founded STEAMfluence, a Science Technology Engineering Art Math (STEAM) pilot summer program for students of color and students in underserved communities. “With the help of Orange Innovation Fund, I will be able to turn dreams into reality and take steps to make the change I aspire to see in the world,” says Gillfillian. “STEAMfluence is not just a venture, it is a pillar of hope for many young people who think they could not advance in a career in STEAM.”
• Emeka Christopher Ossai G’25 (Whitman), founded CampusLabs, which equips university students in developing economies with critical skills needed for entrepreneurship and work. After successfully piloting CampusLabs Nigeria incubator, Ossai is now focusing on creating a hybrid program to expand participation. “This Orange Innovation Fund allows me to bring to life a startup accelerator that’s the first of its kind for university students in Nigeria, combining virtual learning with a direct residency… now we can finally reach talented university founders who would not have had access before because of where they live,” Ossai says. “It’s a real opportunity to see how this model can work across different regions and make entrepreneurship support more accessible.”
• Tony Goncalves ’27 (Engineering and Computer Science), founded GymIn, a comprehensive hardware and digital platform solution to track the use of gym equipment in real-time, optimizing usage and user experience. Goncalves is collaborating with the Barnes Center on a pilot. “GymIn is revolutionizing the fitness industry by providing a comprehensive hardware and digital platform solution for gym owners and users,” says Goncalves. “This award will help us create our minimally viable product to test with gyms to optimize operations, reduce costs, and enhance the gym experience for members through data-driven insights.”
• Tosin Alabi G’25 (Whitman), founded Diabetech, a smart bandage solution for diabetes wound care. Alabi is working on a prototype that integrates an electronic sensor with mobile application and artificial intelligence analytics to detect diabetic ulcers. Alabi, who lost her father to diabetes at a young age, recently completed the NSF I-Corps program offered by ���ϲ����� and received EB-1 visa status based on her work on Diabetech. The EB-1 visa was issued by the U.S. government to Albert Einstein to extend protections of official residence. Now referred to as the “Einstein Visa,” it recognizes very select researchers with extraordinary talents for their potential to contribute to the American scientific community. “When we prevent a diabetic amputation, we’re not just saving a limb, we’re keeping families walking together longer,” Alabi says.
• Waqar Hussain G’25 (Whitman), founded Iconnic.cloud, an artificial intelligence-driven compute pricing arbitrage platform. “As a dedicated participant in the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, I am grateful for this award to help us build spot compute pricing arbitrage powered by AI,” says Hussain, a Fulbright Scholar.��We are confident that with the support of the Orange Innovation Fund we can revolutionize cloud management services for small and medium-sized businesses.”

The Orange Innovation Fund, a “concept to commercialization” grant fund, is intended to help move graduate and undergraduate student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept and commercialization. Initial funding came from a gift to ���ϲ����� Libraries from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the ���ϲ����� Board of Trustees. The program is administered through ���ϲ����� Libraries, in collaboration with the University’s research and commercialization programs.

Student awardees submitted comprehensive grant proposals that outlined specific, tangible needs related to prototype development while assessing the product, service or technology they are developing. A multi-disciplinary team of University faculty and alumni founders who helped develop the concept for the fund made the award selections. Awards are tied to milestones associated with defined projects over a clear time with identified outcomes.

The spring 2025 funding round will open in winter 2025, with proposals due by March 28, 2025. For more information, email OrangeInnovation@syr.edu.

2024 ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Award winners (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

For the second year in a row, the University honored Orange ingenuity with two days of celebration, networking and a friendly pitch competition as part of the ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards.

Last Thursday, the ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards ceremony recognized the 2024 honorees, culminating with a live reveal of the top 10 fastest-growing Orange businesses. The evening also included a conversation with , celebrity chef and baker from A&E’s hit shows “Cake Dynasty” and “Legends of the Fork,” who participated in a fireside chat, sharing the personal ingredients behind his entrepreneurial success.

The next day, honorees of the ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards headlined the ※�������50 Summit. The summit allowed students to meet and network with top thinkers on engaging, practical and forward-thinking opportunities. The summit also included a “Six for Six” student pitch competition, where the top six campus innovation teams participated in a spirited “Shark Tank”-style format for a “winner take all” $6,000 grand prize selected by ※�������50 honorees.

Check out how the two days went:

※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards (Nov. 14)��

Thomas O’Brien ’25, student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, kicked off the ceremony. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, provided the welcoming remarks for the evening. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Tracy Barlok, senior vice president and chief advancement officer, and Buddy Valastro, celebrity chef and baker, participated in a fireside chat. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

The University presented Valastro with an Otto the Orange cake as a thank you for participating in the evening’s festivities. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Student attendees were invited on stage to take a photo with Valastro and Otto the Orange. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Valastro posed for photos with attendees after the event. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Valastro posed with Aaron Krause ’92 (center), founder of Scrub Daddy and Otto the Orange. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Award winners and attendees had an opportunity to network after the awards portion of the evening. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Award winners and attendees gathered together after the awards portion of the evening. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Students enjoyed the networking event after the ceremony. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Otto had fun joking around with the award winners. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

※�������50 Entrepreneurship Summit (Nov. 15)

The ※�������50 Summit included conversations and networking with the 50 fastest-growing alumni businesses. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Alex McKelvie, professor of entrepreneurship and interim dean of the Whitman School, provided welcoming remarks at the summit. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Students met and networked with alumni founders and top executives of leading innovation companies at the ‘CUSE50 Summit. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

Haynie addressed the ※�������50 Summit attendees. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

※�������50 honorees participated in various panel discussions. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Students engaged with ※�������50 honorees. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

The ※�������50 Summit brought out great conversations and collaboration. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Students participated in a spirited “Six for Six” student pitch competition. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Nicolas Courbage ’26 (center), student in the Whitman School and founder of PapeX, won the “Six for Six” student pitch competition. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

• First place ($1,500) was awarded to Celes Buffard ’27 (School of Information Studies), founder of Return 2 Reality, an entertainment company focusing on a podcast for entrepreneurs around navigating and getting past the hurdles and challenges throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
• Second place ($1,000) was awarded to Olutosin (Tosin) Alabi G’25 (Whitman School of Management), founder of Diabetech, a med-tech venture for a diabetic foot ulcer wearable.
• Two third-place prizes ($500 each) were awarded to Alie Savane ’25 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Bete Kola, a health and wellness venture focusing on kola nut food and beverage products; and Mian Hamid ’26 (School of Information Studies), founder of Chai YEAH, a beverage venture offering authentic Indian chai tea to the U.S. market.

“This rise in the rankings is proof positive of the Whitman School’s continuing commitment to providing innovative programs in entrepreneurship at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Our success has been supported by the entrepreneurial spirit that runs throughout the entire university,” says Maria Minniti, Bantle Chair of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy and chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE). “This upward movement in the rankings is the result of the hard work and commitment of the Whitman School’s leadership, faculty and students, and we are proud to be acknowledged for this level of success.”

The graduate programs were also ranked at No. 24 this year. “These rankings are a quantifiable reflection of the quality of our program and our commitment to giving our students experiences that continue to spark their entrepreneurial spirit,” says John Torrens, deputy department chair and professor of entrepreneurial practice. “Our faculty are truly committed to helping our students bring their ideas to life through mentoring, coaching and sharing their own professional experiences in this space. In addition, students have many opportunities to obtain funding through our various competitions, like the Orange Tank business pitch competition and our Panasci Business Plan Competition, many of which are supported by generous alumni who appreciate the work we do at the Whitman School.”

The rankings are based on data collection that takes into account 40 points about schools’ entrepreneurship programs, faculties, students and alumni. The Princeton Review conducted the data collection in summer 2024 with administrators at nearly 300 schools.

“Since we debuted these rankings nearly two decades ago, the number of colleges and universities offering entrepreneurship courses has grown tremendously,” says , The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief. “We highly recommend the schools that made our lists for 2025. Their faculties are outstanding. Their programs have robust experiential components. Their students have access to extraordinary mentors as well as networking contacts that will serve them well into their careers.”

For more information on Whitman’s undergraduate entrepreneurship major visit: or for the graduate program visit:

The honorees make up an impressive group of the —from baby monitors and kitchen scrubbers to weekend getaways and candle companies, and everything in between.

On Thursday, Nov. 14, the will recognize the 2024 honorees, culminating with a live reveal of the top 10 fastest-growing Orange businesses.

“We are excited to be hosting this event again this year to welcome our distinguished alumni back to campus to honor their remarkable accomplishments,” says Tracy Barlok, senior vice president and chief advancement officer. “Our graduates possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and it’s essential to recognize the significant impact they are making globally through their businesses.”

The evening’s festivities will also include a conversation with , celebrity chef and baker from A&E’s hit shows “Cake Dynasty” and “Legends of the Fork.” Valastro will participate in a fireside chat during the awards ceremony, sharing the personal ingredients behind his entrepreneurial success.

for the event.

Winners of the 2023 ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Award (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

※�������50 Entrepreneurship Summit

Honorees of the ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards will headline the ※�������50 Summit the following day on Friday, Nov. 15, at the . The summit is open to student innovators, entrepreneurs and creatives across campus, as well as anyone who wants to develop an entrepreneurial mindset for personal and professional success.

Students will meet and network with alumni at the ※�������50 Summit. (Photo by Jeremy Brinn)

This event promises to be the biggest innovation and entrepreneurship summit of the year and is a chance to meet and network with top thinkers on engaging, practical and forward-thinking opportunities that will inspire creative thinking and provide real-world takeaways.

Topics will include building a startup from scratch, bootstrapping and developing a growth mindset, building a personal brand, team building, leadership, resilience and well-being, the creator economy, innovation in the digital age, and embracing change to drive personal growth and success. Last year, hundreds of students attended and came away with ideas and connections, as well as mentors and investors.

for the event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., starting in the Flaum Grand Hall and then moving to Whitman classrooms for 10 panel discussions with ※�������50 honorees. Conversations will be moderated by student innovators who will serve as “firestarters” for discussions with ample opportunity for audience participation.

“These events offer a distinctive learning experience for our students,” says Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Whitman School. “The ※�������50 Awards ceremony and Summit allow students a unique opportunity to engage with alumni who began their entrepreneurial journey at ���ϲ�����, bridging the gap between our graduates and the entrepreneurial dreams of our current students.”

The summit will also include lunch in Flaum Grand Hall, followed by a spirited “Five for Five” student pitch competition in Lender Auditorium, where the top five campus innovation teams will participate in a spirited “Shark Tank”-style format for a “winner take all” $5,000 grand prize selected by※�������50 honorees.

For more information about the event, visit the .

Alumni panel discussions at the ※�������50 Summit (Photo by Jeremy Brinn)

Phloat co-founders Nathan Thor Brekke ’26 (left) and Malak Aljerari ’27 (right) with LaunchPad program manager J Wess (middle)

���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad (LaunchPad) hosted its annual ’Cuse Tank entrepreneurial competition on Friday, Sept. 27, during Family Weekend in Bird Library. More than 35 student entrepreneur teams from various schools and colleges across campus participated in a “Shark-Tank” style business pitch to win $20,000 in cash prizes. The panel of judges consisted of University parents and affiliated family members. The judges selected two first-place teams, which each won $10,000 and two honorable mention runners-up:

• Iconnic.Cloud, founded by Waqar Hussain, G’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), won first place for the second year in a row. Iconnic.Cloud is a fully managed cloud hosting platform, engineered with proprietary software, that crafts tailored hosting solutions.
  

  Iconnic.Cloud founder by Waqar Hussain G’25 (left) with LaunchPad program manager J Wess

• Phloat, founded by College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) students who participated in the 2024 Invent@SU program, Elijah Alexander ’27, Joshua John Varkey ’26, Malak Aljerari ’27 and Nathan Thor Brekke ’26, also tied for first place. Phloat is a phone case that has a super compact, deployable flotation feature that triggers in the event of a phone falling and sinking into deep water.
• Gym-In, another startup from Invent@SU and founded by ECS students Alexander Hamza ’26, Antonio Goncalves ’27, Jack Friedman ’27 and Armani Isonguyo ’25 tied for runner-up. Their invention provides gym users with an app to determine how full a gym is and what machines are being used in live time.
• Papa Box, co-founded by Aleks Djordjevic G’25 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs) and Amos Kiplimo Bungei G’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) was also tied for runner-up. The company aims to provide and scale a battery-charging infrastructure through its interoperable PAPA Boxes swapping stations in transportation hot zones in Kenya.

This year’s group of “family” judges included:

• Todd Arky, executive vice president, Sharebite and co-founder/CEO of TipOff Sports
• Anthony Campagiorni ’91, vice president, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Company
• Melinda Dermody, associate dean of academic success, ���ϲ����� Libraries
• Melissa Gwilt ’15, G’22, director of budget and administration, ���ϲ����� Libraries
• Corey Lieblein ’93 , CEO of CP8 Capital
• Ajay Nagpal, president and COO Millenium
• Alice Villafana, retired
• Tonya Villafana, global franchise head, research and development, for Astra-Zeneca
• Mark Wassersug, former COO Intercontinental Exchange

Davis Hood ’26, Carter Thompson ’26, Jennifer Mason ’26, and Matthew Pinto ’27 with Jim DaRin and professor and Invent@SU director, Alex Deyhim. (Photo by Alex Dunbar)

Former ���ϲ����� student��Jim DaRin��is one of many wheelchair users who rely on adapted vehicles to drive. These vehicles are equipped with a docking system designed to secure the wheelchairs in place while users focus on the road. However, even when the wheelchair is locked in, it’s not completely secure, causing DaRin to move back and forth while driving.

“The docking system moves and I’m rocking back and forth. I’m paralyzed from my waist down and have my hands on the steering wheel and throttle. It’s not secure or safe,” says DaRin. “The wheelchair’s pin also has a tendency to get caught on certain surfaces and the bolt drags on the pavement.”

DaRin is far from the first to complain about docking systems for adapted vehicles, but very few attempts have been made to fix these issues. That’s when he reached out to engineering students Davis Hood ’26 (electrical engineering), Jennifer Mason ’26 (mechanical engineering), Matthew Pinto ’27 (biomedical engineering) and Carter Thompson ’26 (aerospace engineering) to explore ways to improve his docking mechanism.

“I showed them the challenge I was having and the problems with my current docking system,” DaRin says.

Jennifer Mason ’26 and Carter Thompson ’26 measuring Jim DaRin’s docking system. (Photo by Alex Dunbar)

As part of , a six-week summer program where student teams prototype, design and pitch original devices to judges, Hood, Mason, Pinto and Thompson created MagniClaw, a device that securely locks wheelchairs in moving vehicles. Their device has a lightweight bar attachment on the back of the wheelchair and a docking mechanism that holds a clamping and electromagnet.

“We’ve gone through multiple different design iterations, and we are always trying to keep in mind Department of Transportation standards,” says Hood. “Our device is easy to use, has a universal design, and can go on a majority of manual wheelchairs.”

MagniClaw’s lightweight attachment can easily be connected to wheelchairs using two small clamps. Once attached, the user can connect to the docking frame. The attachment has a steel plate in the center that interacts with the electromagnet to securely hold the wheelchair in place.

“Our device has a clamping mechanism. With this, wheelchair users can back into clamps without any extra input from the control center and the clamp’s shape provides enough security for the electromagnet to turn on,” says Pinto.

The electromagnet, which holds the wheelchair in place, can pull up to 600 lbs. and is activated by a remote. The remote has a Bluetooth feature that can communicate whether the electromagnet is on or off.

Matthew Pinto ’27, Jennifer Mason ’26, David Hood ’26, and Carter Thompson ’26 examining Jim DaRin’s adapted vehicle and docking system. (Photo by Alex Dunbar)

“All wheelchair users have to do is back up, and the system gets locked in, holding them in place until they press a button that activates the electromagnet. They’re held for the car ride, and when they’re done, they press a button to release the electromagnet, and they can roll away freely,” says Mason.

MagniClaw’s hitch-less design and customizability not only sets it apart from competitors but also provides more freedom and mobility for wheelchairs with a more accessible docking system. They showcased their original device at Invent@SU’s final presentations to a panel of 14 expert judges and guests, including faculty, staff, Dean Cole Smith, ���ϲ����� Life Trustee Bill Allyn and program supporter Mike Lazar. The team tied for second place, winning a cash prize of $1,200.

“It was nice to have a broad spectrum of engineers in our group. It also feels great to help Jim out,” says Thompson.

“My previous docking system was not good. Their system is a hundred times better,” says DaRin. “It’s much more safe and secure. The potential for MagniClaw is huge.”

“Mr. Jim Darin, a former student of ���ϲ�����, approached me with a problem that he hoped an Invent@SU team could solve,” says Kenneth and Mary Ann Shaw Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurial Leadership��Alex Deyhim. “It was amazing to watch the students work directly with Mr. Darin to design and prototype MagniClaw, a magnetic wheelchair docking system that could be helpful to the millions of Americans who use wheelchairs full-time. This project is a wonderful example of what our students can accomplish when they work across engineering disciplines.”

Carter Thompson ’26 examining Jim DaRin’s docking system. (Photo by Alex Dunbar)

Traci Geisler

, director of (LaunchPad), presented a keynote address and served as an entrepreneurship competition judge at the first-ever Kenya-USA Global Launchpad Initiative (KUGLi) Innovation Summit, held at Kibabii University in Bungoma, Kenya, Aug. 15-16. The KUGLi Summit was the culmination of a technology innovation and entrepreneurship program focused on fostering multi-national ventures among science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) students to address global issues through entrepreneurship and creative opportunities.

The program was started in Winter 2023 by Churchill Saoke with support from the U.S. Embassy to promote entrepreneurialism and facilitate partnerships between Kenyan universities and ���ϲ�����. Throughout the Winter and Spring 2024, 131 students from Kenya and the United States participated in virtual and hybrid training sessions to identify unexploited areas for micro-multinational ventures using STEAM-focused solutions. ���ϲ����� student entrepreneurs in the LaunchPad partnered with Kenyan student entrepreneurs to advance several Kenyan student ventures. The Kenyan entrepreneurs were also invited to participate in virtual support and services from ���ϲ�����’s LaunchPad, including one-on-one advisory sessions with Traci Geisler, participation in LaunchPad workshops and presentations, and entrepreneurship ideation classes offered by , professor of entrepreneurship in the School of Information Studies.

The culmination of that budding partnership resulted in the invitation to Geisler to deliver a keynote speech, at the Summit in Kenya, to student entrepreneurs from five Kenyan universities. The Summit was also attended by Drew Giblin, the USA cultural attaché in Nairobi; Bungoma County Deputy Governor Jannipher Mbatiany; university officials and faculty from Kabibii University, JKUAT University and Great Lakes University of Kisumu; and other business leaders. Geisler spoke to the entrepreneurs about how to avoid and address cash flow problems, market misalignment, and team communication challenges during the initial growth phase of a startup. Geisler and other Kenyan subject matter experts also participated in the judging panel for the 14 student teams’ business pitches.

“The project is an intensive experience training of U.S. and Kenyan university students to develop micro-multinational ventures that employ entrepreneurial solutions to address and resolve global issues,” said Saoke.

The students’ business venture ideas addressed social impact initiatives and “wicked” problems, such as infant malnutrition, financial illiteracy, plastic pollution, water scarcity, inadequate markets for local produce, teen pregnancy, food insecurity and crime, among others.

Group photo of KUGLi Innovation Summit participants, including Traci Geisler, at Kibabii University in Bungoma, Kenya on Aug. 16.

