News

Director's Note: Winding up Our Celebration Ezra conference in mid-April was super!  You can check out my interview with the 2025 Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year, John Bicket ’02.  John is a true tech guy, who has successfully built two extremely successful startups.  It was a pleasure to spend time with him – and a [...]

When Henry R. Kravis took the stage to give the 2025 Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture, he opened with a confession: “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing in 1976.” It was a humble start from an investor who, that year, had cofounded KKR & Co., a global private equity startup that is now a powerhouse with over $650 billion in assets under management.

The newest episode of a podcast hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Startup Cornell, features John Bicket ’02, chief technology officer and co-founder of tech firm Samsara and this year’s Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2025.

Cornell University’s Life Sciences Technology Innovation Fellows (LSTIF) gathered in midtown Manhattan at Cornell’s 570 Lexington Avenue space to pitch their startup ideas and celebrate a successful year at their culminating showcase event on March 22. Cornell’s LSTIF program, offered by the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and formerly known as the BioEntrepreneurship Initiative, aims to spawn collaboration between business students, graduate research students, and postdocs from across our colleges with an interest in health, pharma, medtech, biotech, vet-tech, molecular bioscience, and agritech to develop the next generation of life science entrepreneurs. It is inclusive of our Tri-Institutional partners, Memorial Sloan Kettering and Rockefeller University. The program’s 2024-25 cohort paired 12 MBA students at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management with 17 Cornell researchers to collaborate on designing real-world startups. Once the interdisciplinary teams were formed, fellows began to work on developing business ideas based on Cornell research while also actively networking with life science communities at Cornell and in New York City. Over the fall and spring semesters, fellows participated in workshops and courses that sharpened their entrepreneurial judgment.  Through alternating workshops held in Ithaca and in New York City, LSTIF fellows developed entrepreneurial judgment, learned from […]

A team of researchers from Cornell Tech has developed a new tool designed to revolutionize hardware troubleshooting, with the help of 3D phone scans.

The newest episode of a podcast hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Startup Cornell, features Cornell senior Micere Mugweru ’25, the founder of Mizoma Africa.

Anshul Krishnan, MBA ’23, joined the Life Sciences Technology Innovation Fellows Program (LSTIF) to hone his entrepreneurial judgment after undervaluing his first venture.    “That experience shaped my resolve never to undervalue life science innovations and to ensure that cutting-edge research always reaches the market effectively,” said Krishnan.   A core component of the LSTIF program is a 6-credit workshop course, NBA 5175, Life Science Entrepreneurship in Practice, paired with fundamental entrepreneurship courses to sharpen fellows’ judgement. An opportunity arose from the CEO of Akston Biosciences, who was seeking someone with expertise in both healthcare and business to help solve a specific business problem. This opportunity was opened to interested students in the program. Knowing his LSTIF experience and background, Krishnan knew he would be a strong fit for the role.    “Through LSTIF, I developed a strong foundation in bridging science and business, particularly in making strategic commercialization decisions,” shared Krishnan.    After successfully solving Akston Biosciences’ business problem, Krishnan was eventually hired full-time to lead Akston’s Business Development Operations. Since joining Akston, he’s successfully pivoted into the burgeoning Animal Health industry, spearheaded an organization-wide rebrand, and is now focused on packaging its disruptive science for new audiences. These efforts have contributed to […]

Applications for the annual Grow-NY food and agriculture business competition are open to high-growth agrifood startups through May 15.

Entrepreneurship at Cornell has announced that John Bicket ’02, chief technology officer and co-founder of tech firm Samsara, has been named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2025.

