Entrepreneurship
At Cornell

UPDATED: MEDIA ADVISORY: President Clinton to visit Clinton Foundation projects in Haiti

February 24, 2015

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will visit Kreyol Essence suppliers and farmers in Mirebalais, Haiti on Monday, February 23rd. Kreyòl Essence, founded by Haitian-American social entrepreneur Yve-Car Momperousse is the first agribusiness in Haiti to develop eco-luxury beauty products based on unrefined castor oil. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Yve- Car participated in Cornell’s eLab accelerator program.

Cornell Pitch Bootcamp

February 13, 2015

Cornell Pitch Bootcamp!

Ithaca incubator Rev helps push a GORGES deal

February 12, 2015

A software company buying another – it happens all the time in the business world. But the story of Ithaca’s GORGES Inc. acquiring Push Interactive runs deeper than the deal; it involves a network of public and private partners, among them Rev, Ithaca’s downtown business incubator. Over the last several months, Ithaca-based mobile application developer Push Interactive found its feet as a member of Rev: Ithaca Startup Works. A partnership among Cornell, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3), Rev helps startups navigate the complex challenges of being a young company by providing mentorship as well as Continue reading...

Students assess commercial viability of larva meal

February 12, 2015

With global meat consumption expected to climb 73 percent over current levels by 2050 and the appetite for seafood booming, Cornell graduate business students are looking further down the food chain to help meet the demand. Three students in Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management have examined the commercial viability of using housefly larva meal as a sustainable, less-expensive protein alternative to feeding stock and farm-raised fish. Fish meal, a protein staple in the aquaculture industry, has become economically, socially and environmentally expensive, according to Sara Davis, Brent Filson and Trevor Wirsig. The students have developed Continue reading...

Fly Labs (founded by Cornellian, Tim Novikoff) Recognized by FastCompany

February 10, 2015

The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Video From a website that lets far-flung friends watch Netflix together to a white-hot YouTube sports network, the best in video innovation.               By                                                                                        Fast Company Staff             [Video Director: Everett Collection via Shutterstock] 1. Fly Labs For bringing video creativity to the mobile mainstream. Considering the massive amount of video we all shoot on our phones, there’s a surprising dearth of easy-to-use mobile video-editing tools. What if you want to craft and share something longer than the prescribed six or 15 seconds, without needing to learn a Continue reading...

Math alum combines tech, creativity with Fly app

January 30, 2015

If you hear Tim Novikoff, Ph.D. ’13, speak and you’re of a certain age, you might recognize him as the voice of Jeffy from MTV’s “Daria” animated series from the mid-1990s. Tim Novikoff, Ph.D. ’13. But if you look at his LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that his career has followed a path that marries his love of the technical world with the joy he finds in being creative. Today, Novikoff is the founder and CEO of Fly Labs, which produces a suite of video editing apps. Their first app, Fly, was lauded by Apple, The Boston Globe and Continue reading...

eLab graduate Audiarchy brings enhanced group listening to seniors

January 26, 2015

Cornell startup Audiarchy began as Party Headphones, a wireless audio system for trendy silent discos. A graduate of Cornell’s eLab Accelerator, Audiarchy is now targeting senior audiences to improve their experience at movies and group presentations.

Salut! RedHead Wine in competition

January 23, 2015

RedHead Wine, an entrepreneurial team comprised of Marisa Sergi ’15, Gavin Hilder ’17, Zach Berle ’15 and Elizabeth Shvidky ’16 are among 15 finalists vying for a $15,000 award Jan. 22-24 in the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition in Ontario, Canada. In the first round of the competition, teams submit a 25-page business plan. Based on undisclosed criteria, the top 15 teams are invited to pitch their plan before a team of venture capitalist judges who select six teams to present to a new set of judges on the final day of the competition. RedHead Wine was developed by Sergi Continue reading...