McConville writes: “Frequent military moves often place financial hardships on service members (SM) and their families. For a spouse like me, 23 moves over my SM’s 42-year Army career, caused many challenging pivots in my own career. The new policy authorizing reimbursement of moving costs – up to $1,000 – associated with a spouse’s business is crucial in helping mitigate those financial hardships, in encouraging career sustainment and growth, and in enhancing SM retention.” Also, please view her .

Maury writes: “The new policy reimbursing military spouses up to $1,000 for business costs during moves addresses significant challenges highlighted in our latest data brief on . Our research shows that 46% of military spouses feel their status negatively affects their career prospects, driving many toward entrepreneurship. Despite 74% of military spouse entrepreneurs reporting that entrepreneurship positively impacts their professional lives, only 28% can fully support themselves or their families through their businesses. This reimbursement provides essential financial relief, supporting their resilience and entrepreneurial spirit, and helping them sustain and grow their ventures.”

For the second year in a row, ���ϲ����� will honor the success of Orange business leaders across the globe at the ※�������50 awards. This annual celebration features 50 of the fastest-growing businesses founded or owned by ���ϲ����� alumni. The inaugural honorees included a marketing agency CEO, a party rental company owner, a creative event production company founder and many others.

Applications for the are being accepted now.

“���ϲ�����’s is home to one of the first academic entrepreneurship programs in the U.S., and we have a longstanding tradition of supporting and elevating the entrepreneurial aspirations of our students,” says��. “The ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur program is a natural extension of that tradition, and a unique opportunity to connect our alumni entrepreneurs with our current students and faculty.”

Alumni of any school or college, graduates of ���ϲ����� executive education programs and alumni of entrepreneurship programs operated by the�� are eligible and encouraged to apply.

“���ϲ����� alumni are doing extraordinary work all over the world, and I am thrilled that we are going to recognize the business acumen they developed at ���ϲ�����. What I’m most excited about is that our honorees will return to campus to pass along valuable insights to the next generation of Orange entrepreneurs,” says , ���ϲ�����’s chief advancement officer.

Honorees will be recognized on campus on Thursday, Nov. 14, in the National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building. While on campus, ※�������50 honorees will also share insights with each other and current students, as part of a series of campus engagement sessions planned for Friday, Nov. 15, during the ※�������50 Symposium.

��Do you want to compete to be recognized in the inaugural class of ※�������50 awardees?

The eligibility criteria for the ※�������50 awards are as follows:

• Applicants must be alumni of ���ϲ����� and be either a majority owner or hold a C-suite level leadership position in the company;
• Applicants must have founded their business at least three calendar years prior to the date of application for ※�������50 recognition;
• Must have had verifiable revenues of $100,000 or more in 2021; and
• Must have verifiable revenues of $250,000 or more in 2023.
• In addition, the company must meet one or more of the following criteria:
  • A ���ϲ����� alumnus or group of ���ϲ����� alumni maintain ownership in the company and have served as a C-Suite executive (i.e. chairman, CEO, president, or managing partner) for three consecutive years prior to nomination; or
  • A ���ϲ����� alumnus has led the company as a C-Suite executive for three consecutive years prior to nomination; or
  • A ���ϲ����� alumnus founded the company and has been active as a member of its senior management team for three consecutive years prior to nomination.
• The company and its leaders and/or founders must act with high integrity and operate in a manner consistent with the values of ���ϲ�����. To demonstrate the alignment with the values of ���ϲ�����, prospective and past honorees should:
  • Accept responsibility for their actions;
  • Hold oneself and others to the highest standards of personal integrity;
  • Practice equality in human relations;
  • Uphold the law, and respect the rights of others;
  • Contribute positively to ���ϲ����� as well as to the national and global community.

The deadline to apply for recognition is��Sunday, July 14. To learn more about the ※�������50 awards and nominate your company for recognition, visit��.

Natasha Brao (left) and David Panasci (Photo by Amelia Beamish)

From delicious new food items to cloud management solutions and an innovative digital platform to connect local food producers and consumers, this year’s Panasci Business Plan Competition showcased outstanding ideas from the most innovative, business-minded students across ���ϲ�����. A campus-wide business plan event hosted annually by the at the , this year’s competition was held on April 5 and made possible by David Panasci ’80, president of DHP Consulting, and sponsor of the first, second and third place awards; Scott Friedberg ’14, founder and CEO of Gilded Social, sponsor of the Gilded Social Rising Entrepreneur Award; and Nick Monzi ’11, CEO and co-founder of Learn Fresh, sponsor of the Learn Fresh Award for Social Entrepreneurship—new this year.

“The annual Panasci competition is always an exciting day on campus, and this year’s event was no exception, as twice as many students competed this year than in 2023. Students from across the University came together to showcase their innovations and compete for prize money that will help them move their business plans forward,” says Cristiano Bellavitis, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, who managed this year’s event. ”Everyone who competed took away valuable feedback from our diverse group of judges, and this year’s winners are certainly on the fast track to making their entrepreneurial goals a reality.”

The 2024 Panasci competition awarded a total of $40,000 in prize money to the winning teams who demonstrated the best potential for growth and attracting outside financing. All competitors submitted written business plans in the semi-final round, and the top teams were brought together to compete in the finals. Whether or not they were selected as winners, every finalist was given specific and valuable feedback from industry professionals involved in the event.

First place and the Gilded Rising Social Entrepreneur Award went to Natasha Brao ’22, G’23, G’24, founder of Shooka. She received $20,000 for the first-place win and an additional $5,000 for the Gilded Rising Social Entrepreneur Award. Brao’s Shooka is a spiced tomato sauce based on the traditional Mediterranean dish shakshuka, which she first tasted on a trip overseas in 2019. Always one to love the “mixing and melding of cultures to promote creative cooking,” she developed Shooka, formalized her business in 2023 and started selling her product in March 2024.

“The Panasci Business Plan Competition at Whitman is one of the competitions that holds the most weight for me. I was looking forward to it the entire year, and it was amazing to compete alongside dear friends and talented entrepreneurs,” says Brao. “The prize money will help assist me with production, transportation and inventory holding costs, as well as allow me to focus on growing our sales in the next few months. My participation and success in this competition have also led to some valuable new connections in the industry. This gives me further validation for my product and myself as a founder, and I couldn’t be more excited to move forward!”

Second place went to Waqar Hussain G’25, Fulbright Scholar, founder of Iconnic.cloud, who was awarded $7,500. ��is a powerful cloud management solution designed for small and mid-sized enterprises (SME) aiming to scale and grow. This platform simplifies the transition of business and web solutions to the cloud, allowing for the effortless deployment and scaling of digital products with the cloud provider of choice. Iconnic.cloud eliminates the need for costly system administrators and IT managers, making cloud technology accessible and cost-effective. This solution not only reduces operational costs but also enhances efficiency, providing SMEs with the tools to innovate and thrive in a digital-first economy.����is a product of��,��a web wizarding team of designers and developers that “brews magic to power online businesses.”

Third place and $2,500, along with the Learn Fresh Award for Social Entrepreneurship of $5,000, went to Brielle Young ’27, co-founder and CEO of Aggregate, a digital platform that aims to bridge the gap between producers and consumers in local communities. Through its application, Aggregate empowers producers to share their goods, whether they are artisanal crafts or farm-fresh produce, as well as tell the stories behind their products. In addition, consumers can discover affordable and accessible local goods, all with just a few clicks. Its mission is to foster vibrant communities through local commerce while equipping local businesses with tools for growth and sustainability. Ezra James, an environmental engineering student at Cornell University, is a co-founder and chief operating officer of Aggregate. The Learn Fresh Award for Social Entrepreneurship is awarded to the innovation that demonstrates the greatest commitment to achieving social impact by addressing a persistent inequity or large-scale societal challenge. Learn Fresh is a nonprofit organization providing STEM learning to empower educators and inspire students.

Judges for this year’s Panasci Business Plan Competition included: Jack Adler ’23, Out2Win Sports; Eric Alderman L’75, adjunct professor, Whitman School; Nassim José Alemany ’09, Xolver; Haotian Bai, Patriot Conceptions; Logan Bonney G’17, West Gen LLC, and Stout Beard Brewing; Bill Brod, All Times Publishing; Blake Brossman ’98, PetCareRX; Salvatore (Tory) D’Amelio ’08, president, Selflock Screw Products; Alexander Deyhim, director Invent@SU, and iSchool faculty member; Cody Disch ’10, founder, Arias Advisors; Dustin Doucette, director of operations, Upstate Venture Connect; David Eilers ’80, ���ϲ����� College of Law Innovation Law Center; Jessica Falcone, Jessica Elizabeth Skincare Inc.; James Farrell G’19, East of Nowhere; Ben Ford ’23, Fundwurx; Meghan Florkowski, WISE Women’s Business Center; Scott Friedberg ’14, founder and CEO of Gilded Social; Linda Dickerson Hartsock, founder of ���ϲ����� Blackstone LaunchPad; Lekia Hill, Lekia Tech LLC; Sam Hollander ’21, co-founder and CEO, Share Club; Peter King ’08, Cayuga Economic Development Agency; David S. Klein ’92, owner and president, Greenwood Industries; Jeff Linowes ’77, chief branding officer, HALO Branded Solutions; Kelo Makelele, founder, RedTrace Technologies, Inc.; F. Jasper Massey, commercial loan officer, Empower Federal Credit Union; George Mazevski ’99, G’00, president and CEO, Govsphere Inc.; Nick Monzi ’11, founder and CEO, Learn Fresh; Emad Rahim, Surge entrepreneurship manager, ���ϲ����� Surge Accelerator/CenterState CEO; Joe Noll Jr. ’05, president, National Electronic Transit; Micah Shippee G’16, Samsung Electronics America; Don R. Stanton ’03, Tanglewood Gardens; and Vivek Sureddi ’15, owner president, VivCon LLC.

Visit Whitman’s website for more information on the��.

Traci Geisler, director of Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries, and Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship in the School of Information Studies and Whitman School of Management, co-organizers of the 2024 RvD iPrize and Spirt of Entrepreneurship Award.

Winners of the Raymond von Dran (RvD) iPrize for Student Entrepreneurship competition and the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award were announced at the student entrepreneurship competition held April 12 at Bird Library. The competition was coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries (LaunchPad) and Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) and Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

The following 10 student startup teams each won $2,000 in RvD funding:

• Brielle Young ’26 (iSchool), founder of Aggregate, an online platform that enables small-scale farmers to sell directly to customers via the Internet.
• Olutosin “Tosin” Alabi G’24 (Whitman School), founder of DiabeTech, a healthcare startup developing an innovative smart bandage solution for managing diabetic foot ulcers.
• Mariah Brown ’25 (Whitman School) and Fernanda Kligerman, founders of Dormbank, a used goods store which specializes in supplying college students with reduced cost dorm goods, appliances and home electronics.
• Jonah Wassersug ’26 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Alexa Shoiock ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts) and Tomoyoshi Takita ’26 (iSchool), founders of GEN, an AI-powered personal stylist and shopper.
• Waqar Hussain G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Iconic.cloud, offering small to medium enterprises a streamlined cloud server management solution, enabling them to easily deploy and scale their digital products on dedicated cloud platforms.
• Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Latita Wellness (Tà), a virtual marketplace connecting African beauty and wellness brands with the diaspora by making it easier for consumers to discover and purchase high-quality, authentic African products.
• Elizabeth Paulin ’25 (Arts and Sciences), founder of Paulin Ventures, a venture capital firm uniquely focused on investing in early-stage startups founded by diverse and disabled entrepreneurs—an underserved market with immense untapped potential.
• Xheneta Sopjani G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Revive, a powerful skincare device that combines advanced technologies to stimulate collagen, tighten facial muscles and reduce wrinkles.
• Natasha Brao G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Root & Seed Brands, which launched its first product, Shooka Sauce, a commercially packaged good brand that celebrates the mixing and melding of cultural cuisines to promote creative, adaptable cooking and bringing new experiences to the modern table.
• John Bol Ajak Deng G’25 (Newhouse School), founder of The HumBol Fund, which aims to give academically gifted South Sudanese students from Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya a sense of hope through scholarships and a network of private school partners to pursue their education in the U.S.

The Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award is awarded to students who best exemplify the spirit of entrepreneurship. Prizes honor the memory of Hunter Brooks Watson, an SU student who died tragically in a distracted driving accident. The winners of $2,000 each are:

• Adya Parida ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ryan Brouchoud ’25 (Maxwell School), founders of AdaptEd, a technology company that offers AI-powered adaptive learning software designed to support students with different learning styles.
• Bintou Manneh ’24 (iSchool), Maram Ahmed ’24 (iSchool), Marangelis Uben ’24 (iSchool) and Ashley Romero ’24 (Arts and Sciences), founders of BearBot, a stuffed toy that acts as a reading tool for children, fostering a safe and comforting learning environment.
• Mariah Brown ’25 (Whitman School) and Fernanda Kligerman, founders of Dormbank, a used goods store which specializes in supplying college students with reduced cost dorm goods, appliances and home electronics.
• Za’Tozia Duffie G’25 (Newhouse School), founder of MirrorZ60, an innovative mirror designed to revolutionize personal hair care, providing users with visibility to the back of their heads.
• Jordan Pierre G’25 (Whitman School), founder of VOICE, fostering a community that empowers and uplifts marginalized students, enabling them to unearth their voices, recognize their collective agency in effecting change, and harness their platforms to cultivate community solidarity—all through the medium of storytelling.

��The award competition highlights the University’s entrepreneurial focus. Raymond von Dran, who served as dean of the School of Information Studies from 1995 until his passing in 2007, was a longtime academic entrepreneur and staunch supporter of student innovation. Gisela von Dran, Raymond’s wife and the former director of the School of Information Studies’ library and information science master’s program, served as one of this year’s judges.

The Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award began in 2018 through the Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund. Speaking on behalf of Hunter’s memory was John “Jack” Rose ’24 (Whitman School) of Management), this year’s Hunter Brooks Watson Remembrance Scholar, along with Hunter’s parents, Jerry Watson and Judith Fister, who joined from McLean, Virginia.

Oliver Fernandez ’08

Oliver Fernandez ’08 graduated with a civil engineering degree and played for the ���ϲ����� football team. He now lives in Washington D.C. with his wife, Leah, and their two children. Fernandez owns McKenzie, a construction company that has successfully completed over $100 million worth of projects.

Fernandez will be the keynote speaker at the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s 2024 Convocation at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 11. The convocation will be held at the Lally Athletics Complex.

We asked Fernandez to talk about how he established his career and his advice for current students.

Frank Marin, Natasha Brao, Tosin Alabi, Motolani Oladitan and Jessica Grace McGhee

This semester, five University students working at the Couri Hatchery Student Business Incubator at the Whitman School of Management made it through the regional level of the New York State Business Plan Competition (NYBPC), an intercollegiate event designed to help prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs in New York state.

The hatchery, led by Program Manager and supported by faculty from the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE), assists students in preparing for this highly competitive event. They will compete for up to $100,000 in cash prizes to support their ventures.

The following students are currently competing for a place in the statewide competition to be held in Albany, New York, on April 25:

Tosin Alabi G’25 (MBA) is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Couri Hatchery and a student in Whitman’s MBA program. She is competing with her business venture DiabeTech, an electronic bandage created for diabetic foot ulcers.

The bandage not only protects the wound but has sensors that check temperature and glucose levels in real time, providing vital information for the patient and physician. This information can be used to ward off dangerous consequences of diabetic foot ulcers like gangrene or amputation.

From Nigeria, Alabi appreciates the support she has been given at the Hatchery, particularly as an international student.

“International students are already dealing with acclimating to both the culture and the rigors of the education here. Sometimes I feel like an octopus juggling so many things at once,” she says. “It took courage for me to go to the hatchery, but the resources there have helped me understand the rules, legalities, licenses and visa limitations that impact my business. And, I could not go a day without the support of Indaria. She has put a light in the Couri Hatchery and made it the place for me. DiabeTech is not just a business idea for me. It’s helping people have a better life, even those in my own family who are diabetic.”

Natasha Brao ’22 (College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA)), G’23, G’24 (MBA) first discovered the deliciousness of the classic Mediterranean dish Shakshuka on a trip overseas in 2019 and soon realized it was a compilation of many Mediterranean backgrounds and cultures. Having always loved experimenting with cooking, she created , a spiced tomato sauce with the idea of “mixing and melding cultures to promote creative cooking” and formalized her business in 2023. The product quickly gained attention this March when she started selling the sauce. Brao recently acquired a spot at New York State’s International Taste Festival where upwards of 7,000 attended and had the chance to try Shooka.

“My entrepreneurial side comes from my creative background [Brao earned a bachelor’s degree in design]. I was an idea machine and very passionate about food and culinary businesses,” she says. “I’ve been hanging out at the hatchery for quite a while, planning the future of the business, considering strategic partnerships and creating a road map so I can stay on track as a busy student and entrepreneur. I have weekly meetings with the advisors at the hatchery and that has kept a fire under me to keep progressing week to week.”

Frank Marin ’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), G’24 (MBA) is enrolled in a dual program earning an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and an MBA with concentrations in entrepreneurship and supply chain management. He is working on a business opportunity called , which involves the removal of debris in space through innovative techniques. Marin is creating a general process for the spacecraft to follow that will give it maximum efficiency in debris removal.

“I am incredibly passionate about science and its growing importance, and I have a lot of ideas on how to make the world a better place, starting with removing debris,” he says. “The Couri Hatchery has been a place for me to talk with like-minded, entrepreneurial people, including members of the EEE faculty who challenge me and also help me stay on track. I hope that one day my ideas can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Jessica Grace McGhee ’19 (VPA), G’24 (VPA) is a fine artist with her own online gallery, who is also a creative arts therapy graduate student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She is entering her business venture Sacred Art of Rising (SAOR) in the competition. will engage survivors of chronic and complex trauma on three different platforms: the Resource Center in ���ϲ�����’s South Side, an area of the city with a high poverty level; the Retreat Center, a safe space with a myriad of nonverbal and verbal therapeutic platforms with access to restorative rest; and the Sacred Art of Rising mobile app with sliding scale access to psychoeducational, motivational and self-care content with a platform for telehealth therapy.

As a survivor of complex and chronic trauma, McGhee has created SOAR as an alternative, non-verbal therapeutic platform to help others recover, especially those who are underserved, as a means of “symbolic investment.” She wants SOAR to create a full-circle investment in marginalized communities that heals and uplifts people to reach their own self-directed goals. And, McGhee hopes it will be a place to provide safe outdoor space for individuals and families to build healthy attachments, get social rest and also reach people in need of a place to heal and decrease the chronic toxic stress that accompanies poverty.

“I knew SOAR would be amazingly helpful but, financially, I couldn’t see how I could make it happen. Linda Hartsock just lit up that path for me,” she says. “I moved from Los Angeles to ���ϲ����� in 2008 and was promised a very healthy existence but then endured several kinds of abuse before I got up the courage to leave. But, ���ϲ����� and the people at the Couri Hatchery have rooted for me and done their best to uplift me and help me reach my dreams.”

Motolani Oladitan ’24 (A&S), a psychology major, has created , an online marketplace for African entrepreneurs to sell their beauty products collectively online. From Nigeria, Oladitan is starting with six to eight products and hopes to expand from there, becoming the premier destination for African beauty and wellness by helping get these brands into mainstream U.S. markets. She has tested and used every product she offers, and when people kept asking to borrow her products, Oladitan knew she was on to something.

“Traci Giesler, Indaria Jones, Linda Dickerson Hartsock and all the mentors at the Couri Hatchery and the Blackstone LaunchPad have been so good to me and are always ready to help me practice my pitch or offer recommendations on how to tackle the things I’m facing,” she says. “I’m looking to put together a marketing plan, and even if I don’t win the competition, I know it’s a learning experience. ���ϲ����� has been a learning experience, too, and I will take the feedback and implement that into the future of the business. I am in this for the long run.”