24 startups were accepted for the eLab student startup accelerator fall cohort, and 13 will advance to the spring cohort. These startups have shown remarkable progress in validating their ideas and refining their business models.  The eLab program has been an asset to many student businesses and many have gone on to raise capital, launch new products, and successfully exit or grow their companies. Response, founded by Keivan Shahida ‘20, a member of the 2019 cohort, recently secured $4 million in seed funding. eLab 2024 alumni GradeWiz, founded by Max Bohun ‘25 and Aman Garg ‘25, were just accepted into Y Combinator’s winter ‘25 batch.   The student startups progressing to the spring semester have undergone intensive entrepreneurial training, including feasibility analyses, business model development, and mentorship from industry experts.   “We joined eLab to help grow Crit by being in an environment of other entrepreneurs. We know that having access to mentors who have built companies before, dealt with fundraising, scaling, marketing—and any of the other aspects of starting a business that we are in the middle of figuring out—will put us in a better position to become the company we know we can be,” said Damon Hollenbeck ‘25, founder of […]

Cornell Tech, the groundbreaking campus of Cornell University dedicated to developing leaders and technologies for the AI era, has announced the opening of The Bridge, a new state-of-the-art flexible workspace for entrepreneurs, early and mid-stage ventures, and more established companies.

The newest episode of a podcast hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Startup Cornell, features Heather Jiang MBA ’16, founder of Allegorie, a small-batch accessory company that turns discarded fruits into wallets, bags and backpacks.

W.E Cornell is dedicated to assisting STEM PhDs and postdocs in commercializing their innovations by providing the opportunity for positive collaboration and guidance.

Four hackathons this semester will offer opportunities for students to innovate creative solutions related to artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, animal health and human health. Two events will be on campus and two will take place in New York City.

Melissa Lewin’s ‘00 archeology classes — especially the one where she learned Akkadian, a cuneiform language inscribed on stone tablets — have opened more than one door for her along her career journey.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, fintech, and digital technology in general, companies of all sizes  – whether they are an early-stage startup or a publicly traded corporation – need lawyers who specialize in the legal and commercial aspects of these technologies.

Two friends who bonded over shared concerns over their bone health have formulated a bioavailable calcium chew using milk protein from Finger Lakes dairy farms.

The Fuzehub 2024 Commercialization Competition during the New York State Innovation Summit had seven prize winners, five of which are Cornell-supported entrepreneurs. Of the five, four have participated in multiple hardware accelerators at Rev: Ithaca Startup Works and the grand prize winner is a current Center for Life Science Ventures member, a former Life Science Technology Fellow and Ignite Fellow.   FuzeHub, a not-for-profit organization that supports small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in New York State, hosted its eighth Commercialization Competition this year. Twelve startups competed for the chance to win $50,000 by pitching their business plans to a panel of judges with the opportunity to win the $150,000 grand prize.    Anova Biomedical was named the first-place team and the grand prize winner of $150,000. Anova Biomedical is developing the first fully synthetic and bioresorbable vascular grafts to improve the standard care for patients. Anova is committed to remaining in upstate NY and will create quality jobs in the medical device field, an underdeveloped sector for the region.    Of the other Cornell-affiliated companies’ runner-ups were Ergami Endoscopy, Eutrobac, FASS Syringe, and Triton Bio, all of which have participated in Rev: Ithaca Startup Works hardware accelerator programs. The hardware accelerators, offered in partnership with Cornell Engineering, are cohort-based programs that […]

At Eclectic Convergence 2024, a Cornell Entrepreneurship Summit held November 15, 2024, on the Cornell Tech Campus in New York City, Ponsi Trivisvavet, MBA ’99, CEO of Inari, shared her insights on leadership, innovation, and the complexities of improving agriculture.

Director's Note: Happy holidays, everyone! First off, Gobble Gobble!!  We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  On our end, our big Eclectic Convergence conference at Cornell Tech earlier in the month was fantastic!  One of our best due to our superb speakers.  And our team also held two hackathon events in November, one in [...]

New Report Quantifies Cornell Tech’s Role in Attracting Talent to New York City and Growing the City’s Tech Sector

Unibaio of New York City, which offers naturally derived particles that trap the active ingredients of pesticides and fertilizers, enabling them to penetrate plants more efficiently, was awarded the $1 million grand prize in the sixth annual Grow-NY Food and Agriculture business competition.