New Student Agencies president setting the bar high

January 21, 2015

Turkel Anwar ’15 had a tough decision to make last fall. He could prepare for graduation and head into the world after earning his economics degree from the College of Arts and Sciences. Or he could stick around for an extra semester after graduation, take additional classes, and gain valuable real-world experience running Student Agencies, a $2.5 million operation and the nation’s oldest independent student-run company. Anwar decided for the latter, and now he’s thrilled to take the helm of the organization that runs seven local businesses, employs more than 200 Cornell undergrads and pays close to $500,000 Continue reading...

Compensation expert Kevin Hallock named dean of ILR School

January 20, 2015

Professor Kevin F. Hallock has been named the Kenneth F. Kahn Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell President David J. Skorton announced today. Hallock will begin his five-year term Feb. 1. A member of the faculty since 2005, Hallock is the Donald C. Opatrny ’74 Chair of Cornell’s Department of Economics and ILR’s Joseph R. Rich ’80 Professor. He also is the founding director of ILR’s Institute for Compensation Studies. “As ILR celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, Kevin is the perfect individual to lead the school into an even more successful, productive future,” Continue reading...

Robert Langer named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2015

December 17, 2014

Entrepreneurship at Cornell has named Robert Langer ’70, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2015. He will be honored in November 2015 during Cornell’s annual Entrepreneurship Summit in New York City. Langer, who majored in chemical engineering at Cornell, holds nearly 1,100 patents issued or pending worldwide, which have been licensed or sublicensed to more than 300 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He is the most-cited engineer in history. Langer has also founded more than 25 companies, many of which have grown into successful Continue reading...

Cornell’s Frontier Markets Initiative Partners to Address Eye Care in India

December 16, 2014

The Frontier Markets Initiative, a collaboration between Entrepreneurship at Cornell and Johnson’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, has announced a partnership with the international development UK-based organization Sightsavers. The goal of the partnership is to innovate a business model that can sustainably deliver primary eye care solutions to India’s urban poor.   Worldwide, 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired, with approximately 90 percent of those living in the emerging and developing economies.   Under the direction of Dr. Erik Simanis, Head of FMI, a Cornell team will work closely with Sightsavers in Kolkata, India to Continue reading...

Why impact assessments are good for non-profits but bad for business

December 3, 2014

Impact assessments are a powerful – and necessary – part of a non-profit’s tool kit. Rigorously measuring how and how much a program solves a social ill and betters the lives of the poor ensures continual improvement. Impact assessments also serve as a report card back to the funders of non-profits. They assure donors that grant funds are being maximised and used for the purpose intended. Yet in the hands of corporations aiming to profitably serve the world’s poorest consumers – the so-called base of the pyramid (BoP) – impact assessments can impede progress more than enable it. Continue reading...

Ithaca business to be featured on ABC show ‘Shark Tank’

November 19, 2014

Ithaca, N.Y. — The local business Off The Cob Tortilla Chips will be featured on the ABC show “Shark Tank” next Friday, according to an email from the company. Shark Tank is a reality TV show in which American billionaires “continue their search to invest in the best businesses and products that America has to offer,” ABC’s website says. Off The Cob offers “a healthier tortilla chip made from fresh picked sweet corn,” according to Shark Tank. “Founder Cameron Sheldrake was raised growing sweet corn on Early Bird Farm in Ithaca NY,” a  statement from Off The Cob said. “His Continue reading...

Entrepreneurship Summit draws more than 500 to NYC

November 12, 2014

Entrepreneurs from throughout the country joined with Cornell alumni, students, faculty and staff Nov. 7 in New York City for a daylong conference, “Beyond the Horizon,” hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell. Business leaders, including Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani, talked about the strategies and vision that helped make their companies successful. “When someone asks me if they should be an entrepreneur, I tell them ‘don’t do it,’” Ulukaya said. “It will push the limits of every single boundary you have – physical, relationships, mental, emotional. “But after all that, if you still come back and know that you Continue reading...