The Couri Hatchery is named for John Couri ’63, co-founder of Duty-Free International and president of the Couri Foundation.

The competition was organized by two students in the , Motolani Oladitan ’24 and Brandon Henry ’24, with support from other Blackstone LaunchPad student employees and founders.

Tosin Alabi took first place in the recent Afropreneurship Pitch Competition. (Photo by Mariah Brown)

Olutosin “Tosin” Alabi G’25, an MBA student in the , won first place in the 90-second pitch competition with her proposed health tech startup, DiabeTech Nexus, a sensor-detecting diabetes wound bandage.

Whitman undergraduate student Mariah Brown ’26 won second place with Dormbank, a proposed reseller of college residence hall items like appliances and small electronics. Third place winner Justin Diaz ’24, also a student in the Whitman School, is founder of Eco Bamboo Living, a company that would create tiny homes made of bamboo for more sustainable living.

Judges for the pitch competition also spoke to students during a panel discussion on being an innovator, entrepreneur and creative of color. Panelists/judges included:

• Brianna Howard G’21, founder of Faithful Works, which offers virtual assistant and grant consulting services to nonprofits, small business owners and startup;
• Derrell Smith ’10, retired NFL player turned chef and founder of a meatball company named Amazeballs, who has cooked on stages around the world and stars in his own TV show on Tastemade;
• Damaris “Koi” Munyua G’22, founder of the marketing agency Koi and Company, which specializes in copywriting, graphic and website design;
• Ana Catalina Rodriguez Botello, a diversity and social impact professional with a master’s degree in public and social Policy from Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a LEAD Certificate from Stanford University, currently serving as global social impact senior manager at Marsh McLennan;
• Phahsa Ras, co-founder of UMi, the world’s first “Conscious Attention Economy,” capitalizing on the impact of such emergent technologies as generative AI on jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities; and
• Kofi Addai, associate director of bias education and response in .

serves as the University’s entrepreneurship and innovation hub, partnering with academic programs and entrepreneurial centers across campus and beyond to connect students to local, regional and national networks of alumni entrepreneurs, company founders, subject matter experts and venture partners.

Administered by ���ϲ����� Libraries and located in Bird Library, the LaunchPad hosts classes, speaking events and workshops and offers a mentoring program. In addition, LaunchPad hosts each year.

Winning Startups

Three businesses developed by graduate students recently claimed the top prizes in the ’Cuse Tank competition, one of the University’s premier business plan competitions. Here, the winners offer advice for other graduate-level students who have an entrepreneurial spirit.

Natasha Brao

developed , inspired by the Mediterranean dish Shakshuka. The MBA student says she plans to run the business full time after she graduates this spring. Brao recently began production runs and is forming relationships with small local retailers. She will expand the business by hiring staff and ramping up marketing and sales and hopes it will soon be investor ready.

“Creating a food product and brand has been something I have dreamed of doing since I was a kid, and now I owe it to myself to give it all I’ve got,” she says. She encourages others to pursue their startups while still in school. “If you have an idea you want to explore or that is ready and has a place in the market, this is the best time for that. Starting a business while being in grad school has made me more passionate and driven me to absorb as much as I can from my classes. They provide invaluable tools to learn as I go and I can immediately apply those lessons to the real world.”

Waqar Hussain

founded , a cloud-hosting platform engineered with proprietary software that offers streamlined cloud server management solutions. He is on track to earn an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship and marketing next year. Now, he’ll use his ’Cuse Tank prize to fund product development, improved technology, automation, marketing and the infrastructure and operations teams, he says. He encourages graduate students to take on startup ventures.

“[The experience] allows grad students to start building while they’re studying. These programs help you think more holistically when you’re competing—from writing to pitching to financing. You find there’s a whole world of things you can put into practice to build your real-world skills.”

heads , which uses engineering analysis software to design systems for active space debris removal, on-orbit satellite servicing and in-space manufacturing missions. He is in his final year of the H. John Riley dual engineering/MBA program.

Marin’s interest in creating a space company began in high school after a military representative at a science fair thought his passion could become something more. He credits a first-year entrepreneurship course with helping him better understand how to solve problems and seek opportunities. “Explore the connection between your passion and problem-solving while there’s time for it,” he suggests. “If you find something worth doing, do it.” He says he will enter his company in additional competitions this semester, then look for longer-term sources of funding.

Additional Resources

Students can also find entrepreneurship opportunities in their home school or college.

: The (New Explorations in Information and Science) Lab is a research lab where student innovators initiate IT projects, work with peers and explore emerging technologies. Students work on independent projects that advance the fields of information science, engineering and technology. The school also hosts workshops and hackathons.

: The ��provides information about patents, trademarks and copyrights. Student entrepreneurs can meet with law student experts regarding questions on intellectual property, regulatory compliance and commercialization resources as well as the technical, legal and business aspects of bringing new technologies to market. The center also hires graduate students from a wide range of disciplines to assess and analyze proposals submitted by real-world clients.

: The is an entrepreneurial workspace that partners with new media startups and offers tailored services to help students’ companies grow and succeed. The coordinates co-op internships that allow students to work with some of the world’s fastest-growing media startups.

: The graduate degree program in offers specialized tracks in four areas: new venture, social, corporate and family entrepreneurship. The school presents several competitions each year, including , the and . Whitman is also home to the , a student-centered co-working space and mentorship program, and the

: Veteran or military-connected students will find many at IVMF. help students get their ideas off the ground. The annual focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by growth-stage businesses that are actively scaling or ready to scale. is a one-day entrepreneurship training event, offered in cities across the U.S., for veterans, active-duty military and military spouses or life partners who are just beginning to explore the opportunity of small business ownership as a post-service career path.

The symposium will feature a panel of successful entrepreneurs, financial investors and legal experts in a discussion on the challenges that high-growth, privately held tech companies face as they take on private equity, venture capital or other forms of funding. Panelists will cover investment deals they have completed, trends in financing and their career paths in the technology commercialization space.

Those interested in the legal, financial, business and entrepreneurial aspects of high-growth companies are encouraged to attend. .

, professor of practice and executive director of the ILC, will moderate the discussion.

The event will be streamed live via the ILC and a recording will be made available for those who cannot attend.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the , the College of Law’s Corporate Law Society and Intellectual Property Law Society, and the at ���ϲ����� Libraries.

The panelists are:

Peter Alfano L’94, Partner,

Alfano represents private equity sponsors, corporations and lenders in a wide variety of domestic and cross-border finance transactions, including leveraged acquisitions, corporate financings, dividend recapitalizations, restructurings and asset-based lending transactions. He has experience across several tech industries and advises companies in connection with intercompany finance arrangements, corporate restructurings and general corporate matters, including for private equity-owned portfolio companies.

Luke Cooper L’01, Founding General Partner and Managing Director,

Cooper is the founding general partner and managing director at Latimer Ventures. Latimer Ventures is an enterprise-focused Venture Capital firm dedicated to helping Black and Hispanic founders build and exit the next RedHat, Datadog or Tableau. He spends most of his time fundraising and nurturing a strong pipeline of early-stage enterprise SaaS companies.

Before Latimer, Cooper was a 2x successfully exited enterprise software founder (Cybersecurity and Insurtech) with both exits to Fortune 300 acquirers. In 2020, he sold his company, Fixt, an enterprise-focused third-party administration software, to Assurant (NYSE:AIZ), a Fortune 300 leader in insurance risk management. After raising a $6.5 million Series A, he became one of three Black founders to reach a profitable exit that year.

James Kelly L’99, Partner and Chair, New York Private Equity,

Kelly is a strategic advisor to private equity funds and operating companies across many industries. He focuses his practice on representing private equity funds in all aspects of their investment activities, recently acting for Atlas Holdings, Bregal Partners, The Carlyle Group, Oaktree Capital Management and Stellex Capital Management, among several others.

He is recognized by The Legal 500 US in Private Equity Buyouts and has been recognized for numerous consecutive years by Chambers in New York M&A, has been featured in Buyouts, including a Buyouts Deal of the Year, The Deal, Bloomberg and Law360, as well as other leading publications. He has presented for several education providers, including Practicing Law Institute and Strafford, and has received recognition for his pro bono work, including the Pro Bono Publico Award from The Legal Aid Society. Kelly is a member of the College of Law Board of Advisors.

Lon Levin L’80, President,

Levin is president of SkySevenVentures, which invests in, advises and provides executive services for space and other technology businesses. He has more than 40 years of experience as an executive and entrepreneur in the telecommunications, media, and aerospace industries.

Recently, from 2017-2023, Levin was an executive for Lockheed Martin Space developing new businesses and markets. He served as president and chief executive officer of GEOshare, an entrepreneurial subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, and as vice president-new ventures.

Levin co-founded XM Satellite Radio and played executive leadership roles in the formation and development of other satellite, space and media companies, including Mobile Satellite Ventures, XM Canada, Slacker Radio, American Mobile Satellite Corporation, TerraStar Networks (mobile satellite), GEOshare (condosats) and Parsec (lunar telecommunications).

He served as a U.S. Delegate negotiating technology treaties at many International Telecommunication Union conferences and holds five telecommunication satellite patents. Levin has served as a special government employee on the Defense Department’s Defense Business Board and the NASA Advisory Council.

Levin is treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of The Planetary Society and Board Member Emeritus of the Space Foundation, where has was chairperson from 2014-16.

Kevin Whittaker L’02, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer,

Whittaker is the chief legal and compliance officer and corporate secretary of Ripcord, a NASA spinoff specializing in the digital optimization of data through robotics and AI. Ripcord is backed by Silicon Valley’s leading investors, including Kleiner Perkins and Google Ventures.

Whittaker provides counsel on venture financing, M&A, operations, human resources and governance. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, he plays a pivotal role in aligning the company’s business strategies with legal and compliance standards, fostering collaboration with stakeholders, customers and investors.

Whittaker was a speaker at Match-Up 2023, speaking on “AI Unleashed: Pioneering a New Epoch of Innovation,” which explored the profound impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on diverse industries and its pivotal role in shaping the future. Before becoming an in-house corporate counsel, he was a partner at Reed Smith, and of counsel to Baker McKenzie and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Alexis Peña ’16 (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine)

Despite the dominance of cheap, quick clothing production among modern retailers, ���ϲ����� biomedical engineering alumna Alexis Peña ’16, and her colleague, Lauren Blake, are determined to revolutionize the textile industry with their start-up, Good Fibes.

“Since summer 2022, Lauren and I have embarked on understanding the fashion industry ecosystem to provide innovative solutions for the current challenges,” says Peña. “At Good Fibes, we’re developing methods for biomanufacturing natural textile fibers using biological building blocks. Our mission is to enable a circular textile economy through material innovation.”

The biotech startup aims to produce lab-grown fibers through cellular agriculture and use engineered molecules to create renewable, biodegradable and non-toxic fibers. They hope this will offer alternatives to synthetic fibers such as polyester, which currently make up over 50% of clothing material. Synthetic fibers can also take hundreds of years to degrade and shed microplastics and chemical pollutants into the environment.

Though fibers like cotton, silk or wool are natural fibers, their production processes don’t align with sustainability goals or meet the industry’s needs. Cotton processing demands extensive amounts of water and silk production requires a considerable amount of energy. Wool products may also contain harsh chemicals and dyes that make them less biodegradable.

Alexis Peña ’16 and Lauren Blake present a pitch for Chain Reaction Innovations (Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)

Natural materials can also be unpredictable in supply due to weather, humidity, animal diet or plant soil, which can cause variations in harvest seasons and batch-to-batch quality. Additionally, the industry faces challenges related to performance criteria and variability in quality, which ultimately leads to a reliance on synthetic fibers.

Good Fibes’ bioengineered fibers solve these issues by providing environmentally conscious production and better-quality materials compared to current synthetic textiles.

“The lack of reliable alternatives to synthetic fibers is a major pain point in the textile industry. Our bioengineered fibers not only provide an alternative to petroleum-based fibers, but also address limitations of cotton, silk and wool by having year-round production and tunable properties such as elasticity, tensile strength and dye affinity” says Peña.

Peña and Blake recently completed their Ph.D.s in May 2023 at Johns Hopkins University. The co-founders also taught a course called “Future Fashion Innovation” to material scientists and engineering undergraduates at Johns Hopkins during intersession and adapted the course into a webinar for Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni during Earth Week in 2023.

Additionally, Good Fibes has been selected as a participant in a lab-embedded entrepreneurship program (LEEP), Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) program at Argonne National Laboratory.��The CRI program is designed to support entrepreneurs and their innovative research with a focus on clean energy.

“Fashion should allow people to feel good about their clothing, but also feel good about what happens to their clothing after they wear it,” says Peña. “We believe this can truly innovate the textile industry and bring a much-needed change to fashion’s monolithic infrastructure.”

Inaugural winners of the Orange Innovation Fund awards, from left: Thomas Montfort, Natasha Brao, Trustee Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill, Scott Warren, senior associate dean for research excellence, Alex Levy and Sam Schreiber

The Orange Innovation Fund supports student research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. The grant “concept to commercialization” fund is designed to help move graduate and undergraduate student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept to commercialization. Initial funding from the program came from a gift to the Libraries from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the ���ϲ����� Board of Trustees.

Grants up to $5,000 per award will be made, with a total of up to $50,000 per academic year based on the merit of applications.

The program is administered through ���ϲ����� Libraries, in collaboration with the University’s research and commercialization programs, including the , ,��,��, the��, the����at ���ϲ�����,��,��, the����(NYSTAR designated Center for Advanced Technology) and the��. Applicants can also come directly through research classes, labs or independent study programs across the University.

Student applicants must identify specific tangible needs related to the product, service, technology or creative work they are developing. Grants will support defined projects over a clear timeframe with identified outcomes that will help move a research project or innovative venture toward proof of concept toward commercialization.

A prerequisite to applying is attendance at one of the proposal writing workshops being offered by Linda Dickerson Hartsock, advisor, strategic initiatives ���ϲ����� Libraries, and former founding director of the Blackstone LaunchPad. Students should attend one of the following workshops to create a successful application:

• March 6, 3 to 4 p.m. in Bird Library
• March 7, 3 to 4 p.m. in Bird Library
• Friday, March 8, 10 to 11 a.m. ET via Zoom (Zoom link provided upon e-mail to orangeinnovation@syr.edu)

Applications are due Friday, March 29, by 5 p.m. ET to ���ϲ����� Libraries. For a link to the application or to register for a workshop, please email orangeinnovation@syr.edu to indicate your interest in the program.

Following a cross-campus committee review process, announcements and award letters will be made in late April or early May.

Three student teams were the fall 2023 winners of inaugural Orange Innovation Fund awards.

• 

  Emma Leuders (left) and Jennie Bull

  1st Place: $5,000 awarded to Moody Mag, founders Emma Lueders ’24 (College of Visual and Performing Arts [VPA]) and Jennie Bull ’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management). As first prize winner, Moody Mag will be representing the University at the in Boston.

• 2nd Place: $4,000 awarded to EcoBamboo Living, founders Justin Diaz ’24 (Whitman School) and Keif Timmins ’25 (SUNY ESF).
• 3rd Place: $3,000 awarded to Continual, founder Katy Arons ’24 (School of Information Studies).
• Runner-Ups: $1,000 awarded to each of the following: Marhold Space Systems, founder Frank Marin G’24 (Whitman School); Ta, founder Motolani Oladitan ’25 (College of Arts and Sciences); and Scale Sense, founders Oliver Raycroft ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science [ECS]) and Adya Parida ’25 (ECS).
• Up and Coming Awards: $250 each awarded to: Queen’s Wellness Institute, founder Fatim Cisse G’24 (David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics); Dormbank, founder Mariah Brown ’26 (Whitman School); Shelstie, founder Shelstie Dastinot ’24 (VPA); and GbaAôndo (GBA) Energy, founders MoAde Jagusah ’24 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs), Adam Youngs ’26 (Whitman School), Court Watson ’26 (Whitman School), Nicole Mazzeo ’25 (Maxwell School) and Semirat (Bushrah) Balogun G’24 (School of Information Studies).

• 

  Shooka, founded by Natasha Brao ’22

  Shooka, founded by Natasha Brao ’22 () G’24 (). Shooka is a consumer-packaged goods brand that celebrates the mixing and melding of cultural cuisines to promote creative, adaptable cooking, bringing new experiences to the modern table. Inspired by the classic dish Shakshuka enjoyed in many Mediterranean cultures, Shooka makes creative variations that allow you to experience the dish at home. Brao has solidified the contractual relationship with her co-packer and is hoping to launch her first line by the end of the fourth quarter with the funds awarded from ‘Cuse Tank.

• 

  Marhold Space Systems, founded by Frank Marin ’23

  Marhold Space Systems, founded by Frank Marin ’23 () G’24 (Whitman). Marhold Space Systems, LLC is a space manufacturing company that is developing technology to assist in building long-term, in-space sustainable growth. They will be providing services through novel methods for active debris removal, on-orbit servicing and in-space manufacturing. Through designs and novel methodology, Marhold Space Systems promotes safer interactions with debris by minimizing contact with uncooperative objects. They will utilize the prize money for astrodynamics software to validate their debris removal methodology.

• 

  IconnHost, founded by Waqar Hussain G’24

  IconnHost, founded by Waqar Hussain G’24 (Whitman). IconnHost is a fully managed cloud hosting platform, engineered with proprietary software that crafts tailored hosting solutions with one click. They offer subject matter experts a streamlined cloud server management solution, enabling them to easily deploy and scale their digital products on dedicated cloud platforms. IconnHost will use the prize money to invest in product development, performance-improving technology, scalability, automation and marketing, and to build out their infrastructure and operations team.

This year’s prizes were generously donated by: Corey Lieblein ’93, parent Ajay Nagpal and Andrew ’79 and Linda Schwartz.

This year’s judges included:

• Jack Adler ’23, CEO of Out2Win Sports
• Melinda Dermody, associate dean of academic success, ���ϲ����� Libraries
• Ana Gil, owner, Ana Gil Studios
• Corey Lieblein, CEO of CP8 Capital
• Ajay Nagpal, president and COO of Millenium
• David Reed ’83, Champion Products
• Kira Crawford, technology consultant
• Tyrin Fernandes ’20, entrepreneur
• Karla Lellis JD’25, legal compliance specialist
• Lee McKnight, faculty, School of Information Studies
• Kate Oja, associate director of ERIE21, Le Moyne College
• Mark Wassersug, former COO of Intercontinental Exchange

About ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone

The is ���ϲ�����’s innovation hub, connecting the campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students and recent alumni across all disciplines who are interested in entrepreneurship, venture creation and innovation careers. The program supports a key pillar of ���ϲ�����’s academic strategic plan to give students experiential opportunities that help prepare them to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.

Winners of the ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Award (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

The power and impact of the entrepreneurial spirit was on center stage during two recent alumni events on campus. First, on Nov. 9, were honored during the inaugural��※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards.

At the awards ceremony held at the National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building, , vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Whitman School kicked off the evening. “I am an evangelist for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is about empowerment,” said Haynie. “I know this because the work that I do has afforded me a front row seat to see how entrepreneurship can change the trajectory of lives.”

Tamekia Flowers-Ball

Tamekia-Flowers-Ball ’97, Founder/CEO of , spoke on behalf of the inaugural class and shared how during her time at ���ϲ����� she took the University’s first entrepreneurship course. The course opened her eyes to the limitless possibilities of innovation and self-driven success. “It sparked my entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging me to pursue my dreams and transform ideas into tangible ventures,” said Flowers-Ball.