A team of students with an idea using AI to help food service establishments reduce food waste won the top prize in the Food Hackathon, which took place Oct. 25-27 in Stocking Hall.

By Veronica Buezo Talavera The Cornell SBIR/STTR Assistance Program continues to support early-stage companies in securing non-dilutive funding from federal agencies. In the third quarter of 2024, two Cornell startups in the program were awarded STTR Phase I grants totaling nearly $775,000:  EchoICs: Awarded a $275,000 STTR Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a tunable resonator circuit technique for radio frequency integrated circuits. This technology aims to improve the quality, reliability, and coverage of wireless networks, including defense communication and commercial cellular (4G/5G) networks. The company, founded by Alyssa Apsel, Ph.D., Director of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, and Thomas Tapen, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate in Apsel’s lab, propose a project that could lead to higher data rates, increased user density, and lower energy use in wireless communications.  Neuralenz: Founded by Oybek Kholiqov, a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell Tech, Neuralenz received a $498,995 STTR Phase I grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to develop Neuralenz Flow, an integrated platform for rapid, non-invasive, real-time measurement of critical factors used in diagnosing and treating stroke patients. The technology focuses on measuring cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, intracranial pressure, and critical closing pressure, […]

Gallox Semiconductors, led by Jonathan McCandless, Ph.D. ’23, has been selected for the fourth cohort of the Breakthrough Energy Fellows, a group of entrepreneurs focusing on technology that reduce greenhouse gases.

John Marks ’65 has spent the past four-plus decades addressing some of the world’s most intractable conflicts through his nongovernmental organization (NGO), Search for Common Ground.

Twenty-four student teams have been selected for the Fall 2024 cohort of eLab, Cornell’s student startup accelerator. Now welcoming its 16th credit-bearing cohort, eLab accepts student founders from any field of study across Cornell and trains them to launch their businesses.  Established in 2008 by the Student Agencies Foundation and Entrepreneurship at Cornell, many eLab alumni have flourished following their graduation from the program.  ProducePay, an alum of the 2015 eLab cohort, raised $38 million in a series D funding round this year. GradeWiz, a 2023 eLab team, is running a pilot of their AI grading assistant. Their product is being tested for eLab grading this year, and other Cornell and Ithaca College professors are participating in the pilot.  eLab teams undergo intensive entrepreneurship boot camps, conduct customer discovery interviews, fine-tune their business plans and connect with a network of successful Cornell alumni, all while earning college credit from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.  “eLab is unique in that it accepts undergraduate juniors to Ph.D. candidates from any program at Cornell,” said Ken Rother, managing director of eLab and lecturer in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. “What participants have in common is a desire to address […]

The sixth annual Grow-NY Summit, to be held Nov. 6-7 at the new Ithaca Downtown Conference Center, will feature business leaders and entrepreneurs working to advance sustainability, address global challenges and shape the future of food and agriculture.

Investors view CEOs more favorably when they respond to shareholder activism in ways that conform to gender stereotypes, according to new Cornell research.

Ratan N. Tata ’59, B. Arch. ’62, one of India’s most influential and respected business leaders and philanthropists, and a former Cornell trustee who became the university’s largest international donor – supporting scholarships, research to reduce rural poverty and malnutrition in India, and technology innovation – died Oct. 9 in Mumbai. He was 86.

Noor El-Hawwat’s journey into the tech industry began with a simple decision to follow in her sister’s footsteps and major in computer science. However, what started as a straightforward choice soon blossomed into a passion for tech, combined with a drive to uplift underrepresented minorities, set her on a path that would lead her to Cornell Tech—first through its Break Through Tech program and now as a master’s student in the Master of Engineering in Computer Science program.

Cornell Engineering is proud to announce the Jiang Fellows program with the generous support of Tianyi (TJ) Jiang ’96, Ph.D. The program will succeed the Kessler Fellows program, which sunset this year after 15 years of fostering entrepreneurial growth among Cornell juniors.