Confidence propelled NYC restaurateur’s career

October 30, 2014

Jeff Zalaznick’s working day begins around 9 a.m. and usually doesn’t end until the wee hours of the next morning, but with a job he loves so much, he doesn’t seem to mind. Zalaznick ’05, co-founder of Major Food Group, which owns and operates seven restaurants and plans to open another five in the next year, said the skills he gained as a psychology major and a student have served him well as an entrepreneur. Zalaznick visited with students Oct. 23 as the Arts and Sciences Career Services Munschauer Speaker. “Confidence is key,” he said. “Then you have Continue reading...

Cornell Startup Aims to Improve Online Sharing

October 24, 2014

The social media startup company Daapr — cofounded by Cornellians Alex Meyers ’15 and Aaron Schifrin ’14 in April 2013 — has grown beyond its initial testing phase and has begun marketing its platform to a broader audience in efforts to spread a “new way to personalize the online experience.” According to Schifrin, Daapr’s chief executive officer, the company’s aim is to change the culture around reading and sharing content on the internet. Daapr’s website is an aggregator that allows users to select from a list of interests to determine the content displayed on their profiles and also Continue reading...

Alum urges students to drive clean tech revolution

October 23, 2014

“Climate change – we understand the problem really well, and we understand the solutions really well, and yet we are doing virtually nothing,” Dan Miller ’78, managing director and co-founder of The Roda Group, a venture capital group focused on clean technology, said in his Sustainable Global Enterprise talk on campus, Oct. 7. “We need to change out $30 trillion of energy and transportation infrastructure over the next 30 years to address [climate change],” Miller added. Entreating Cornell students to leverage their degrees in agriculture, engineering and business to start clean tech companies, he said: “With climate change, Continue reading...

Can this small town compete with Silicon Valley?

October 9, 2014

It may not be Silicon Valley or New York City — but Ithaca, N.Y., is working hard to position itself as a startup hub. The city is home to three colleges, including Cornell University, which has heavily invested in fostering bright, entrepreneurial minds. The university offers credits for students who want to take their startups to the next level, and introduced a new program to help students turn their technology designs into licensed products for commercial use. And two weeks ago, in a joint effort with the city and local colleges, Ithaca’s first downtown incubator Rev opened. The Continue reading...

Think It, Play It: Three Cornell Grads May Have Developed the Next Big Thing in Music Creation

October 1, 2014

Jesse Orshan and his business partners have a guitar they want you to play. Experience on six strings isn’t even a requirement. Chords? Don’t worry about it. Scales? Not even a concern. And, no, this guitar does not have five colorful buttons or link up to a video game system. The only requirements: a guitar of one’s own, a laptop and an imagination. Orshan, a recent Cornell graduate, has spent the last nearly three years fostering his creation: a software and hardware package that essentially transforms the guitar, its 20-some frets and myriad notes of varying octaves into Continue reading...

27 Year-Old Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick on Fostering Entrepreneurs

September 30, 2014

27 Year-Old Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick on Fostering Entrepreneurs As the economy and job market improve, entrepreneurship has been on the decline in the U.S. However, entrepreneurship is on the rise in Ithaca, New York, where Svante Myrick, the city’s youngest mayor in history, has presided at a time when Ithaca posted the lowest unemployment rate in the state even while other nearby areas were suffering from employment troubles. Myrick and Zach Shulman, director of the Entrepreneurship@Cornell program, weigh-in on how they’re working to foster young entrepreneurs and prepare them for their future careers. As a young entrepreneur Continue reading...

Rev’s first members welcomed at grand opening

September 23, 2014

Back in January, it was a barely touched construction space, and it didn’t yet have a name. On Sept. 22, more than 100 people gathered at Rev, Ithaca’s downtown business incubator, to witness how far it’s come. The grand opening of Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, drew together local government leaders, business partners and higher education officials to celebrate the collaborative venture’s newly finished space and to welcome its first four members. A place for regional entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, use workspace and receive mentorship from seasoned professionals, Rev, located at 314 E. State St., Ithaca, is a Continue reading...