Ball stressed to her fellow honorees the importance of extending a hand and opportunity to the next generations of awardees. “Whether hiring current students as interns or donating to scholarship programs, like Our Time Has Come, spearheaded by the Office of Multicultural Advancement, let’s ensure the success of future generations,” said Flowers-Ball.

The following day, the alumni gave back to the community that they so proudly came from by taking part in the ※�������50 Summit. The summit was open to the entire campus community, but specifically targeted students to allow them to learn about startup thinking, to develop personal and professional skills and to meet and network with alumni founders and top executives of fast-growing companies.

The day started with welcome remarks from Haynie and Alexander McKelvie, interim dean of the Whitman School of Management and professor of entrepreneurship. McKelvie thanked the alumni panelists for paying it forward to the next generation. “Each of you likely remember that one friend, mentor or role model who helped inspire you and think differently about how you approach a challenge,” said McKelvie. “Today is about that same inspiration.”

Students meet and network with alumni founders and top executives of leading companies at the ‘CUSE50 Summit. (Photo by Jeremy Brinn)

Entrepreneurship certainly changed the lives of many alumni honored during the ※�������50 awards. This was showcased during the interactive panels with the honorees and more than 300 students during two different sets of sessions of the ※�������50 Summit. Topics included developing entrepreneurial and growth mindsets, community building and customer acquisition, branding, finding talent and developing teams, mental health and the startup life, finding advisors, mentors and coaches, and setting yourself up for success by raising money and leveraging resources.

When asked what advice they would give to young entrepreneurs who are hoping to start and/or grow a business, here’s what a few of the ※�������50 winners had to say:

• “Never stop asking questions. Seek advice at all turns. Every business can be improved and the key for entrepreneurs is to identify the opportunities and fill the need. It is also normal to fail, regroup and try again.”—Adam Sulimirski ’85, managing partner of
• “Work for either an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurial-oriented organization for a bit after college to learn the good, the bad and the ugly. Learn what works and what you like and build your business around those values. You will attract like-minded people��who share your passions, and you will love coming to work every day.”—Frank Shultz ’03, CEO and founder of
• “Embrace every learning opportunity, even if it seems unrelated to your primary field of study. Skills and knowledge acquired in one area can often be applied in unexpected ways in another. Stay adaptable, be open to change, and always prioritize effective communication. Surround yourself with a diverse team that brings different perspectives and strengths to the table. Also, be mission-driven and seek inspiration from the brands, companies, and causes you work for. Aim to inspire others to achieve bigger and better things than they can do alone.”—Whitney Mitchell ’06, CEO and founder of
• “Just start building and don’t be afraid to fail because the failure is putting you one step closer to achieving your ultimate goal.” —Kori Hale ’13, CEO of

From left: Thomas Montfort, Natasha Brao, Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill, Senior Associate Dean for Research Excellence Scott Warren, Alex Levy and Sam Schreiber

Three student teams are the winners of inaugural awards, a grant program administered through designed to help students commercialize their research ideas.

Natasha Brao ’22, G’23, G’24

Brao, who received an undergraduate degree from the , a graduate degree from the and is currently pursuing an MBA from Whitman, is the recipient of the ���ϲ����� Orange Distinction Award and an Invest in Success Scholar.

She is founder of a creative agency that creates brand strategy and design for clients ranging from products to services to environments. She also serves as the lead designer, marketing team lead and innovation mentor at the .

A culinary entrepreneur who is fascinated by food creativity, she is also founder of Root and Seed Brands, a company that is bringing real, whole and culturally diverse food products to market. This Orange Innovation Fund award will help her produce her official batch of product, Shooka Sauce, a Mediterranean spiced sauce that celebrates the mixing and melding of cultural flavors.

Working with the LaunchPad and Whitman faculty, as well as industry advisors, she recently produced her first test batch of professionally bottled sauce, which won accolades and funding in Whitman’s fall 2023 Orange Tank. She incorporated her venture with the assistance of a LaunchPad Innovation Award (funded by ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Advisory Board member Jeff Rich ’67) and is now working with a co-packer in Rochester to bring the product to market.

This grant will help her with final third-party independent nutritional analysis, labeling and other regulatory requirements, and to start larger scale production of her sauce for market placement.

Alex Levy ’25 and Sam Schreiber ’25

Levy, a student, and Schreiber, a student in the ,��were recent first-place winners of the spring 2023 Intelligence ++ inclusive design and entrepreneurship competition, funded by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09.

Levy and Schreiber are founders of Optimal Assessment, LLC, an ed-tech venture incorporated with the assistance of a LaunchPad Innovation Award (funded by Jeff Rich ’67), and are developing an original software platform to help faculty design courses for students with diverse and varied learning styles, including those who are neurodivergent.

Their Orange Innovation Fund award will assist them in working with industry advisors and software development experts to build out a prototype to pilot in spring 2024. Levy is a designer for Innovate Orange, an organization that plans and runs CuseHacks, and recently completed a designer internship with IBM where he earned eight IBM licenses and certifications, including Accessibility Foundations and Enterprise Design Thinking Team Essentials for Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Schreiber is a Venture Fellow for the ORCA Network, a ChatGPT-powered platform for connecting founders and investors and serves as an innovation mentor for the LaunchPad.

Thomas Montfort ’24

student Montfort recently completed a software engineering internship at Amazon Web Services in Austin, Texas, following a software engineering internship at JPMorgan Chase. Montfort is one of the original co-founding team members and former vice president of Cuse Blockchain, a student organization based in the LaunchPad focused on research and education around blockchain technology.

He founded Agora Labs this summer with two other students he met in Austin. Agora is focused on democratizing access to AI computing resources via affordable peer-to-peer GPU networks. He and his team will use the Orange Innovation Fund award to build tools that engineers need for integrating Large Language Models into their tech stack. The funding will enable Agora to develop their product over the coming months and get user feedback.

Funding for the Orange Innovation Award program comes from a gift from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the ���ϲ����� Board of Trustees who is operating partner of Silicon Valley Quad, an angel investing syndicate. Gill presented the three awards to the student teams and announced that applications are now open for the spring 2024 grant round.

The Orange Innovation Fund supports student research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. It is intended to help move graduate and undergraduate student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept and commercialization, supporting the University’s goals of excellence in research, scholarship, student experiential learning and innovation.

Applications for the spring semester will be due Friday, March 29, 2024, by 5 p.m. ET. . For a link to register for the required proposal writing workshop, as well as application materials, please email orangeinnovation@syr.edu.

From production and digital media companies to pizza tours and EV charging solutions, the honorees of the inaugural are an impressive group of leaders representing the 50 fastest-growing ���ϲ����� alumni-owned businesses.

Honorees will be Thursday, Nov. 9, followed the next day by engagement sessions between the alumni entrepreneurs and the University community. “We look forward to having this group of alumni honorees back on campus to celebrate their outstanding achievements in a whole new way,” says Tracy Barlok, senior vice president and chief advancement officer. “So many of our graduates have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and it is important that we get to celebrate the impact they are making in the world with their businesses.”

Students, staff and faculty will have an opportunity to engage with the ※�������50 honorees during the on Friday, Nov. 10, at the Whitman School of Management. The summit is open to everyone, but organizers, including ���ϲ����� Libraries, are especially encouraging students from across campus to participate. The summit represents an opportunity for students to learn about startup thinking, to develop personal and professional skills, and meet and network with alumni founders and top executives of fast-growing companies.

for the ※�������50 Summit, which will run from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., starting in the Flaum Grand Hall and move to Whitman’s classrooms for panel discussions.

“This is a unique learning opportunity for our students,” says , vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Whitman School. “The inaugural ※�������50 Alumni Entrepreneur Award event and Summit sets conditions for our students to engage directly with alumni leaders who started their entrepreneurial journey at ���ϲ����� in a way that connects our graduates to the entrepreneurial aspirations of our current students.”

The summit will begin with welcoming remarks from Haynie and Alex McKelvie, interim dean of the Whitman School, and will move to breakout sessions featuring interactive panels with ※�������50 honorees and will be moderated by students who are conversation fire starters. The summit will conclude with a networking reception where students are encouraged to bring laptops to showcase their portfolio of work.

For more information about the event, visit the .

“This is a huge achievement for ���ϲ����� and the Whitman School,” says J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean at the Whitman School. “This ranking further validates our commitment to the rigorous pursuit of entrepreneurship and the type of research productivity necessary to advance this important strategic priority. This type of productivity represents the depth of our entrepreneurship programs and of our faculty who demonstrate scholarly excellence through their dynamic research and findings in the discipline.”

“We are proud of the academic excellence and research productivity at ���ϲ����� and in the Whitman School by our outstanding group of faculty,” says Alexander McKelvie, interim dean of the Whitman School. “This ranking has grown in importance in recent years given it’s the only global research ranking of its kind. Not only does our position on this ranking highlight our thought leadership in the competitive entrepreneurship space, it also affirms that the University’s strategic focus on leveraging our entrepreneurial spirit in everything we do continues to serve us well–from both an academic and research perspective. We don’t just talk about entrepreneurship at ���ϲ�����, we live it every day.”

Launched in 2009 by the at Texas Christian University (TCU), the TCU Global University Entrepreneurship Research Productivity Rankings track research articles in entrepreneurship journals according to authorship and university affiliation. ���ϲ����� and the Whitman School were ranked based on publications by its faculty in three of the top entrepreneurship journals—Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal—over five years from 2018-2022.

The data for this ranking is not adjusted for faculty size. All counts are made at the university level; differentiations are not made between departments or other units. Only one affiliation per article is counted.

Jack Adler ’23, G’24 (far right) was awarded the $25,000 first-place prize for Out2Win sports. From left are Derrell Smith ’10, G’13; Maria Minniti, chair of Whitman’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises and Bantle Chair in Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, and Adler.

Held Sept. 29 at the Whitman School, this “Shark Tank”-like competition showcased the ideas of Whitman students and alumni as they competed for cash prizes and valuable feedback from alumni entrepreneurs and business professionals judging the event.

Forty-one ventures were submitted for initial consideration this year with five selected to pitch at the competition based on a variety of criteria that ranged from market potential and sound execution strategy to the ability to protect the intellectual property and the scalability of the business.

Thanks to the continued generosity of Whitman Advisory Council (WAC) member and University Life Trustee John Couri ’63 (College of Arts and Sciences (A&S)), H’08, $35,000 in cash prizes for first, second and third place were awarded at the competition.

New this year was the inaugural Scrub Daddy Jumpstart Innovation Award of $10,000 presented by Aaron Krause ’92 (A&S), founder, president and CEO of Scrub Daddy, who also served as one of the Orange Tank judges at this year’s competition.

The five finalists presented a 5-minute pitch followed by a Q&A from the judges, who, along with Krause, included Blake Brossman ’98 (), founder of PetCareRx; Molly Fisher ’08, G’12, head of finance for Skiptown and a member of the Young Whitman Advisory Council; and Keir Weimer ’11, founder and CEO of Weekender Hotels.

While the judges deliberated behind closed doors, Maria Minniti, chair of Whitman’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE), thanked the competition’s sponsors and gave the audience an overview of the outstanding work going on within the EEE department.

Event emcee and former ���ϲ����� and NFL football player Derrell Smith ’10 (), G’13 (), now an entrepreneur, executive producer and host of “Mad Good Food” on Tastemade and CEO of 99EATS, then had a Q&A with Sam Hollander ’21 (Whitman/Newhouse). Hollander was one of last year’s Orange Tank winners with ShareClub, an entrepreneurial venture that enhances the ownership experience for the everyday investor by providing the tools and resources to achieve their financial goals.

After much anticipation, the judges announced their decision with Jack Adler ’23, G’24 walking away with a $25,000 first-place prize for Out2Win sports, a platform designed to streamline the way brands connect with athletes for marketing partnerships. Eric Marcarian ’06 received a $7,500 second place prize for Mission Focused Ethos, a digital solution designed for the military that offers a modernized method of aircraft inspection, resulting in more on-time flights; and Xheneta Sopjani G’24 was awarded third place and $2,500 for Revive by Deinde, an at-home anti-aging device using science-based, non-invasive technology.

“I was honored to come away with the grand prize from among such a competitive pool of startups,” says Adler. “The winning prize money is legitimately going to help me take Out2Win Sports to the next level.”

Krause presented the Scrub Daddy Jumpstart Innovation Award to Natasha Brao ’22 (VPA), G’23, G’24�� for Shooka, a spicy tomato sauce based on the classic North African and Middle Eastern dish Shakshuka. According to Krause, he selected Brao and her distinctive product because he “saw the potential to get the product to market quickly.”

“Once again this year, the Orange Tank pitch competition was an opportunity to witness the level of innovative thinkers and amazing ideas coming out of the Whitman School,” says Minniti. “It is to the credit of the Whitman School’s EEE department faculty, our students, the judges and our generous donors that Orange Tank continues to be so successful. It’s exciting to see those with such an enthusiastic entrepreneurial mindset take yet another step forward into turning good ideas into great ones.”

Story by Caroline Reff

Gill

The Orange Innovation Fund is a concept to commercialization seed fund for student research initiatives emerging from the Blackstone LaunchPad and other campus innovation programs. The fund is designed to help move student research, scholarly or creative projects from ideation to proof of concept and commercialization by helping overcome some financial barriers students face.

The program will be administered through ���ϲ����� Libraries, in collaboration with the University’s existing research and commercialization programs such as the , the , , , the , the at ���ϲ�����, , , the (NYSTAR designated Center for Advanced Technology) and the . Applicants can also come through research classes, labs or independent study programs across the University.

“It’s been wonderful to see ���ϲ�����’s Blackstone Launchpad and its other innovation programs be so enthusiastically embraced by students across all disciplines. I hope this new fund will help remove any barriers student entrepreneurs might encounter as they develop their products for market. The U.S. economy depends on the tenacity of entrepreneurs to keep its edge,” says Gill. The Orange Innovation Fund supports the University’s goal to distinguish ���ϲ����� for excellence in research, scholarship, student experiential learning and innovation.

“We are so grateful for Raj-Ann’s commitment to ���ϲ�����, the Libraries and most importantly to the students we serve,” said David Seaman, dean of ���ϲ����� Libraries and university librarian. “Through her generosity, students will have the opportunity to apply for grants that will help bring their ideas to fruition, removing barriers to development of their products, services, technology and creativity.”

Each semester graduate and undergraduate students engaged in commercialization projects will have an opportunity to apply for grants up to $5,000 per award, with a total of up to $50,000 per academic year awarded over five years.

Applicants must identify specific tangible needs related to the development of a product, service, technology or creative work in the discovery, testing, building and/or launching of their initiative. Prospective applicants are encouraged to attend two proposal/grant writing workshops on Sept. 13 and 14 at 3 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons in Bird Library. The workshops will be offered by Linda Dickerson Hartsock, advisor, strategic initiatives at ���ϲ����� Libraries, and former founding director of the Blackstone LaunchPad.

The first application round will close Sept. 29. Applications for funding will be directed to the Libraries and reviewed by a cross-campus committee. For additional information email�� orangeinnovation@syr.edu.

About Forever Orange: The Campaign for ���ϲ�����

Orange isn’t just our color. It’s our promise to leave the world better than we found it. Forever Orange: The Campaign for ���ϲ����� is poised to do just that. Fueled by more than 150 years of fearless firsts, together we can enhance academic excellence, transform the student experience and expand unique opportunities for learning and growth. Forever Orange endeavors to raise $1.5 billion in philanthropic support, inspire 125,000 individual donors to participate in the campaign, and actively engage one in five alumni in the life of the University. Now is the time to show the world what Orange can do. Visit����to learn more.

Entrepreneurship is one of the three major pathways that servicemembers pursue during the transition to their post-service lives. According to the , veterans are not only more likely than their civilian peers to start and run their own businesses but on average, they also out-earn their non-veteran counterparts.

The ���ϲ����� 2023 cohort for Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (photo courtesy of Angela Ryan).

During the Saturday evening graduation ceremony at the National Veterans Resource Center, J. Michael Haynie, IVMF’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, shared his personal opinion on what makes the program a success in preparing veterans for the challenges of entrepreneurship.

Mike Haynie, vice chancellor of strategic initiatives and innovation at ���ϲ�����, welcomes the 2023 EBV ���ϲ����� cohort.

“The EBV program really embodies the convergence of two truths that I hold very closely. The first of those is the power of business ownership to change the trajectory of lives and families,” says Haynie, a U.S. Air Force veteran and the University’s vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation. “The second truth is the resiliency, the grit, and the selflessness of those who have served, and how those attributes translate to the relentless pursuit of the next big challenge, however daunting that challenge may be.”

With more than 2,400 EBV graduates to date, the program also calls upon previous graduates who have seen significant success after attending one of the IVMF’s entrepreneurial training programs. One such graduate is U.S. Marine Corps veteran Chris Dambach, owner of Industry Standard USA. Dambach’s business provides construction and facility support services for government projects and has been featured on the Inc. 5,000 list celebrating the fastest-growing businesses in the United States.

Dambach also had a hand in recruiting one of this year’s graduates, local ���ϲ����� business owner and U.S. Air Force veteran, Brandon Johnson. Johnson is the owner of Crossett Property Management, which manages several properties located primarily in the Strathmore area of the city.

“I met Chris at a veteran-focused conference a few years ago, and we were talking about getting into the government contracting space eventually, and he told me I had to do the EBV program,” Johnson says. “Just feeling the energy in the room and being exposed to the faculty that’s here, it’s just a great refresher to keep our tools sharpened to go out there and be successful in business.”

Alex McKelvie, interim dean of the Whitman School, teaches a class for the 2023 Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans at ���ϲ����� cohort.

The program does more than teach about small business management, however, it also gets the participants out into the local community to speak with local business owners. This year’s cohort visited Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Talking Cursive to learn firsthand what struggles local owners go through as they grow their businesses.

In addition to the EBV program, the at ���ϲ����� leverages access to world-class faculty for introductory lessons in entrepreneurship for a small group of participants with the Warrior Scholar Project (WSP).

The WSP program is designed to prepare transitioning service members for higher education. Understanding that most of the program participants haven’t been in an academic classroom for several years, WSP prepares participants for the rigors of higher education, equipping them with the tools necessary to be successful in the pursuit of their academic goals.

The WSP program spanned the course of two weeks; the first week focused on humanities and the second week focused on entrepreneurship. Tristan Whipps, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran studying information management technology and professional technical writing at the School of Information Studies, served as a business fellow over the summer to help guide and mentor this year’s participants after being a program graduate with last year’s cohort.

“The business week is designed to demystify business as an undergraduate degree. They’re getting a crash course on topics related to entrepreneurship like some legal considerations for entrepreneurship, branding and marketing, as well as small business finance,” Whipps says.

Crystal Houston, an adjunct professor in the Newhouse School, teaches a class on how to leverage social media to help grow a small business.

Both cohorts would not be nearly as successful without the dedication and support from professors and faculty members of ���ϲ�����. This year, 11 professors and faculty members from outside the IVMF taught crucial lessons in a range of disciplines between the two programs. Those faculty members are:

• Sean Branagan, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Craig Champion, professor of history, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Carol Faulkner, professor and associate dean for academic affairs, the Maxwell School
• Tim Gerkin, professor of writing and rhetoric in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Crystal Houston, adjunct professor, the Newhouse School
• Thomas Keck, professor of political science, the Maxwell School
• Eileen Schell, professor of writing and rhetoric, the College of Arts and Sciences
• Alex McKelvie, interim dean, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management
• John Torrens, professor of entrepreneurial practice, the Whitman School
• Kenneth Walsleben, professor of practice, the Whitman School
• Elizabeth Wimer, assistant teaching professor, the Whitman School

John Wildhack, the University’s director of athletics, served as the guest speaker during the graduation ceremony. Wildhack shared some of his personal insight from his time during the startup of ESPN and provided some of his own advice to guide them on their path upon leaving campus and returning to their entrepreneurial journey.