The newest episode of a podcast hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Startup Cornell, features Smoke Wallin ’88.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Terry Wehe Ryan ’69 grabs the steering wheel and veers the car off to the side of a country road. Her husband, Rob Ryan ’69, has just broken the news that he’s firing her from their tech startup—so he can afford to keep another female employee on the payroll.

Martina Pablo Pablo ’26 starting picking coffee beans when she was five years old, on her father’s small plot of land in a remote area in Guatemala.

Fourteen Cornell MBA students, PhD candidates, and a postdoctoral innovation fellow have joined the second cohort of the Green Technology Innovation Fellows program, an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship and translation program offered by the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

The twenty startups competing for a $3 million in prize money in the sixth annual Grow-NY Food and Agriculture Business Competition promise to lead innovation and growth beyond their own companies, to the global food and agriculture industry and the region’s abundant agrifood ecosystem.

Director's Note: Welcome Back!! Our fall semester is off to a great start, with our eShip Kickoff event on Thursday, September 5th.  It is wonderful to have the students back on campus and feel all the entrepreneurship energy!  Reminder, if you want to be on top of the Cornell eShip ecosystem, join our listserv – [...]

The newest episode of a podcast hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Startup Cornell, features Josh Gully ‘83, managing director of NewEdge Wealth and founding member of their New York office.

Kush Jain ’22 has been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for work by his company, ORama AI, which has developed a high-tech glove to help people learn to read Braille.

Each year, eleven federal agencies allocate a portion of their budget toward non-dilutive seed funding for early-stage and startup companies. The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR and STTR) grants are competitive, and the application process can be daunting.   The SBIR/STTR Assistance Program helps connect eligible researchers with SBIR/STTR consultants to help them navigate the proposal process and write a proposal. Since the start of 2024, four participants in the program won SBIR/STTR grants:  Rivalia Chemical: Awarded a $275,000 Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to harvest rare earth elements essential to technologies from sustainable energy infrastructure to consumer electronics from coal combustion byproducts, satiating US demand for REEs for an estimated 100 years.  Soctera: Awarded a $1M NSF Phase II grant to develop a thermally optimized power amplifier that increases 5G signal range – helping to eliminate the digital divide in rural areas.  REEgen: Awarded a $275,000 NSF Phase I grant to engineer a bacteria that will help extract rare earth elements more efficiently and ethically.    Carbon To Stone: Awarded $256,000 Phase I grant from the Department of Energy to convert CO2 into calcium and magnesium carbonates for the iron, steel, and […]

Cornell Engineering’s Scientific Artificial Intelligence (SciAI) Center has partnered with Pasteur Labs, an alumnus-founded startup, to break new ground in human-AI collaboration for scientific discovery and industrial applications.

Inventing a new product that you can hold in your hands and bring successfully to an eagerly awaiting market is sometimes likened to childbirth: If we knew from the outset how hard it was going to be, fewer of us would do it.

Rev: Ithaca Startup Works launched applications for the business incubator’s new Protofacturing Hardware Accelerator — a program connecting the existing Prototyping and Manufacturing Hardware Accelerators and helping entrepreneurs refine their prototypes.

One TikTok video that went viral confirmed to Nour Gajial ’26 and Yanni Kouloumbis ’26 that they were on to something with MathGPT.

Joe Gelber MBA ’18 thinks he has a great idea for a machine to help people recycle more efficiently. So, he came to a Cornell Entrepreneur Network in partnership with Cornell Alumni Career Programs event in New York City June 18 to get some ideas for moving his idea forward.

Vancouver home health-care company Nurse Next Door owes a lot to its formidable founders Ken Sim and John DeHart, but also to their legendary mentor, Milton Wong

The newest episode of a podcast hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Startup Cornell, features Andrea Ippolito ’06 MEng ‘07, CEO and founder of SimpliFed.

Marissa Saporta ’99 followed in her father’s footsteps toward the family business before reimagining her future and the world of e-commerce.