Hackathon showcases smart content search engine

September 16, 2014

At the Big Red//Hacks event Sept. 26-28 – billed as the first student-run, large-scale hackathon at Cornell University – participants will have access to a semantic intelligence application program interfaceAPI, the core technology for a new startup, Speare. Speare founder and CEO Rahul Shah ’16 said his passion for understanding information, coupled with meeting students who shared an interest in entrepreneurship, resulted in the creation of Speare – a startup business that harnesses semantic intelligence to understand the meaning of textual information. “Back when I was in high school I was interested in how computers understand the meaning Continue reading...

Kickoff event celebrates entrepreneurial students

September 12, 2014

More than 200 students packed the small PopShop storefront in Collegetown Sept. 9 for Entrepreneurship at Cornell’s 2014 kickoff event, an opportunity to mingle, hear about resources and listen to six teams pitch their ideas in front of a panel of judges. “So many students have innovative ideas for businesses,” said Esther Hwang ’15, a College of Arts and Sciences student and member of Life Changing Labs. “I didn’t realize how many students were interested in entrepreneurship.” After time for networking amid tables set up for student entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses, students heard from members of the Continue reading...

Cornell Entrepreneurship Kickoff Aims to Promote Student Startups

September 11, 2014

Hundreds of enterprising Cornellians attended the Cornell Entrepreneurship Kickoff — an event aimed to help spread awareness about startups among Cornell students — at the POPSHOP in Collegetown Tuesday evening. Pujaa Rajan ’17 — co-president of Life Changing Labs — said she hoped the kickoff event would showcase student entrepreneurs’ passion. <img src=”http://d71vxl4sfh0st.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Pg-3-Popshop-by-Dani-Neuharth-Keusch-File.jpg” alt=”Hundreds of enterprising Cornellians attended the Cornell Entrepreneurship Kickoff — an event aimed to help spread awareness about startups among Cornell students — at the POPSHOP in Collegetown Tuesday evening. (Dani Neuharth-Keusch / Sun FIle Photo) ” width=”1000″ height=”667″/> Hundreds of enterprising Cornellians attended the Continue reading...

“Selling Innovation by Going Old School”, with John Kawola ’88

September 5, 2014

Media’s Role in Running Your Company

Top Universities Producing VC-backed Entrepreneurs

August 26, 2014

With college football season in full swing, it’s easy to get caught up rating your alma mater by tallying up the win and loss columns. Between BCS rankings and March Madness, we seem to be constantly ranking our universities on achievements in athletics. Maybe we should also rank our favorite institutions of higher learning based on how they contribute to the nation’s economic growth. After all, the core aim of universities across the country is to increase the intellectual capital of society. In order to get an idea of how universities have contributed to economic growth, PitchBook pulled Continue reading...

Sarah Ploss named Entrepreneur in Residence

August 19, 2014

Sarah Ploss, a seasoned business development and marketing strategist, was recently named Cornell’s Entrepreneur in Residence for the 2014-15 academic year; she now is accepting appointments with students. Ploss, president of Willet Dairy LLC of Locke, New York, has been involved in a number of high-growth environmental startups, including waste-to-energy, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and environmental cleanup products made from recycled agricultural materials. “The Entrepreneur in Residence serves a vital role within the Cornell entrepreneurship community, mentoring and advising Cornell connected startups and aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those in the early stages of business development, as well as inventors Continue reading...

Arts and Sciences Career Services, Networking, and My Internship with Penguin Random House

August 1, 2014

I cannot put into words how much stress I felt when I began to think about summer internships as a college freshman. As a history and German major, I was genuinely panicking, thinking that my skills would not measure up in an increasingly competitive job market. It was around this time, just when I thought that I was going to spend an exciting summer at home with my parents in suburban Florida, that someone recommended that I stopped by Arts and Sciences Career Services. This is basically how I learned that Arts and Sciences Career Services existed. I Continue reading...