“As you embark on your next chapter or continue to grow the business you’ve already established, identify what motivates you, what drives you, and what’s most important to you both in your work and as an individual,” Wildhack says. “For me, it’s the three F’s: Family, Faith and Friends.”

For more information on the programs and services offered to service members, veterans, and military-connected spouses, please visit the.

“���ϲ����� is home to one of the first academic entrepreneurship programs in the U.S., and we have a longstanding tradition associated with supporting and elevating the entrepreneurial aspirations of our students,” says . “The ‘CUSE50 Alumni Entrepreneur program is a natural extension of that tradition, and a unique opportunity to connect our alumni entrepreneurs with our current students and faculty.”

※�������50 recognition is open to alumni of any school or college, graduates of ���ϲ����� executive education programs and alumni of entrepreneurship programs operated by the

“���ϲ����� alumni are doing extraordinary work all over the world, and I am thrilled that we are going to recognize the business acumen they developed at ���ϲ�����. What I’m most excited about is that our honorees will return to campus to pass along valuable insights to the next generation of Orange entrepreneurs,” says Tracy Barlok, ���ϲ�����’s chief advancement officer.

Awardees will be honored on campus on Thursday, Nov. 9, in the K.G. Tan Auditorium in the National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building. While on campus, ※�������50 Awardees will also share insights with each other and current students, as part of a series of cross-campus engagement sessions planned for Nov. 10.

Do you want to compete to be recognized in the inaugural class of ※�������50 awardees?

Eligibility criteria for the ※�������50 awards are as follows:

• Applicants must be alumni of ���ϲ����� and be either a majority owner or hold a C-suite level leadership position in the company;
• Applicants must have founded their business at least three calendar years prior to the date of application for ※�������50 recognition;
• The company must have had verifiable revenues of $100,000 or more, at a point two years prior to the date of application, and verifiable revenues of $250,000 or more, at a point one year prior to the date of application.
• The company must meet one or more of the following criteria:
  • An alumnus or group of alumni maintain ownership in the company and have served as a C-Suite executive (i.e., chairman, CEO, president, or managing partner) for three consecutive years prior to nomination; or
  • An alumnus has led the company as a C-Suite executive for three consecutive years prior to nomination; or
  • An alumnus founded the company and has been active as a member of its senior management team for three consecutive years prior to nomination.
• Additionally, the company and its leaders and/or founders must act with high integrity and operate in a manner consistent with the values of ���ϲ�����, including accepting responsibility for their actions; practicing equity in human rights; upholding the law and respecting the rights of others; and contributing positively to ���ϲ����� and the national and global community.

The deadline to apply for recognition is Thursday, Aug. 31. To learn more about the ※�������50 awards and nominate your company for recognition, visit .

Participants will learn to apply discovery methodology to help translate technology innovation from the lab into a successful product and/or service through a better understanding of how to achieve product-market fit.

The monthlong virtual course will be offered Sept. 18-Oct. 18��through ���ϲ����� as a partner in the , funded by the NSF, led by Cornell University and with other collaborators, including Dartmouth College, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Buffalo, University of Pittsburgh, University of Rochester, University of Vermont and West Virginia University. The Hub is part of the , connecting researchers, entrepreneurial communities and federal agencies to help commercialize research.

.

Course Overview

This virtual course combines self-directed online learning activities, with six Zoom-based class meetings and one-on-one instructor check ins. The course is technology-agnostic, and any sufficiently developed (i.e., beyond ideation) tech innovation team is welcome to apply.

In the first half of the course, teams learn how to identify target customer segments, develop hypotheses about the value proposition offered to each customer segment and effectively interview potential customers about their problems/needs.

In the second half of the course, teams will conduct customer discovery and join personalized calls with instructors to share progress and receive coaching. In the final class, teams present their findings, receive additional coaching, learn about other local entrepreneurship programs and receive information about applying for the national I-Corps Teams program and various grants.

Applicant Information

Criteria for apply to the program are as follows:

• Applicants should have an early-state technology innovation, with either a prototype or some form of scientific validation.
• Teams of one to three people may apply.
• All team members are required to attend and participate fully in every course session and complete all coursework to be considered for NSF lineage and a nomination for ��the national I-Corps Team.

While all applicants are welcome, preference is given to those with university-affiliated technology (i.e., faculty working with the Office of Technology Transfer), as well as postdocs, graduate students and undergraduate students who are commercializing research.

Applications are also encouraged from researchers and early-stage founders engaged with other campuses as well as community incubators and accelerator programs.

The application closes Wednesday, Aug. 23.

More Information

NSF I-Corps course programming at ���ϲ����� is being co-led by Linda Dickerson Hartsock, strategic initiatives advisor, ���ϲ����� Libraries, who was founding director of the Blackstone LaunchPad, and Jeff Fuchsberg, director, ���ϲ����� Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering. Both Hartsock and Fuchsberg led the ���ϲ����� Tech Garden before joining the University. NSF certified instructors will be teaching the course modules.

Read more about ���ϲ�����’s participation in the new IN I-Corps Consortium and its $15 million STEM innovation program. The new initiative aims to create a cohesive innovation ecosystem through inclusive models of education and workforce training designed to catalyze innovation in economically underserved areas.

Partners in ���ϲ�����’s NSF I-Corps programming are resource providers across campus, including the Office of Research, Office of Technology Transfer, ���ϲ����� Libraries, the College of Law’s Innovation Law Center, the College of Engineering and Computer Science and its Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

For more information about the upcoming NSF I-Corps course, contact Linda Dickerson Hartsock (ldhart01@syr.edu) or Jeff Fuchsberg (jrfuchsb@syr.edu).

WISE is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and hosted by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Designated by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as a Women’s Business Center in 2006, WISE has supported thousands of women reach their small business goals. In 2022 alone, WISE supported over 600 women with no-cost programs and services. This included over 1,000 hours of no-cost technical assistance in areas ranging from business planning and financial projections, to creating a plan for strategic growth. Over 40% served were minority women.

As one of nearly 150 women business centers across the nation, WISE is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and hosted by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

The unprecedented impacts of the pandemic continue to take their toll on the economy and our community. The challenges women business owners face often require a unique approach. This special funding will allow WISE to support women with the technical assistance they need when they need it and position the counseling program for the future. This work will include hiring a Spanish-speaking small business counselor.

“The demand for expert technical assistance has risen significantly. We’re incredibly grateful to ���ϲ����� for recognizing the importance of equitable access to trusted small business resources. We take our role in the community seriously and will do all we can to stand behind and beside CNY women as partners in their success,” says Meghan Florkowski, director of the WISE WBC.

“Over the past decade, women have represented one of the fastest growing segments of the community business owners across the U.S. Here in Central New York, the WISE Women’s Business Center has fueled that growth locally and empowered countless women in pursuit of their business ownership aspirations. For that reason, ���ϲ����� is proud to support and advance the work of the WISE Women’s Business Center,” says Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and Barnes Professor of Entrepreneurship.

Scott Warren, of ���ϲ����� Libraries (left), and Bruce Kingma, of the School of Information Studies (right), present a check to Ben Ford ’23, founder of Fundwurx.

The concurrent competitions were coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries (LaunchPad).

The following nine student startup teams each won $2,000 in RvD funding:

• Ben Ford ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Fundwurx
• Adya Parida ’25 and Oliver Raycroft ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), co-founders of Scale Sense
• Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Ta
• Jeremy Shinder ’24 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), founder of Jere Bear Films, LLC
• Travis Ghirdharie G’22 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs), founder of Many Hands
• Sai Krishna Bolla G’23 (School of Information Studies), founder of Cognition X
• Aidan Mickleburgh ’23, G’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science and Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Intervea
• Kai Patricio G’23 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), founder of Farm Loop
• Rob Goldblatt ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Paul Sausville and Nicole Byrnes (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry), co-founders of Tree-Spun

The 2023 Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award was given to four students who best exemplify “The Spirit of Entrepreneurship.” Prizes honor the memory of Hunter Brooks Watson, a University student who died tragically in a distracted driving accident. Winners of $2,500 each are the following:

• Rabia Razzaq G’23 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), Kai Patricio G’23 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), Priscilla Cruz ’24 (School of Information Studies) and Peyton Sefick, members of Re-mend team
• Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Ta
• Jeremy Shinder ’24 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), founder of Jere Bear Films, LLC
• Ethan Tyo ’17, G’22 (David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics), AlterNative Project and cookbook author

Traci Geisler ’90

Prior to joining the LaunchPad, Geisler served in an investment, program and contract management role at The Tech Garden since 2016. There she provided business development services to incubator member companies and managed procurement, funding programs and the investment portfolio of the incubator. Geisler also has more than 25 years of experience in corporate and finance law in 10 countries. She began her career in communications and sports/entertainment after graduating with a dual degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Arts and Sciences. She obtained her master’s in business administration from the City University of New York and her juris doctorate from New York Law School.

In her role as director of the LaunchPad, Geisler will be responsible for creating programs and services that support ���ϲ����� students, faculty, staff and alumni across all disciplines. This includes entrepreneurship resources for those who want to build and create, as well as intrapreneurship resources for those who want to strengthen leaderships skills. The LaunchPad is dedicated to inspiring, coaching and empowering the world’s future innovators through connections with subject matter experts, co-working space, individualized coaching, alumni and peer mentoring, workshops, professional networking events, demo days and talent fairs, competitions for seed funding, toolkit resources, technology platforms, access to accelerators and innovation grant funding.

“We’re thrilled to have someone with Traci Geisler’s experience and skills join ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad as the new director. Linda Dickerson Hartsock created a communal hub for student entrepreneurs that is well known across the region and has allowed the Libraries to serve ���ϲ�����’s schools and colleges in their various innovation programs, bringing new energy and capacity to entrepreneurship,” says David Seaman, dean of the Libraries, University Librarian and interim dean of the School of Information Studies. “Having Traci now in this role will ensure the LaunchPad continues to evolve and grow organically. Traci’s background and connections will add another layer of depth that will translate to more opportunities for our student entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives.”

About ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad

The is ���ϲ�����’s innovation hub, connecting the campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students and recent alumni across all disciplines who are interested in entrepreneurship, venture creation and innovation careers. The program supports a key pillar of ���ϲ�����’s academic strategic plan to give students experiential opportunities that help prepare them to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.

Winning team and judges from Hult Prize Competition Qualifier: Chris Thomas, a judge; Tree-Spun team members Nicole Byrnes, Rob Goldblatt and Paul Sausville; Caeresa Richardson, a judge; Cjala Surratt, a judge; and organizer Sasha Temerte

, a student in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and co-founder of Tree-Spun, and his teammates, Paul Sausville and Nicole Byrnes, both from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, won the 2023 ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad Hult Prize campus qualifier competition. The competition was held at the LaunchPad in Bird Library on Feb. 17.

��is a prestigious global business competition started by a partnership between the����and the��. The competition challenges students to present products, services, technologies and other solutions to societal problems.

This year’s challenge is Redesigning Fashion, which asks student teams to pitch a for-profit business venture in the fashion/clothing industry that positively impacts people and the planet.

Rabia Razzaq ’23, a student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and founder of Re-mend, and Sahitya Sampath ’25, a student in the Whitman School and founder of Block Threads, were runners-up.

Winners of the campus competition will advance to a regional competition for a chance to compete with international student teams for the opportunity to work with world class mentors and pitch at the United Nations for $1 million in investment. Past ���ϲ����� winners have gone on to compete in Toronto, Boston and San Francisco.

This year’s Hult Prize Competition qualifier was organized by Alesandra (Sasha) Temerte ’23, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and a LaunchPad Global Fellow.

2022 Panasci Business Plan Competition winners

The 2023 competition will be held on April 14. The Panasci Business Plan Competition, hosted at the Whitman School of Management at ���ϲ�����, is a campuswide student event made possible by a longtime Whitman supporter, the late , founder of Fay’s Drugs.

Competing gives collegiate entrepreneurs real-world experience to pitch their startups, enhance their business strategies and learn what it takes to launch successful companies. The Panasci competition is open to all students at ���ϲ�����. Applicants will write and submit a business plan for the chance to advance to the finals on April 14, 2023, at the Whitman School.

Key Dates

• Dec. 2, 2022, 7-8 p.m.: First information session, Q&A to learn about the competition and hear from past winning teams. .
• Jan. 30, 2023, 7-8 p.m.: Second information session, Q&A to learn about the competition and hear from past winning teams. .
• Jan. 31, 2023, midnight: Submission of due—not mandatory to compete but useful to stay up-to-date on the competition.
• Feb. 18-19, 2023: Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises 458—Business Plan Laboratory weekend course offered to learn how to write a business plan (1 credit). It is not a pre-requirement to compete but useful to write a better business plan. For information about the course, email Professor of Entrepreneurial Practice Ken Walsleben at kpwalsle@syr.edu.
• March 26, 2023: Deadline to submit business plan��to compete.
• April 14, 2023: , Whitman School of Management.

A Few Items to Get You Started

• Review the .
• If you need help preparing for the competition, reach out to the Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries by email.
• .

The competition is designed to catalyze social entrepreneurship for students interested in pitching products, projects, services or technologies that are practical, innovative and sustainable solutions to societal problems around the globe. Applications will be accepted through Nov. 1 via . The Impact Prize competition, with $15,000 total in prizes, will take place at Bird Library on Friday, Nov. 11 from 2 to 5 p.m.

The Impact Prize is a gateway to other LaunchPad competitions in the spring, like the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award. Examples of business or project ideas include:

• Arts and culture
• Community revitalization
• Disability and accessibility
• Diversity, equity and inclusion
• Employment and training
• Energy and climate change
• Environmental sustainability
• Food access and nutrition
• Health and mental health
• Literacy and education
• Poverty
• Sustainability
• Transportation and mobility
• Underserved populations
• Youth leadership and empowerment
• Other public policy challenges

This year’s competition is supported through a $15,000 gift from ���ϲ����� Libraries Advisory Board Member Carl Armani and his wife, Marcy, made in honor of Linda Dickerson-Hartsock, retiring LaunchPad executive director. Dickerson-Hartsock created the Impact Prize in 2017 and has inspired the next generation of founders and makers to aspire toward opportunities that benefit the greater good. This sixth annual competition, created to champion venture development that help solve “wicked problems” in communities around the world, is important to Dickerson-Hartsock personally and professionally, and she has championed social entrepreneurship throughout her career.

Previous Impact Prize competitions funded by the Armani family have honored Gay Culverhouse, a pioneer in education, sports and medicine who served as president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1988 to 1994. She was the voice for retired players with brain disorders that might have resulted from on-field concussions.

For more information on the Impact Prize competition, e-mail LaunchPad@syr.edu.

Grant applications from companies who are new or existing members of the are being accepted through 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 20. Awards of up to $10,000 each for up to five projects may be presented.

M3 Innovations’ Chris Nolan, left, and Joe Casper with their Mako Solution System. The company received Innovation Fund grants in 2020 and 2022. (Photo by Kerrie Marshall)

Companies at all —industry, affiliate and start-up—are invited to apply for the grants. Project proposals must address a challenge in the ���ϲ�����CoE’s core focus areas of indoor environmental quality, clean and renewable energy and water resources.

Led by ���ϲ�����, ���ϲ�����CoE is one of�� designed to foster collaboration between the academic research community and the business sector to develop and commercialize new products and technologies and promote private sector investment in emerging high-technology fields in New York state.

���ϲ�����CoE Executive Director , who is also a professor of in the University’s , notes that many ���ϲ�����CoE partners have leveraged their Innovation Fund awards��to commercialize their technologies and strengthen their companies.

Jianshun “Jensen” Zhang, executive director, ���ϲ�����CoE.

“These awards accelerate research and development and help transform innovative discoveries into commercially viable products and services, making the companies more competitive. The entrepreneurial culture that is inherent in university-industry collaboration contributes to a strong economy for New York state, while addressing important, multifaceted societal challenges,” Zhang says.

Zhang cites the success of three prior grantees as a measure of the potential the awards can mean. used its 2016 grant to build financial and physical models of their system to advance critical conversations with utilities. The company is now working with National Grid to build New York state’s . 2014 award allowed it to test new, innovative LED sports lighting technology that they used the following year to light the Super Bowl. ’s 2016 grant helped it test the heat management system for its portable electric vehicle chargers. The startup built its first prototype at ���ϲ�����CoE headquarters and has won millions in other grants. Founder Josh Aviv ’15 G’17 has received multiple “best entrepreneur” honors. Recently, he introduced President Joseph R. Biden Jr. L’68 at the White House signing of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Those who are interested in joining the partner program now to be eligible for grant consideration for this October’s awards can contact Tamara Rosanio at tlrosani@syr.edu.��More details about the program and application process can be found on the .

The NSF award is providing the funding to a consortium of 10 academic institutions for the implementation and execution of the IN I-Corps Hub program. The program aims to expand the nation’s geography of innovation by creating a cohesive innovation ecosystem that delivers inclusive models of education and workforce training designed for and by innovators in rural regions and small cities. The region that includes ���ϲ����� stretches from New Hampshire to West Virginia and represents large portions of the U.S. that are largely rural, economically underserved and working to restore economic vitality.

���ϲ����� is joined by hub lead Cornell University and hub partner institutions Dartmouth College, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Buffalo, University of Pittsburgh, University of Rochester, University of Vermont and West Virginia University. Each institution will be hosting regional I-Corps courses and contributing to programming and curriculum strategy in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The grant captures activities taking place across the ���ϲ����� campus, including at the College of Law’s Innovation Law Center; the College of Engineering and Computer Science and its Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering; and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, says the University is excited to partner with the NSF and other colleges to boost entrepreneurism and contribute academic programming and curriculum development in that field.

“The University has a long and distinguished reputation as a leader in entrepreneurship education, evidenced by the many innovative programs in place across our campus,” Ritter says. “We are pleased to lend our expertise and capacities to the I-Corps program goals. Given our institutional priority to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, we are gratified to see that a special program focus is assuring equitable access to resources and talent development among groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in STEM field education.”

Duncan Brown, vice president of research, says the program provides new opportunities, both interdisciplinary and cross-school collaboration on campus and dynamic partnerships with other colleges that emphasize innovation, entrepreneurship and local economy initiatives.

“We are pleased to join with these institutions and the NSF in this initiative and the University looks forward to the many ways our faculty and leadership can enhance STEM learning and market innovation through this collaboration,” Brown says.

New Tech for Society

Founded by the National Science Foundation in 2011, I-Corps programming nationwide empowers researchers to combine their technical and scientific knowledge with an entrepreneurial mindset to develop new technologies and startups that benefit society. The I-Corps curriculum addresses the knowledge gap between the skills needed to develop an innovative technology in a lab and the skills needed to bring that technology to market. With a core tenet of customer discovery, participants in I-Corps courses work to connect with potential customers and ensure the solutions they are developing fill an existing market need.

Campus Leads

Alexander McKelvie

Alexander McKelvie, interim dean and professor of entrepreneurship in the Whitman School, is the principal investigator for the ���ϲ����� portion of the grant. Todd Moss, chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises and the Pettinella Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Whitman School, is the research lead for the program. Pramod Varshney, distinguished professor of electrical engineering and computer science and director of CASE, is the faculty lead.

“We are delighted to collaborate with these partner institutions in the interior northeast region on this transformational program,” says McKelvie. “The combination of practical teaching and academic research reflects the ‘sweet spot’ of the strengths of ���ϲ�����’s entrepreneurship model. It is also gratifying that Todd Moss has been selected to the be research lead for the program, and that the work aligns closely with the expertise of multiple Whitman School faculty members. This reflects Whitman’s academic standing in the field.”

Todd Moss

���ϲ����� is a recognized leader in the field of entrepreneurship. Its entrepreneurship programming includes applied education in the community, such as through the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans, the WISE Women’s Business Center, the South Side Innovation Center, the Innovation Law Center and the Blackstone Launchpad, among other programs. Its leadership in the field is also reflected as a globally ranked academic research unit having 11 tenure-track faculty housed at the Whitman School, many of whom are thought leaders in their entrepreneurship fields, as well as multiple other scholars across campus. The University has hosted a number of I-Corps courses in recent years in collaboration with the UNY I-Corps Node.

DEIA Focus

Pramod Varshney

A mission-critical element of the IN I-Corps Hub’s approach to entrepreneurship is the creation and administration of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives. IN I-Corps officials report that STEM researchers in underrepresented groups face heightened barriers to success and creating equitable access to resources and talent development is crucial to ensuring the most innovative deep-tech developments are being discovered and amplified. Hub leadership and partners are working to actively create opportunities to support the development of STEM research talent who are women, veterans, people of color and individuals with disabilities. These initiatives will include collaborations with such organizations as the National GEM Consortium’s and.

The IN I-Corps Hub joins eight other I-Corps Hubs within the (NIN). ��The hub will regularly offer regional courses designed to support geographically dispersed participants in learning the I-Corps method of customer discovery and applying it to real-world opportunities, while still remaining connected to their home institutions and communities.

The Interior Northeast Hub launches officially on Jan. 1, 2023. STEM researchers interested in learning about opportunities to participate in regional I-Corps courses at Hub institutions will be able to look for that information on the program website.

The CASTLE curriculum consists of a minimum of 12 credits, including a foundational course in entrepreneurship offered at Whitman and an applied capstone course offered at the College of Law through its Innovation Law Center (ILC). The ILC offers a unique, interdisciplinary experiential learning program for students interested in the commercial development of new technologies. It is also the designated New York State Science & Law Technology Center by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR). Under the leadership of Director Brian Gerling L’99, ILC students and faculty provide research, information, and advisory and support services to the more than 30 universities and research centers in New York supported by NYSTAR as well as New York state entrepreneurs and companies with new technologies.

Students enrolled in CASTLE can choose from courses in the areas of intellectual property, patents, venture capital and startup advising, among others. CASTLE is open to graduate and law students enrolled at ���ϲ�����, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) and SUNY Upstate Medical College.

“The College of Law’s Innovation Law Center has a twenty-plus-year track record of preparing law students to drive growth in tech-related industries, including emerging medical, pharmaceutical, robotics, computing and manufacturing technologies, by combining real-world practical experience and academics, including courses at Whitman. CASTLE formalizes this interdisciplinary approach with an advanced credential that employers will immediately recognize as an added value in candidates,” says Dean Craig M. Boise.

Whitman School Interim Dean Alexander McKelvie says, “We are delighted to be able to launch this new program with the College of Law. We have a long history of working collaboratively and this new program formalizes our joint work in support of technology entrepreneurs and innovators. This new program is a major benefit to students as they learn both business and legal skills, like how to do market sizing, competitive analyses and commercialization, as well as intellectual property law and how to do patent searches.”

Students interested in CASTLE can apply at any time during their graduate programs. College of Law students should apply in the spring of their 1L year. Tuition follows the current tuition rate per school and course.

For more detailed information about this Certificate of Advanced Study, please visit the College of Law’s . Current College of Law students interested in the certificate should contact the ILC at 315.443.8933 while prospective law students should contact College of Law admissions. Whitman students should email Christopher Wszalek, executive director of graduate admissions and student recruitment.

Mayra Quintana (left) and Kamryn Olkowski interned for one month at the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

Kamryn Olkowski hails from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where prior to attending the USAFA she served as a signal intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force. She always knew she wanted to go to the academy growing up because she attended local sports camps and programs there. When she applied the first time, however, she was denied. With a no-quit attitude, Olkowski applied twice while serving active duty and was finally accepted to attend the USAFA. As a rising senior, Olkowski is a management major, which covers topics such as accounting, finances and marketing.

Mayra Quintana was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where a tough family life molded her into the person she is today. “My dad was arrested when I was 8 years old, and he’s been in prison for most of my childhood,” says Quintana. Her community is heavily impoverished and deals with constant violence and drugs. Quintana had her eyes set on college, and during junior ROTC in high school, she decided to apply to the USAFA and become a beacon of hope for others. Similarly, to Olkowski, Quintana is a rising senior also majoring in management and uses her experiences to speak with members of her community about the ways she has avoided becoming a statistic in her community.

Both cadets, as part of CSRP, gained insight on opportunities available to them in the workforce. Olkowski says, “When looking at what the IVMF was and the focus on entrepreneurship, as an aspiring entrepreneur I knew that it could provide me with some insight and maybe something that I could use in the future.” While cadet Quintana says she initially found out about VET-SIM (a project focused on helping student veterans navigate collegiate study), she thought this would give her the experience and opportunity to help others, specifically veterans, through research.

Quintana is looking forward to taking what she has learned under Linda R. Euto, associate director for research and evaluation at the IVMF, and Professor Benjamin Dotger, from the School of Education, and the project and implementing it at the academy. Quintana says, “Within each squadron [100 cadets] at the academy, there is an officer and enlisted member in charge of those cadets. Applying what VET-SIM is trying to accomplish can potentially close the gap between officers, who have much more training through the academy, and their enlisted peers who are working with students.”

Within entrepreneurship, Olkowski has been working on the community navigator pilot program (CNPP), which was awarded to the IVMF through a Small Business Administration grant. The CNPP program includes seven hub organizations, in this case one of them being the IVMF, at the center of a network of spoke organizations that engage trusted community advocates to support veteran small businesses. Olkowski says, “I have been analyzing what our hub at the IVMF does to coordinate with our 16 spokes. I am then comparing that to the other seven hubs and taking the best parts of what they are doing and coordinating with IVMF staff to implement them [the best parts] into our hub.” Through her analysis Olkowski has also been part of restructuring the community navigator website design, as well as creating a document explaining the project.

While the cadets spent most of their time working in their respective groups, they did have the opportunity to attend the Veteran Entrepreneur Success Summit in Washington, D.C., featuring members of the . They were able to make new connections with successful veteran business owners and learn about other segments of IVMF programming. Reflecting on the experience Quintana says, “Everyone was super genuine and supportive and giving us so much wisdom and knowledge. It was cool to be there and see successful people encouraging us to start our businesses and careers earlier than later.” Olkowski says, “We were nervous about it, we did not want to annoy all the people from their actual networking opportunities. But everyone was genuine about wanting to connect with us and talk with us.”

As both cadets enter their final years at the academy, they thought about what life might be like for them after they fulfill their military service. Olkowski says her hope is to one day open a consulting business for people who are dealing with death and navigating that process. She hopes that she can bridge the gap for folks struggling to balance the administrative nature of the task of dealing with death and the personal emotion that accompanies the process. Quintana is looking back on her community, and what it means to be a female minority in the military. She hopes that others will see what she has done and be inspired to follow in her footsteps making positive change in her community and others across the country.

Quintana and Olkowski shared their appreciation of the IVMF and what they learned in a short amount of time. Olkowski says, “After seeing the number of resources offered at the IVMF I am going share what I have learned with others facing the transition process. It is nice to have this resource in my back pocket for when I transition out as well.” Both women are excited to get back to the academy and share their experiences from the IVMF with other cadets.

Peter DePasquale ’12

Creative business coach Peter DePasquale ’12 (dual B.F.A. in arts education and printmaking), as well as an M.F.A. (printmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) will be leading a four-week intensive boot camp accelerator to help students and recent alumni learn how to commercialize their creative endeavors. Space is limited and will be open on a competitive basis to those pursuing professional pathways in all aspects of the visual and performing arts, writers, musicians, designers and aspiring NFT producers, as well as creatives who are fabricators and makers.

Fortunately, DePasquale is an expert in this arena. He is eager to share that expertise with fledging artistic professionals across all disciplines, sole proprietors and small business startups, and creative arts students alike via this program, which he will host virtually at the Blackstone Launchpad in July and August. The four-week program starts on Monday, July 11, and runs until Wednesday, Aug. 3, with sessions held each week on Monday and Wednesday nights from 6 to 8:30 p.m. ET via Zoom. The program is open to a maximum of 14 people, so apply early before seats fill up.

DePasquale is co-owner and production director of MINIMA-MAXIMA, a gender-inclusive wearables company that specializes in crafting bolo ties and ear jackets that incorporate stunning geometrical patterns in their design philosophy. He serves as the primary technician for small-batch manufacturing of in-house merchandise—creating, editing and producing laser-cut components for their handcrafted wooden and acrylic products. He also trains studio assistants on production methods and manages the day-to-day operations, including accounting and tax preparations, client correspondence, shipping and receiving, and e-commerce maintenance and expansion.

He has also been a professional printmaker, visual artist, jewelry maker and expert NFT artist. Additionally, he provides creative business consulting services out of Pittsburgh, where he now resides, and has been supporting creative businesses in this way for nearly five years.

DePasquale’s program, like his consulting work, is designed to educate and coach artistic entrepreneurs on the core essentials of starting, running and maintaining a successful art-based business that sells to retail and wholesale clients in spaces both physical and digital. This program will help create a community of support for artist business owners moving forward—aiming to foster collaboration and local assistance in tackling the daunting task of launching and maintaining a professional artistic endeavor.

Participants in DePasquale’s program will learn the principles of creating thoughtful work; selling it at in-person events and through an e-commerce platform; managing the production of items and keeping an inventory system; managing customer service; ordering sustainable materials and supplies; customizing shipping procedures and operating on a shipping platform; meeting legal requirements of state and federal standards; social media account management; fundamentals of bookkeeping; and financial management for creatives and artists.

The Blackstone LaunchPad is pleased to support this intensive summer accelerator. Nearly 40% of LaunchPad participants are creatives such as artists, photographers, filmmakers, animators, illustrators, authors, illustrators, fashion designers, graphic designers, musicians and makers. “Creatives are the quintessential entrepreneurs,” says Linda Dickerson Hartsock, director of the LaunchPad, who is also an arts entrepreneur, as one of the co-founders of the Center for the Arts of Homer. “Creative economies help build strong communities, and these professions are increasingly primary career paths and side-gigs for many members of Gen Z.”

Serving as peer mentor and program support for the accelerator will be John (Jack) Rose ’24, a writer and entrepreneurship student at ���ϲ�����. Rose is founder of Bladepoint Media and a passionate storyteller who is working on his first book. His goal is to combine his love of writing and creativity, combined with his knowledge of the business world, in a meaningful way to bring positive impact and value to others. He will be available to work with students throughout the program.

The cost to participate is $125 per individual for the entire four-week virtual program, paid directly to DePasquale. Interested parties should email Peter DePasquale directly at peter@minima-maxima.com and include the following information:

• Full name
• Contact information (email, phone)
• Student/alumni status
• Employment status
• Primary artistic or creative medium
• History of owning/running a business (if applicable)

Story by Jack Rose ’24

Whitman Assistant Professor David Park with students

At the Whitman School, Park teaches Introduction to Entrepreneurship: How to Launch a Startup, where he uses his entrepreneurial experiences and research to make the subject relatable and easier to learn.

Park was nominated as a top MBA professor based on his talent, caring dedication and teaching methods. He was widely supported by his peers and students, past and present.

As one nominator related to Poets&Quants, “Professor Park is one of the most memorable educators in my life. He cared about his students as whole people; he cared that we understood the content and that he also understood us as individuals. By caring to understand what motivated each of us, he was able to create an adaptable pedagogy for his teaching and offered multiple ways of understanding a problem. In my case, the complex financial model could become a poetic story that brought the issue to life and stuck in my brain. Six years after being his student…I still feel inspired to nominate him because I still feel his impact as someone who embodies the ‘Poets&Quants’ energy.”

Park was also the winner of several teaching awards and recognitions while at the University of Washington, where he completed his Ph.D., including the Star Teacher Award and the Ph.D. Program Teaching Award. Before joining academia, he co-founded a high-tech startup and served as a Marine Corps officer.

“Congratulations to Professor Park for this outstanding achievement. It speaks volumes about his dedication to his students, as well as his research that has been published in top journals. We are glad to have him in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises,” says Todd Moss, chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises and associate professor of entrepreneurship.

There were more than 2,240 nominations for nearly 140 individual professors in this year’s ranking. The Poets&Quants editorial staff evaluates each nominee on teaching (given a 70% weight) and research (given the remaining 30% weight). For teaching, they consider the nominations received—both quality and quantity. For research, the volume and impact of the professor’s scholarly work is considered.

Answers to that question are what ’80, director of the and an adjunct faculty member in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, hopes to seed through his Fulbright Specialist grant project in Estonia this spring.

Sean Branagan

Branagan was awarded the prestigious grant to teach a digital media entrepreneurship course at cutting-edge . He’ll work with students and faculty at the public research university’s film, media and arts school and with community entrepreneurs for six weeks.

As part of the larger hosted by the U.S. Department of State, his grant is one of 400 typically awarded each year to professionals and academics to share expertise, strengthen institutional partnerships, and gain international and other-cultures experiences. The grants are awarded based on academic and professional achievement, demonstrated leadership and the potential to foster cooperation.

Tallinn University is one of the three largest higher education institutions in Estonia and is ranked among the top 1,000 universities in the world. It promotes achieving an “intelligent lifestyle” through education, research and cross-discipline collaborations to promote citizens’ well-being and to improve society.

A Digital Nirvana

The digital media landscape is at another moment of acceleration, Branagan says, and that’s what prompted his interest in the Fulbright Specialist program as he and his peers started asking, “What’s next after the pandemic?”

Estonia is a perfect place to assess how the digital media future might unfold, he says.

“It’s one of the most digital countries in Europe and maybe one of the most digital countries in the world. It’s the Silicon Valley of Europe, yet with just 1.3 million people, it has the highest concentration of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ‘unicorns’ in a community that’s just a fraction of Silicon Valley’s size.”

Take Chances Now

Sean Branagan

Branagan plans to optimize the current disruptive state, a business environment ripe for innovation and a world more accepting of change to teach Estonian students to take chances and create new types of media right now. He foresees a whole new group of creative lifestyle and small businesses, new media platforms and new business models emerging from this time.

“Right now, it’s all Game On. It feels like 2006 again, and I think we’re about to see another 20 years of major disruption taking place in the media world. There’ll be new players, new centers of media, new films coming out of unusual places. It’s going to be a mix and match of things that used to be very distinct. So, it’s opportunity time again,” Branagan says. “New voices, new media owners and new kinds of media create new narratives that change our culture and society. Media entrepreneurship is powerful. It’s a very accessible type of entrepreneuring. I see it as a force multiplier for social change.”

Branagan has been teaching digital media entrepreneurship since 2011, when the late Newhouse School Dean Emerita Lorraine Branham “took a chance on me,” he says, and established the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship.

In addition to starting lifestyle businesses and high-tech companies, Branagan served five years as entrepreneur in residence at the in ���ϲ�����. He has been instrumental in ���ϲ�����’s Kauffman-funded, award-winning��, and is the creator and co-founder of , a national collegiate startup tournament that culminated at SXSW. He has been involved from the early days of entrepreneurship programming, and still teaches entrepreneurship to transitioning military personnel via the program. He also serves as advisor, board member and in other roles with several early-stage startups and venture funds.

Three Goals

The professor has three goals for the project. They are to show students that entrepreneurship is a creative endeavor they can pursue freely, versus a mechanism or a business focus; to help faculty cast aside myths about who entrepreneurs are (“because the student getting a C grade is more likely to innovate and do something creative, unusual, and non-conforming”); to share perspectives with and soak in the Tallinn startup community.

How will the immersion in the Estonian innovation space disrupt him?

“I want to come back and look more expansively at what we have built at the Newhouse School around media entrepreneurship and media innovation. We already have been expanding the academic offering inside the school,” Branagan says. “I’d like to go further and bring media entrepreneurship to other parts of the ���ϲ����� campus to take advantage of the emerging Creator Economy. And then I’d like to go beyond ���ϲ����� and bring the Newhouse brand of media entrepreneurship and media innovation to other schools, especially schools with underserved populations and globally. Ultimately, we could have an institute that trains faculty from all over the world to teach media entrepreneurship in their programs.”

Approximately 200 women veterans, spouses and partners from around the country registered for V-WISE, held in Phoenix, Arizona, Jan. 28-30.

���ϲ�����’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) held its program in person for the first time in more than two years. Approximately 200 women veterans, spouses and partners from around the country registered for V-WISE, held in Phoenix, Arizona, Jan. 28-30, marking the return to its in-person training model and the 23rd V-WISE program.

Nationally hailed as one of the Best Veteran Resources, the V-WISE program offers education, collaboration and ongoing mentorship to participants who want to start or grow their own businesses. Participants arrived in Phoenix for three days of intensive training and networking, after completing coursework online prior to their arrival in Phoenix. They left inspired, connected and ready to fully optimize ongoing support from the IVMF Alumni team.

demonstrates how military-connected entrepreneurs have unique advantages over their civilian counterparts. shows that female veteran entrepreneurs cite lack of mentors for business (29%) and lack of experience or exposure to other business owners (24%) among their top barriers to achieving their business goals. V-WISE programming helps to directly address and mitigate these challenges.

Organized into two tracks concentrating on both start-up and growth, V-WISE Phoenix included subject matter tailored to meet participants wherever they are in their entrepreneurial journey. The event was packed with opportunities to network, participate in breakout sessions and access personalized expert advice from instructors and speakers. V-WISE Phoenix included a variety of instructional sessions, keynote addresses and advice from leaders in academics, government and the private sector.

Whitman School of Management Professor Elizabeth Wimer delivered an inspiring closing keynote address, reminding participants that creative problem solving is part of the entrepreneurial mindset.

V-WISE Phoenix included subject matter tailored to meet participants wherever they are in their entrepreneurial journey.

“V-WISE attendees are already motivated to overcome the challenges associated with entrepreneurship,” says Wimer. “My goal was to illuminate the creative pathways that help these growing business leaders channel their ideas into reality while building upon the network they created with each other this weekend.”

“Like we did with IVMF’s Veteran EDGE last fall, it felt great to be back in person with our participants, partners, instructors, and alumni,” says Misty Stutsman Fox, IVMF’s director of entrepreneurship and small business. “We are so grateful to again be able to provide this impactful and empowering programming, especially at a time when so many women entrepreneurs in our military-connected community need it.”

V-WISE Phoenix was an opportunity to share data-informed and timely perspectives as businesses are navigating new challenges and new opportunities. Topics included pivoting, business law, human resources, work-life balance, marketing and social media strategies, government contracting, access to capital, and more. Participants also had opportunities to take professional headshots and access information from local and national business resource partners.

To date, V-WISE has more than 3,000 graduates.

The program is free of charge to veterans, military spouses and partners thanks to underwriting support from sponsors JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Small Business Administration, USAA, Wounded Warrior Project and Daughters of the American Revolution.

To date, V-WISE has more than 3,000 graduates. Sixty-five percent of V-WISE graduates have started or grown their own businesses, and 93% of those businesses are still in operation today. V-WISE graduates report an annual average revenue totaling $78 million.

The .

Quinn King ’20 and Alec Gillinder ’20, alumni of the School of Design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and co-founders of MedUX. The team won the 2019 campus qualifier competition and the $10,000 second place award in the ACC finals. (Photo taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic)

���ϲ����� student startup teams can submit of a venture idea to participate in the ���ϲ����� campus qualifier, which will be held in Bird Library on Feb. 11 from 2 to 5 p.m. Up to 10 teams will be selected to participate in the campus qualifier. The winner will receive a cash prize and move on to participate in the PBS-televised event in Florida in April. Campus qualifier finalists will also be invited to apply for LaunchPad Innovation Fund grants available through a gift to SU Libraries.