Silicon Ivy: How Cornell Is Prepping Young Entrepreneurs

July 30, 2014

Jake Reisch, then a junior at Cornell University, sketched out his idea for Audiarchy, a company that would rent headsets for trendy silent discos (DJ shows where people listen to music through wireless headphones instead of a normal speaker system). The panel of VCs and entrepreneurs in his Entrepreneurship & Private Equity class on hand that day in May 2012 thought he was onto something. So Reisch ditched a summer internship and started planning the company with Matt Reiners, his cofounder and childhood friend. That fall the pair was accepted into eLab, an on-campus accelerator program for student Continue reading...

TGIF: Rosie powers through to win SmartCamp Cambridge with mobile and predictive!

July 28, 2014

I’m thrilled to announce that Rosie is the winner of the SmartCamp Cambridge event! Rosie is a leading SaaS provider of predictive online and mobile shopping applications to local merchants. Their solution is aimed at improving the grocery store shopping experience by predicting the grocery items shoppers need before they run out, at the lowest price from local grocers and online retailers. What does their solution do for grocery retailers? Rosie provides e-commerce, delivery opportunities, and deep data services. And for consumers, Rosie enables them to shop online for their favorite local stores for delivery or in-store pickup. Continue reading...

Media offered sneak peek of downtown incubator, ‘Rev’

July 11, 2014

Under construction and slated for a fall grand opening, Ithaca’s downtown business incubator has a new name, a newly launched website and is taking applications for membership. The incubator is called Rev, subtitled “Ithaca Startup Works,” announced Tom Schryver ’93, MBA ’02, executive director of Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement, during a July 8 media open house of the partially finished space at 314 E. State St. Every aspect of the incubator’s name was purposefully chosen, Schryver said – for example, “works,” because organizers want members to not only have great ideas, but to “turn those ideas Continue reading...

Kristen McClellan ’12 on Power Pitch: Apply sunscreen in seconds

July 10, 2014

In today’s “Power Pitch,” Kristen McClellan pitches her device SnappyScreen, which applies sunscreen at the customers desired SPF level.

Selling Innovation by Going Old School

July 8, 2014

Selling Innovation by Going Old School

Cornell Tech MBAs connect with undergrad entrepreneurs

June 18, 2014

Collegetown is fairly quiet these days, but not at 325 College Ave. or 409 College Ave. In those spaces, a few dozen undergrad and graduate students and young alumni are spending the summer hard at work on their entrepreneurial ventures. Many of them took a break from writing code and sales pitches June 10 to meet with the inaugural class of MBA students from Cornell Tech at PopShop, an open collaborative workspace. The MBA students are in Ithaca, New York, to begin their studies before heading to Cornell Tech in New York City in the fall. Katie Dreier Continue reading...

IBM Watson SmartCamp applications due June 18th

June 17, 2014

Complete this form and click the submit button to request participation in an IBM SmartCamp event.  If you have questions about this application form, contact pwisv@cn.ibm.com.

Launching Your Pilot Product, featuring Robert Frisch MBA ’13, CEO of Firelight Camps

June 17, 2014

Alum founded YEXT Scores Huge Financing

June 5, 2014

As each new social network or listings site pops up, it becomes harder for retailers to keep information about their stores up to date and accurate. And that’s a wonderful thing for Yext. The New York City-based company provides what is essentially a content management system for retailers, banks and some small businesses. This system gives the business a central place to log in and update information about individual store locations, hours and featured products. Once updated, Yext’s technology automatically synchronizes that information across social networks such as Foursquare, Facebook and Google+ (which seeds info on Google Maps) Continue reading...

Cornell partners with Incodema3D for START-UP NY

June 4, 2014

Partnering with an Ithaca firm looking to make waves in the 3-D printing industry, Cornell is among those leading the charge for revitalizing the New York state economy through Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development initiative START-UP NY. Incodema3D is a spinoff of Incodema Inc., a rapid metal prototyping firm headquartered in Ithaca since 2001. Expanding Incodema’s business into additive manufacturing – better known as 3-D printing – Incodema3D is among the first companies approved for START-UP NY tax benefits and other incentives, announced by Cuomo June 4. START-UP NY aims to connect university research and innovation with New Continue reading...