Past ���ϲ����� contestants who participated in the final five live PBS-broadcast included: Kate Beckman ’17 G’18 (Newhouse School) founder of FreshU; Kayla Simon ’19 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Elizabeth Tarangelo ’19 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), co-founders of In-Spire; Alec Gillinder ’20 (College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design) and Quinn King ’20 (VPA School of Design), co-founders of MedUX; and Russell Fearon ’20 G’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ricardo Sanchez ’21 (VPA School of Design), co-founders of SugEx.

The Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars at ���ϲ����� Libraries is the University’s innovation hub, connecting the entire campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students and alumni across disciplines who are interested in innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, venture creation, careers, entrepreneurial skills, diversity, equity, inclusion and taking ideas from concept to commercialization. The program supports a key pillar of ���ϲ�����’s Academic Strategic Plan to create an innovation ecosystem across the institution that prepares participants to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.

Anthony Cosby

Anthony Cosby often starts his days at 4:30 a.m. with a three-mile walk—not to beat the San Antonio heat or enjoy the quiet pre-dawn hour, but because it’s the only time left in his day to squeeze in fitness.

As an entrepreneur, dad to an aspiring tennis star and full-time employee of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at ���ϲ�����, Cosby’s days manage to be filled to the brim with hustle and bustle—which is exactly how he likes it.

From his home office in Texas, Cosby is currently director for employer outreach and co-director of the , one of the eleven national training programs conducted by IVMF. He works with employers across the country to help them secure military talent, including veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses, and partners with public, private and nonprofit organizations to help veterans and their families access a variety of services that can help them achieve their goals.

Motivated to Give Back and Serve Others

After retiring from a 21-year career in the U.S. Navy in 2012, Cosby struggled with his transition back to civilian life. This experience inspired him toward a career path helping other veterans and military-connected folks transition smoothly and seamlessly into the workforce post-service.

“I was in talent acquisition toward the end of my military career, so I wanted to see if I could transfer those skills to the private sector,” he says. “I got my career coaching certification and landed a job at the University of Texas (UT) at San Antonio as an alumni career coach and from there it was game on … I was able to assist folks and that’s when I saw my true calling to help people.”

Cosby worked for UT San Antonio and then Webster University, but he’d seen a “60 Minutes” interview in 2012 that had planted a seed in his mind. The segment featured IVMF Founder and Executive Director J. Michael Haynie speaking about the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans, which not only put ���ϲ����� on his radar, but also sparked Cosby’s interest in becoming an entrepreneur.

Four years later, in 2016, he would join the IVMF team as the program manager for (O2O) at Joint Base San Antonio. O2O helps prepare service member and military spouses with industry-recognized certifications and skills training across high-demand sectors and occupations, like cybersecurity, project management and human resources.

“We started out with 32 people participating and now, fast-forward five years, and we’ve been able to help over 50,000 folks and change so many lives,” Cosby says.

Anthony and his family demonstrate their Orange spirit. Pictured left to right: Nina Pruneda-Cosby, Maria Mae Pruneda-Cosby, Anthony Cosby

As co-director of AmericaServes, which works to coordinate support for military families in communities all over the U.S., Cosby shared an anecdote about an elderly couple—a retired veteran and his wife—in their 70s in San Antonio. The couple was skeptical of organizations that claimed to help vets because they had been told “no” one too many times. Once they got on the phone with an AmericaServes intake specialist, they were asked a question they weren’t used to hearing: “How can we help you?”

“From this one access point, we were able to help them secure a free medical bed for the husband, who had had an amputation,” Cosby says. “Then we found out the wife was taking her husband to dialysis in a heavy, cumbersome wheelchair, so we were able to work with our local connections to get them a lighter wheelchair that was more easily accessible. We helped secure rides to and from dialysis so his wife no longer had to wait in the car for hours at a time. We even found out they were close to losing the home they rented because the building had been sold, and were able to help them secure six months of free rent in an apartment building that they loved.”

For Cosby, being able to help people in such profound and impactful ways on behalf of ���ϲ����� keeps his early mornings and long days in perspective.

A Burgeoning Entrepreneur

With that “60 Minutes” segment still in his mind, Cosby jumped at the opportunity to attend IVMF’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) in 2019 at Texas A&M University. The program ignited his career as an entrepreneur and in 2021, after eight months of ideation, he launched , a brand of athletic/performance-based socks.

Importantly, Cosby says, STZY is not only a sock brand but a Certified Pending B-Corporation grounded in the mission of positively impacting the lives of student-athletes in need all over the world to keep them pushing toward their goals and aspirations, within and outside of the athletic realm.

“People are drawn to the socks because we’ve worked hard to make them the most comfortable sock known to man, but I think people are also drawn to the intentionality and the themes of empowerment that are present in our brand and our marketing,” he says.

Anthony and Maria show some STZY pride.

STZY is growing rapidly—the socks sold out within 40 days of the brand’s initial launch and have attracted attention from the likes of NFL and WNBA players interested in collaborating with the brand.

The company is preparing to launch their “V2” socks this month with a women’s line, and Cosby hopes it won’t be long before you see STZY socks at national retailers like Target, Foot Locker or Dick’s Sporting Goods.

The skills he learned during EBV have been instrumental to his success.

“The program taught me that I had to get laser-focused and to learn and understand the art of pivoting,” he says. “2020 and 2021 have been no joke in terms of getting a business off the ground, but my ability to focus and adapt has served me well.”

One of STZY’s early adopters and student-athlete ambassadors is Cosby’s 9-year-old daughter, Maria, who first picked up a tennis racket at age 3 and has since trained to become an elite tennis player. This summer, she played with 14- to 18-year-olds and her goal is to play in the U.S. Open by age 16.

Cosby says the spare time he finds between his work at IVMF and building and growing STZY is usually spent on the court, picking up balls while his daughter practices. He feels blessed to be able to spend time watching her talent unfold—and as a business owner, draws inspiration from her dedication to her craft.

“One thing I’ve learned from watching my daughter is—she can see her whole future, but she also knows that nothing good happens overnight,” Cosby says. “Great things take time to evolve. Even though I want STZY to shoot to the moon, I know that it’s going to take a bit of time. But I truly believe that if you put the work in and you’re a good person, big things are going to happen.”

By that philosophy, you can count on STZY going into the stratosphere—and Maria landing her spot in the U.S. Open.

The Digital Library Program at ���ϲ����� Libraries, the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the School of Information Studies (iSchool) are proud to launch the (COERL), a digital repository of IVMF research publications on entrepreneurship and selected external content.

COERL is the first live site of what will eventually be a digital resource library for all IVMF research publications, collections and resources. Future iterations will include resources for veteran employment, higher education and community engagement, among other areas of interest. As a major component of the Digital Library Program, the digital stewardship of these IVMF collections involves applying metadata for user access, tracking the use and access of IVMF materials that are entered in SURFACE, and updating collections per request of the content managers at the IVMF.

“It’s been so rewarding to be part of this cross-campus team,” says Grace “Gigi” Swinnerton, the recently appointed visiting librarian for the Digital Library Program and IVMF. “Participating in the creation, organization and maintenance of such a project has given the back-end team unique insight into how we can best serve our veteran community with accessible and meaningful information on the front end.”

“The Digital Library Program and iSchool have both been amazing partners through this whole process from discovery through the build and now into sustainment of COERL,” says Bonnie Chapman Beers, director of quality and innovation at the IVMF. “The collaboration has allowed us to create a portal to make information more accessible to our many stakeholders, veterans and their families. We are excited to continue this work together.”

A $5 million grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration will allow the Institute for Veterans and Military Families to support veteran and military spouse businesses with entrepreneurship training, small business technical assistance, loan preparation, capital readiness, corporate and federal contracting, and networking. (Photo taken prior to current COVID Level masking requirements.)

The Community Navigator Pilot Program, an initiative of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, is designed to deploy trusted community partners within underserved communities across the U.S. to coordinate the economic recovery efforts of specific communities, including women, veterans and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

The Community Navigator Pilot Program takes a “hub and spoke” approach, featuring a lead “hub” at the center of a network of “spoke” organizations that deploy trusted community advocates to support small businesses hit hard by the pandemic. Of the eight Community Navigator hubs funded, IVMF is the only hub responsible for coordinating community-based, economic recovery for veteran-owned small businesses. The other Tier 1 awardees include the National Urban League, U.S. Black Chambers Economic Development Corporation, Oweesta Corporation, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation, International Rescue Committee and Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

The $5 million grant over a two-year period will allow the IVMF to support veteran and military spouse businesses with entrepreneurship training, small business technical assistance, loan preparation, capital readiness, corporate and federal contracting, and networking.

“We are honored to continue our long-standing partnership with the SBA through this new program. This is truly exciting for IVMF, our partners and the thousands of veterans and military families we serve every year,” says J. Michael Haynie, Ph.D., vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, and IVMF’s founder and executive director. “This grant recognizes the IVMF’s experience and success in veteran entrepreneurship training programs, and our national impact. Over the last decade we have developed a vast network of partners dedicated to meeting the unique needs of veterans and military-connected families both on our campus and across the country.” Haynie noted IVMF entrepreneurship programs, such as Boots to Business (B2B), Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE) and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV), among others, have impacted more than 75,000 participants and that in the last 10 years the institute has impacted over 160,000 in total.

During the pandemic, the IVMF also launched two new virtual entrepreneurship programs, EBV Spark and R.I.S.E. (Resilience, Innovate, Sustain, Evaluate), to help veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs adapt their businesses to the current operating environment.

In applying for the grant, the IVMF noted strong partnerships with businesses that can help veterans achieve success. In addition, the IVMF will be coordinating the work with key partners, including Texas A&M, Florida State University, St. Joseph’s University, Dog Tag Bakery and StreetShares, as well as others. Whether through direct technical support, training or networking, the entrepreneurs assisted by IVMF programs have demonstrated resilience and success; 92% are still operating their business today.

At a press conference today, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced that the Institute for Veterans and Military Families has been named as one of only eight Tier 1 grantees, selected as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s $100 million Community Navigator Pilot Program.

Haynie says highlights how veterans face an array of barriers in attempting to launch businesses, including a fragmented ecosystem, capital readiness, difficulty navigating resources, certification process hurdles and lack of assistance from medical and disability service providers. He believes the new pilot program offers a unique solution that provides a navigation and support mechanism to strengthen the ecosystem, nurture entrepreneurial aspirations and sustain growth and success.

“The goal is for military-connected clients to receive efficient, timely and comprehensive access to the services and resources they need, where they are and when they need them in their entrepreneurial journey,” says Haynie.

About ���ϲ�����

���ϲ����� is a private research university that advances knowledge across disciplines to drive breakthrough discoveries and breakout leadership. Our collection of 13 schools and colleges with over 200 customizable majors closes the gap between education and action, so students can take on the world. In and beyond the classroom, we connect people, perspectives and practices to solve interconnected challenges with interdisciplinary approaches. Together, we’re a powerful community that moves ideas, individuals and impact beyond what’s possible.

Dean David Seaman hands a prize check to Selim Dangoor, founder of MUNCH Jerky, at ’Cuse Tank 2021.

���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad (LaunchPad) hosted its annual on Friday, Oct. 8, at Bird Library. Twenty-four student teams from various schools and colleges across campus competed in a “Shark Tank”-style business pitch in front of a panel of judges consisting of ���ϲ����� parents and successful entrepreneurs. Families were invited to attend this event as part of Family Weekend to experience the entrepreneurial spirit of University innovators. This year’s winning teams were:

• First place winner, $15,000: Ambassadoor Technologies, led by Bruno Gonzalez Hauger G’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management). The company connects small brick-and-mortar businesses to nano-influencers, enabling anyone on Instagram with engagement to be a paid influencer, while automating the influencer search, compensation and management processes.
• Second place winner, $10,000: Munch Jerky, led by Selim Dangoor ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management). The company provides a gluten-free, artisanal flank steak jerky using all-natural ingredients.
• Third place winners, each receiving $2,500: BusPoint, led by Justin Gluska ’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Sice-Me, led by Alexander Peter Rolinski ’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management). BusPoint is a web-based application allowing students to monitor where their designated school bus is at all times, provide parents with real-time monitoring and alerts, and provide teachers and administrators with real-time data. Sice-Me is a mobile application that creates insular marketplaces for college and high school students, enabling users to create an account with their student email address in order to buy or sell products to students at their school.
• Wild card winners, each receiving $1,250: Holy Egg! Shakshuka Truck, led by Natasha Brao ’22 (College of Visual and Performing Arts) and Shop All Yours, led by Julia Gomez ’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management).

Seaman announces the ’Cuse Tank prize winners, including wild card winner Julia Gomez, founder of Shop All Yours.

“After more than a year of virtual competitions, the energy and creativity that the student teams brought to ’Cuse Tank this year was so welcome,” says David Seaman, dean of ���ϲ����� Libraries and University librarian. “Parents and guests were equally excited to witness firsthand the creativity, business acumen and professionalism of the student teams. We started the day with $22,500 for the judges to award as they saw fit, raised from generous SU Libraries supporters; however, the judges were so impressed with our student entrepreneurs that they added an additional $10,000 to the prize money during their deliberations! We are so grateful for their investment in our students.”

Other venture teams, led by idea champions, who presented during the competition included:

• Sweatration, led by Paul Franco ’22 (College of Arts and Sciences), Zach Stahl ’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Anthony Mazzacane ’24 (College of Engineering and Computer Science and College of Arts and Sciences)
• Fundwurx, led by Ben Ford ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
• Phantom Tea, led by Christine Wu ’22 (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Fitted, led by Damaris Koi Munyua G’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
• LunaX, led by Diego Luna ’22 (College of Arts and Sciences)
• SENSE-A, led by Gabriela Angel G’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Simran Lakhani ’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Hong Yan Chen ’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)
• YOKA, led by Isabella Perkins ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Daren Wang ’23 (College of Visual and Performing Arts) and Matthew Swanson ’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)
• Out2Win Sports, led by Jack Adler ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management) and Sam Holland ’23 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
• Patchwork, led by Jackson Ensley ’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management) and Paul Hultgren, LaunchPad Innovator in Residence
• Civilian Medical Response, led by Jared Anderson ’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)
• Glisten, led by Justin Monaco G’22 (College of Arts and Sciences), Bianca Andrada ’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Anh Dao ’23 (College of Visual and Performing Arts)
• Wo-manly, led by Kelly Davis ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
• Candid, led by Mia Hinz ’23 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications)
• Urban Coders, led by Mohammed Ali ’22 (School of Information Studies)
• TEAGO, led by Noah Mechnig-Giordano G’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
• Athletify, led by Season Chowdhury ’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Raul Chakraborty ’23 (School of Information Studies)
• Lateral Assist, led by Xinyao Zhao ’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Andrea Merloiu ’22 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Cheyenne Kersavage ’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)

This year’s judges included the following ���ϲ����� parents and alumni:

• David Martirano
• Jeffrey Gates
• Burt Podbere
• Kristina Campos
• Andrew Neuberger
• Douglas Canfield
• Corey Lieblein ’93
• Andrew Schwartz
• Carter Holland
• Marlowe Sidney Bamberger
• Linda Schwartz
• Jim Armstrong
• Matt Shumer
• Steve Shumer
• Phil McKnight
• Patrick Prioletti ’21��

About the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at ���ϲ����� Libraries:

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at ���ϲ����� Libraries is the University’s innovation hub, connecting the entire campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors, and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students, and alumni across disciplines who are interested in innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, venture creation, careers, entrepreneurial skills, diversity, equity, inclusion, and taking ideas from concept to commercialization. The program supports a key pillar of ���ϲ�����’s Academic Strategic Plan to create an innovation ecosystem across the institution that prepares participants to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.v

Selim Dangoor ’23 and Sandhya Iyer ’20

���ϲ����� student startups , founder of MUNCH Jerky, and , CEO of Geek Girl Careers, have been selected for the summer 2021 cohort of the Blackstone LaunchPad Fellowship. Both are active members of the LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation and partners will support 55 student entrepreneurs from across the global network with $250,000 in grant funding and eight weeks of entrepreneurial resources, mentoring and support through the summer program.

Participating student founders will receive a $5,000 grant to support their time working on advancing their entrepreneurial ventures, as well as other resources and support, including weekly workshops, community-building activities, and mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and executives in the LaunchPad network. The program also includes intensive LaunchPad campus director coaching sessions. Students will also have the opportunity to join the LaunchPad-supported Startup Grind Student Program and participate in the Techstars Empower Collective.

“We’re excited to welcome another cohort of bright entrepreneurs to the LaunchPad Fellowship,” says Blackstone Charitable Foundation Executive Director Amy Stursberg. “In spite of the many challenges of the past year, this diverse set of students has taken impressive strides toward bringing their ideas to life. We look forward to supporting their innovation and drive this summer, and can’t wait to see the companies and careers they develop in the future.”

Dangoor, studying public relations in the Newhouse School and finance in the Whitman School, became fascinated with the creation of flavorful jerky during the pandemic. He used his passion for food entrepreneurship to create artisanal beef jerky with high quality cuts of tender flank steak. This past academic year he worked with the LaunchPad, competed in business plan competitions, winning the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award from judges who loved his energy and passion. He also made important business connections and learned USDA and Department of Health regulations, connected with commercial kitchens and built a network of entrepreneurial agri-business producers as advisors. He incubated in the LaunchPad to bring his love of premium, high-protein artisanal jerky to life as a commercial venture, and to build a roadmap to launch into the marketplace and scale. He is also the recipient of a recent Innovation Fund Award from the LaunchPad.

Sandhya Iyer, a graduate of the Newhouse School in public relations and the Whitman School in marketing, hopes to empower young women to find a career they love in a tech field. As CEO of , she is helping young women find careers in tech that align with their passions and personalities. Geek Girl Careers is committed to increasing representation in tech by broadening the pathways in tech fields. Women make up nearly half the American workforce but hold only 26% of computing-related jobs. The problem starts as early as middle school, but only becomes more apparent in high school and is especially apparent in college—in 2020, women made up only 18% of undergraduate students who earned a degree in computer science. Geek Girl Careers helps young women discover careers in tech that align with their existing passions and skills and connects them with other Geek Girls and mentors. Iyer speaks at ���ϲ����� LaunchPad events and mentors other campus female tech founders.

The LaunchPad Fellowship program originally began in response to intern, job and entrepreneurial opportunities lost by college students at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has now grown into a signature program of the Blackstone LaunchPad network. The Fellowship helps students learn by doing, growing and strengthening entrepreneurial skills like leadership, problem-solving and communication as they complete customer discovery interviews, launch initial marketing and sales efforts, add talent to their teams, and seek additional funding and support.

The program is funded by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and coordinated through the Blackstone LaunchPad network and Future Founders.

Bruno Andres Gonzalez Hauger ’21, founder of Ambassadoor Technologies, (left) and Alexander Peter Rolinksi ’24, founder of Sice-Me.

Two ���ϲ����� student teams received first and second place in the 12th annual New York Business Plan Competition hosted by the Upstate Capital Association of New York on May 7.

Ambassadoor Technologies placed first in the Software and Services category and Sice-Me placed second in the Consumer and Business Products category. Each team received cash prizes and ongoing mentorship to advance their student-led ventures. Overall, this year’s state competition involved 55 colleges and universities, 269 startup teams and 607 students competing.