Social sciences project to study creativity, entrepreneurship

May 13, 2014

Faculty members from across disciplines recently kicked off Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the latest theme project of the Institute for the Social Sciences. Over the next two years, members will explore how novel ideas are created, developed, valued and diffused via research projects, curriculum development and public presentations. “We want to bring creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship together so that we can articulate a sound body of science around these topics,” said M. Diane Burton, professor of human resource studies in the ILR School and team leader for the project. “We realize that innovation and entrepreneurship are important engines Continue reading...

“Go with the CTSC and the NIH Common Fund: A Rap,”

May 12, 2014

Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley, Program Director of the Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC), would like to thank you for your support of our video, “Go with the CTSC and the NIH Common Fund: A Rap,” written, performed, and produced by CTSC staff. Due to your votes and encouragement, we were selected as one of the winners of the NIH Common Fund 10-Year Commemoration Video Contest and will be featured in NIH media outlets and a live videocast! If you haven’t had a chance to view the CTSC’s funny, engaging video, check it out here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k60ZaoafjOY

Students reap rewards in annual business contests

April 15, 2014

Some 17,000 people will undergo kidney transplants this year. York Avenue Diagnostics won this year’s Cornell Venture Challenge with their business plan to use genetic signatures to monitor kidney health in these patients and provide earlier detection of transplant rejection without an invasive biopsy procedure. Awarded $25,000 to push forward their business plan, team members William Mills IV, Kevin O’Rourke, Benjamin Burnett and Michael Boice are students at Weill Cornell Medical College or Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Earning second place wasTeraPore Technologies, a high performance ultrafiltration solution for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The team was led by Rachel Dorin, Continue reading...

Galvin Critiques Climate of Upstate Entrepreneurship

April 15, 2014

When Greg Galvin was invited to the stage to be named the 2014Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year, he was dressed in a suit and tie. “This is just not going to work,” said Galvin, M.S. ’82, Ph.D. ’84, MBA ’93, chairman and CEO of Rheonix Inc. and Mezmeriz Inc., who exchanged his coat for a Cornell engineering hoodie and announced, “Now I’m an entrepreneur.” Galvin, who was elected to the Cornell Board of Trustees in 2011 and serves on the advisory councils for the College of Engineering, the Department of Materials Science and Entrepreneurship@Cornell, was honored at an April 10 banquet. Continue reading...

Undergraduates Receive Awards for Innovation at Big Idea Competition

April 14, 2014

Last Friday, the Big Idea Competition gave 10 teams of Cornellian entrepreneurs the chance to make their idea “the next big thing” by awarding several prizes. The annual competition, sponsored by Entrepreneurship@Cornell and RECESS, a music and ideas festival, supports early-stage ideation and offers outlets for the next generation of entrepreneurs, according to the event’s website. Dong Ki Kim ’17 and Moonyoung Lee ’15 won first place in the non-profit or social business category for their idea of Smart Horn, a digital communication system for cars. They received a $2,000 prize, as well as an additional $1,000 via Continue reading...

Women business leaders inspire students, alumni

February 27, 2014

“Whether you choose to marry or not, have children or not, go to grad school, combine work and family or focus on one or the other, you need to know that you don’t need to strive for perfection. Just set your priorities and know what you want.” So advised Barbara Novick ’81, co-founder and vice chairman of Blackrock, an international asset management company, at the Dyson Symposium on Women in Leadership on campus Feb. 21-22. More than 150 Cornell students attended. A College of Arts and Sciences graduate, Novick said she often stretched outside her comfort zone at Continue reading...