, founded by Bruno Andres Gonzalez Hauger ’21 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), connects small businesses to nano-influencers on Instagram through innovative iOS mobile applications. The company created a business app and an influencer app to streamline the entire influencing process on both ends of a deal.

founded by Alexander Peter Rolinksi ’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), is a mobile application available for download that creates insular marketplaces for college and high school campuses and their students.

“We are proud of the innovation and effort of all our LaunchPad student teams, particularly in an unusual and challenging year,” says David Seaman, dean of ���ϲ����� Libraries and University librarian. “Our two winning startups demonstrated professionalism and an entrepreneurial spirit, utilizing technology and platforms, to provide a solution that has the potential to impact college students and businesses across campuses everywhere.”

Intelligence++ team Attainable Accessibility team members Shravani Jadhav, a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and InclusiveU student Robert Howes at the LaunchPad at SU Libraries

The elective, open to both undergraduate and graduate students from any school or college at ���ϲ����� including students with intellectual disability from InclusiveU, emphasized interdisciplinary and collaborative innovation. The program and competition prize money were funded through a generous donation from Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09 and the (Intelligence++^TM).�� The Foundation seeks to develop, stimulate, and leverage technological, educational, and organizational innovation to enable and empower individuals with intellectual disability, their families, and their communities to improve quality of life, enhance independence and productivity, lower cost, and benefit society.

Ten interdisciplinary teams of students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Whitman School of Management, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Newhouse School of Public Communications, the School of Information Studies and the School of Education were selected to present their proposals for products, services or technologies. InclusiveU students provided important input on design, accessibility and user feedback. The teams were:

• Attainable Accessibility, consisting of members Shravani Jadhav, Assul Larancuent, Elizabeth Fatade, and Robert Howes, making accessibility more attainable for power chair users with innovative technology. “Accessibility should promote equity. We believe every person should be able to be in control of their own mobility. Having this control promotes confidence and independence…Attainable Accessibility will bring inclusivity by giving those who aren’t mobile independence through smart technology that utilizes voice control.”
• CENTRE, consisting of members Noah Hollander and Natalie Liu, designed a device that uses sensors to assist students with disabilities by limiting the effects of distractions and helping to regain focus and concentration. “CENTRE provides a wearable device… [that] tracks eye movements through EEG and a Bluetooth enabled app that connects to phones and smart watches to monitor, record, and help resolve distraction with a goal of improving overall lifestyle and wellbeing.”
• Drum Flower, consisting of members James Ruhlman and Noah Johnson, is an interactive sculpture for public spaces that serves as a place for congregation and community bonding. The installation is designed specifically so people with disabilities can also access and engage the community. “The project addresses the marginalization of people with disabilities, specifically with inclusion and connection to their community. Our project’s purpose is to give people a means of communicating and interacting nonverbally with others in a public space.”
• Fundwurx (Bronze prize winner), consisting of member Ben Ford, is multi-service platform that works to accelerate impact driven projects and better connect them with donors, while also providing additional resources and tools. “Fundwurx focuses directly on these core values, using technological tools to create personalized philanthropy at scale.”
• HG Sensory (Silver prize winner), consisting of members Sam Hollander, Grace McDonald, Hannah Woodruff, Kaitlyn Brach, Morgan McMinn and Hannah Frankel, is the world’s first sensory deprivation cocoon, enabling an easier dining experience for individuals with sensory disabilities. “Together, we have the power to enhance the dining experience for thousands of people across the world living with sensory disabilities.”
• inclusiv, consisting of members Emiri Vitoontien, Keyshawn Wims and Gokul Beeda, is an Inclusive learning management system that increases the scope of learning for students with disabilities. “There are seven million students with disabilities in the American education system, and most of them are deprived of a seamless learning experience due to outdated learning management systems. We are building an accessible platform from the ground up with tools and features like electronic braille, voice assistance, and content assistance.”
• MeetCute (Gold prize winner), consisting of members Madison Worden and Natalie Liu, is a dating and friendship app built with principles of universal design accessible to everyone. “MeetCute is a safe and inclusive app for everyone looking to meet compatible people for companionship and dating… compatible with the most common accessibility features such as voice-over, text to speech, and changing color contrast. MeetCute will change dating in an image-obsessed culture and provide genuine people a way to meet in a safe digital environment.”
• SmartSupport, consisting of members Patrick McGrath and Cynthia Garcia, is an interface that allows people with disabilities to stay connected with their support network. “This app is targeted towards students or individuals who are living away from home and their support network for the first time.”
• UrMentor, consisting of members Ricardo Sanchez, Ramya Swaminathan and Maya Gupta, is a mentorship program for InclusiveU students. “The program would partner InclusiveU students with high schoolers from the local area, as well as provide means of communication, goal-oriented activities, and workshops. The goal of the program is to help foster community, to motivate, and to create positive impact on youth with disabilities.”
• Wo-Manly, consisting of members Kelly Davis and Patrick Prioletti, is an on-line platform for women who are both neurotypical and neurodivergent, to build their own spaces and share their strengths in nontraditional spaces. “Wo-manly is an online platform for women to be empowered, empower others and make lifelong friendships… Women can interact each other in a multitude of ways: text conversations, video and voice chats, coworking and hangout spaces, private messaging and in-person meet ups. They can explore communities and start their own, to make life long, supportive friendships.”

“All submissions were winners in the eyes of the jury, and I congratulate each and every team member and their advisors,” said Gianfranco Zaccai. “The Intelligence ++ competition will grow year after year by inspiring diverse sensibilities and talents across the university and positioning ���ϲ����� as a leader in fostering human centered entrepreneurial innovation to augment the capabilities and aspirations of neurodiverse people, their families, and society.”

Hult Prize Impact Summits are hosted in 100 locations around the world, and this year ���ϲ����� is one of only three regional hosts in North America. Winners of the regional campus entrepreneurial competitions go on to compete in the global competition hosted by the United Nations, with that winner receiving a $1 million seed capital grant.

The ���ϲ����� campus director of the summit is Claire Howard ’23 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs), a Global Fellow at the ���ϲ����� LaunchPad. The daylong event will kick-off with keynote speaker , professor emeritus in the Maxwell School, at 9:30 a.m. ET.�� Bertini is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate and longtime director of the World Food Programme, which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The distinguished panel of competition judges will include:

• : Former global disaster information officer for the United Nations and former product manager of International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Motiwala is the current senior product owner of Fifth Tribe, a digital agency that serves government agencies and nonprofits.
• : An experienced lawyer and founder of startups, featured in major press outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNN, Riegg is an Innovation Fellow for Columbia Business School’s Entrepreneurship Center, mentor for the Hult Prize and current senior associate in corporate law.
• : Chamberlain serves as a chair on the Hult Prize Council and works as the director of global alliances at Coupa Software. She’s experienced in strategic partnerships and business improvements and has sat on numerous boards such as Forbes Nonprofit Council and How Women Lead.
• : Karavadra is the global coordinating partner for EY services of a major health care corporation and the San Jose office managing principle. Born in Uganda and raised in India and the United Kingdom, he’s spent his career serving global clients with EY and helping them improve their business performance.
• : Marza is an internationally renowned executive coach at SpeakYourPower and has coached presidents and vice presidents of countries and corporations, Navy SEALs, royalty and government dignitaries, Hollywood celebrities, Fortune 500 Executives, global sales groups, nonprofit organizations, young entrepreneurs and startup founders, CEOs, and their teams in the US and worldwide.
• : CEO and founder of Kalamata’s Kitchen, Wallace is a ���ϲ����� alumnus dedicated to creating a more open-minded generation of children through exploration of food and diversity of culture.
• : An accomplished leader in international food organizational reform, Bertini is the former head of the United Nations World Food Programme and United Nations Under Secretary General. In 2003 she was named the World Food Prize Laureate for her transformational work in food access and policy. She has served as a Senior Fellow of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is currently chair of the board Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
• : Former committee member of the World Economic Forum and CEO of the Pakistan State Oil Company, Janjua is the president and CEO of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Pakistan and works on projects to shape future policies for sustainable growth.
• : Mentor for the Hult Prize, Mahbubani is the co-founder and CEO of the , a business in the automotive electronics industry utilized to become a force for social good.
• : A ���ϲ����� graduate student in food studies, Tyo is the author of the cookbook “Fetagetaboutit,” which highlights a plant-based diet. He’s also worked with several global entrepreneurs and food companies in content creation and planning.

In between competition pitch rounds, presenters will share “Advice of a Lifetime” featuring , a ���ϲ����� alumnus, former NFL player, food show host for , and founder and CEO of the culinary brand��, a virtual brand working to connect people through food, and , senior vice president of global product innovation and EVP and chief operating officer at

A final round of pitches by the top six teams will begin at 3:15 p.m. ET and is open for public viewing with .�� It will include a musical interlude with performances by ���ϲ����� student band�� and a networking panel moderated by two ���ϲ����� alumni and former LaunchPad Global Fellows and Hult Prize winners, , and .

Two of the teams competing in the ���ϲ����� Hult Prize Regional Impact Summit competition include ���ϲ����� teams:

• WaxPax Solutions, Erica Morrison ’21 (Whitman School of Management and Newhouse School of Public Communications), Lidia Menbaeva ’21 (College of Arts and Sciences) and Daniel Hamrahi ’21 (Whitman School of Management), a multi-purpose biodegradable packaging solution made from a proprietary blend of beeswax and cellulose that will help eliminate landfill waste in the food supply chain.
• Cuapa Monde Conservation, Claire Chevalier ’24 (Whitman School of Management) and Sasha Temerte ’23 (College of Arts and Sciences), a consulting firm that seeks to develop universal standards for sustainable packaging, similar to the organic certification standard for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products, for producers and consumers of all consumer-packaged goods in the U.S. and European Union.

Another ���ϲ����� team will be competing in the April 19 Regional Impact Summit hosted by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst:

• Gather, Nolan Kagan ’23 (Whitman School of Management),�� a community-building web and mobile application to bring people of various ages and cultures around the world together to cook and share favorite recipes and conversation, first in the digital space and then in real life post-pandemic, to address social isolation while building cultural and social literacy among people who not might otherwise meet.

The Hult Prize Foundation transforms how young people envision their own possibilities as impact leaders of change in the world with a goal to create jobs, stimulate economies, reimagine supply chains and improve outcomes for 10 million people by 2030.

iPrize Student Winners from 2019 competition

Winners of the School of Information Studies’ (iSchool) Raymond von Dran (RvD) Fund for Student Entrepreneurship competition, the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award and the Compete CNY regional qualifier for the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) were announced at the virtual event held on March 26. The concurrent online competitions were coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars at ���ϲ����� Libraries (LaunchPad). Entrepreneur student team winners and prize amounts are:

RvD Fund:

Software and services:

• $7,500 to Bruno Gonzalez Hauger ’21 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Ambassadoor Technologies
• $7,500 to Sam Hollander ’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Financial Services for College Lending (FSCL)

Consumer and business products:

• $8,000 to Alexander Peter Rolinski ’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Sice-Me
• $2,000 to Joseph DeBlasio ’21 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Skipod
• $2,000 to Jason Zhou ’21 (School of Information Studies), Itemize LLC

Education and well-being:

• $3,000 to Max Freund ’21 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), M. Freund Photography
• $2,000 to Cassianne Cavallaro ’21 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), Mohan

Ag tech and food:

• $4,000 to Selim Dangoor ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), MUNCH Jerky
• $1,00 to Samuel Chazen ’21 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Food-E

Med tech and life sciences:

• $3,000 to Russell Fearon ’20. G’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ricardo Sanchez ’21 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), SugEx – The Sugar Experience

Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship:

• $2,500 to Russell Fearon ’20 G’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ricardo Sanchez ’21 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), SugEx – The Sugar Experience
• $2,500 to Jack Adler ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), 3 Dollar Challenge
• $2,500 to Jackson Ensley ’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), ModoSuite
• $2,500 to Selim Dangoor ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), MUNCH Jerky

Compete CNY Regional Qualifier:��

Note: The top two teams in each category will move on to the New York State Business Plan Competition, being held virtually in May. The LaunchPad coordinated the Central New York Regional Qualifier, which was open to any team at a Central New York college or university.�� Advancing to the state finals are:

Software and services:

• Bruno Gonzalez Hauger ’21 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Communications), Ambassador Technologies
• Sam Hollander ’22 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Financial Services for College Lending (FSCL)

Consumer and business products:

• Alexander Peter Rolinski ’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Sice-Me
• Jeff Evans, master of business administration at SUNY Oswego, Karten Products

Education and well-being:

• Max Freund ’21 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), M. Freund Photography
• Mario Garcia G’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Pairinc

Ag tech and food:

• Selim Dangoor ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), MUNCH Jerky
• Samuel Chazen ’21 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Food-E

Med tech and life sciences:

• Russell Fearon ’20 G’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ricardo Sanchez ’21 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), SugEx – The Sugar Experience
• Harman Chopra, M.D. program at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Baby Bird Pharmaceutical

Emergency response and first responder:

• Daniel Maslowski, SUNY Oswego, SWTRS
• Skyler Hall ’21 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Hive Pilot

Maury says that veterans are some of the most entrepreneurial citizens, as they remain more likely to own a business than nonveterans and often out-earn nonveterans. Results from IVMF’s 2020 National Survey of Military Affiliated Entrepreneurs showed that the reason veteran entrepreneurs are so successful is that they possess characteristics critical to success in owning a business.

Many members of the military serve based on a sense of duty to their nation, says Maury, and research shows that entrepreneurship among veterans is ignited by similar feelings. According to IVMF’s research, 34 percent of veterans “became entrepreneurs out of a desire to support their communities.”

But to be successful, Maury says it is important for veterans to identify an “entrepreneur ecosystem.” These support systems help veterans overcome obstacles often faced in entrepreneurship, such as developing social capital, growing their business and management skills, writes Maury. Maury encourages veterans to become entrepreneurs, as their experiences and resiliency from service make them well suited for the challenge.

To read her essay in its entirety, visit .

���ϲ����� media relations team members work regularly with the campus community to secure placements of op-eds. Anyone interested in writing an op-ed should first review the University’s op-ed guidelines and email media@syr.edu.

Teams are invited to submit of a venture idea to participate in ���ϲ�����’s campus qualifier, which will be held virtually on Jan. 29.�� The campus qualifier winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize sponsored by M&T Bank and move on to participate virtually in a PBS-televised event in April.

The ACC InVenture finals feature a $30,000 prize package and is open to undergraduate students or students who have received their undergraduate degree within the past year and who are the original creators, inventors or owners of the intellectual property underlying their invention.

The 2020 ���ϲ����� campus qualifier winner, Matt Shumer, pivoted his idea for Visos after the ACC finals were cancelled due to the pandemic. Instead, he formed a new team called Otherside AI, working with fellow Whitman School student Miles Feldstein and ���ϲ����� alumnus Jason Kuperberg ’18 through the LaunchPad’s accelerator program. Shumer and his teammates went on to this fall to launch Otherside AI.

Quinn King and Alec Gillinder

College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design alumni Quinn King ’20 and Alec Gillinder ’20, co-founders of MedUX, won the 2019 campus qualifier competition and the $10,000 second place award in the ACC finals. They developed a medical device through Invent@SU then worked with the LaunchPad to commercialize their venture. Since graduating in May 2020, their wearable, portable intravenous delivery solution venture has taken off and will soon launch commercially.

The 2018 campus qualifier winners, Kayla Simon ’19 and Elizabeth Tarangelo ’19, developed In-Spire, a wearable asthma bracelet which they created through Invent@SU and advanced commercially through the LaunchPad. Simon and Tarangelo used the experience to propel their innovation career paths. Simon, an aerospace engineering major at ���ϲ�����, is now an integration engineer at Relativity Space, building the world’s first entirely 3D printed rocket. Tarangelo, a bioengineering and biomedical engineering major with a focus on neuroscience, is now a clinical specialist with Brain Lab, which develops advanced software-driven medical technology and powers treatment in many surgical fields.

Kate Beckman ’17, G’18 won the 2018 campus InVenture Prize and advanced to the top five finalists in the conference finals at Georgia Tech.�� She created Fresh U, a national online publication geared toward college freshmen, growing it to a staff of 300 contributing writers across more than 100 campuses, and developing media partnerships with companies like Teen Vogue. Fresh U was acquired after Kate completed a graduate degree at the Newhouse School. She is now senior content manager for RippleMatch, an intelligent platform for college recruiting.

All former InVenture winners remain active LaunchPad alumni and mentor current ���ϲ����� student startups.

“I believe that in the modern era, anyone can start a scalable, high-growth company and every metropolitan area should have a thriving startup community,” says M&T Bank Regional President Allen Naples. “By helping ���ϲ����� host the InVenture Prize Challenge, we’re investing in the exceptional creativity and ingenuity of our students and doubling down on our efforts to build our entrepreneurial community into one that generates jobs and prosperity for generations to come.”

2020 Impact Prize winners were:

• 

  Justin Diaz ’23, founder of EcoBamboo Living, received $7,500 in funding in the 2020 Impact Prize competition.

  $7,000, Justin Diaz ’23, College of Engineering and Computer Science, EcoBamboo Living

• $3,000, Sam Hollander ’22, Whitman School and Newhouse School, FSCL
• $3,000, Dana Immerso ’20, G ’21, College of Arts and Sciences, You’re Not Alone
• $1,000, Jackson Ensley ’22, Whitman School, Popcycle
• $500, Ben Ford ’23, Whitman School, DoNation

This year’s competition also featured teams from a new inclusive entrepreneurship program, jointly offered by the College of Visual and Performing Arts, InclusiveU and the LaunchPad, featuring innovations to support persons with intellectual disabilities. Winners of the Intelligence ++ Inclusive Entrepreneurship Room were:

• $500, Justin Diaz ’23, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Adaptive Xbox Controller
• $500, James Ruhlman ’22, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Inclusive Interactive Installation

Judges for the Impact Prize were LaunchPad alumni who have either launched ventures or are in innovation careers and included: Amanda Chou, Kaiser Permanente; Audrey Miller, Watson Institute; Dylan Gans, Good Uncle; Jack McCarthy, Prosek Partners; Jake deHahn, Breinify and AccessibleMasks.org; Josh Jackson, Promptous; Kate Beckman, Ripple Match; Kennedy Patlan, Ashoka; Phil McKnight, Promptous; Quinton Fletchall, Conifer Research; and Ryan Williams, Good Life Foundation.

Two special judges also participated: Megan McCann, principal & CAO, portfolio operations at The Blackstone Group; and Jill Rothstein, award-winning accessibility, inclusion and innovation advocate and chief librarian, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library at The New York Public Library.

2019 ’Cuse Tank winning team, PAANI

���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars is now accepting for fall 2020 competitions. The universal application for the three competitions, with more than $25,000 in prizes, is for innovative or creative solutions to address problems or opportunities. Competitions are open to all undergraduate and graduate students from any academic program. In addition to the online application, registrants must provide a one-page business statement. The three LaunchPad competitions this fall are:

• ’Cuse Tank: Applications close Oct. 4 for this “Shark Tank”-style competition with $10,000 in prizes, scheduled to take place on Oct. 16.
• Impact Prize: Applications close Nov. 1 for this social impact entrepreneurship competition to be held on Nov. 13, with $15,000 in prizes.
• Hult Prize: Applications close Nov. 22 for this year’s social entrepreneurship competition themed “Food for Good.” ���ϲ�����’s competition will be held on Dec. 4, with winners progressing to global regionals.

Over the past four years, ���ϲ����� students have won $3.4 million in campus, state and national competitions and raised more than $25 million in equity funding for their ventures. Out of upwards of 800 ideas, ���ϲ����� students have incorporated more than 95 businesses and have used their experience to build skills and their resumes and find their dream jobs at top innovation companies around the world.