Downtown Ithaca Incubator to help entrepreneurs

January 16, 2014

Billed as a hub for economic activity throughout Ithaca and Tompkins County, the new Downtown Ithaca Incubator promises to channel rising entrepreneurs into the region to work, grow and thrive. A collaborative venture among Cornell, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College, the incubator was launched at a Jan. 16 media event attended by local government officials, community leaders and friends of all three institutions. It is located at 314 E. State St. in the Carey Building in downtown Ithaca. The incubator is part of the new Southern Tier Innovation Hot Spot, a regional economic development initiative that Continue reading...

Student club wows venture capitalists

December 11, 2013

The 21 students who make up the Cornell Venture Capital Club have made quite a name for themselves in the VC world. Working with clients like Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Besemer Venture Partners and First Round Capital, club members have provided services from due diligence to product development consulting. They’ve also co-created a blog, InsideActivityTracking.com, to follow developments in the wearable technology sector – think Fit Band and Jawbone. And they plan to expand their services to help Cornell student startups learn how to be more attractive to venture capitalists. “The VC world is small, and word Continue reading...

Social entrepreneurs share ideas at conference

November 20, 2013

Entrepreneurs whose businesses have a social justice focus gathered at Cornell Nov. 15-17 to network and learn how to move their ideas forward. The Second Finger Lakes Social Entrepreneurship Institute, sponsored by Cornell’s Center for Transformative Action, drew 100 entrepreneurs from across the state and included speakers, networking events and workshops. Two highlights of the event were pitch presentations by 16 participants and a TEDx event featuring messages from alumni social entrepreneurs. “Last year had such an impact in helping me connect with others working in the social space,” said Scott Morris of Ithaca, whose company AmeriQoin offers Continue reading...

Entrepreneurship @ Cornell to honor student business

November 18, 2013

Entrepreneurship@Cornell has announced a new annual Student Business of the Year award that includes a cash prize of $5,000 and recognizes commitment to develop and operate a successful business while pursuing an education. It will be presented at an April 11, 2014, luncheon during the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration. The business must be operated by a current Cornell undergraduate or graduate student or a team of at least 50 percent current Cornell students. Success measures will vary depending on industry and will include revenue generation, customer validation, creativity, uniqueness, intellectual property, grants, awards and scalability of the business model. The Continue reading...

Alumni entrepreneurs share career stories in New York City

October 16, 2013

More than 350 Cornell alumni, students, faculty and entrepreneurs enjoyed a full day of talks by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists at Entrepreneurship @ Cornell’s summit in New York City Oct. 11. Focused on the theme, “The Beginning: From Nothing to Something,” the event featured entrepreneurs including Yahoo’s Kathy Savitt ’85, Shake Shack’s Randy Garutti ’97 and Practice Makes Perfect founder Karim Abouelnaga ’13, who told stories of the ups and downs of running their own enterprises. “We thought this summit should be about entrepreneurship from the lens of Ezra Cornell,” said Scott Belsky ’02, founder of Behance, vice Continue reading...

Challenge yourself, Change.org leader advises students

September 26, 2013

The video that Jennifer Dulski ’93, MBA ’99, showed last week at Cornell about her company Change.org features Julie Bluhm, a 14-year-old reader of Seventeen magazine. With the help of a petition on Change.org, Bluhm convinced the editors of the magazine to stop photoshopping models. “It started as just a petition,” Bluhm says in the video. “But now I think we’ve grown into a whole movement.” Growing businesses or movements through her leadership has been Dulski’s mode of operation since her days at Cornell, when as coxswain she helped the women’s crew teams to national titles and later Continue reading...

eLab entrepreneurs can earn credit for startup work

September 19, 2013

The 900 students dancing to a silent disco during Orientation this year probably had no idea that the headphones making it possible were the brainchild of Cornell entrepreneurs. Jacob Reisch ’13 of Party Headphones is one of many entrepreneurial students whose businesses get their start boosted by the eLab, a student business accelerator in Collegetown. This year, students who earn a spot in eLab may earn academic credit for eLab-only courses. Previously only 1.5 credits could be earned through a lecture series class. Now two new classes offered through the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management carry Continue reading...