Congratulations to the student startups moving on to the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) finals on April 25.  Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University and SUNY Oswego teams will among more than 100 collegiate teams from across New York State who will be vying to top honors in competition.  Teams will be competing in six tracks, along with special prizes this year for most venture backable startup, social impact, BICOP founder, female founder, veteran founder, and best pandemic response.

Regional teams moving on to the state finals are

Software and services:

• Bruno Gonzalez Hauger ’21, Ambassadoor Technologies, Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University
• Sam Hollander ’22, FSCL, Martin J. Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University

Consumer and business products:

• Alexander Peter Rolinski ’24, Sice-Me, Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University
• Jeff Evans, Karten Products, Master of Business Administration, SUNY Oswego

Education and well-being:

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

Ag tech and food:

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

Med tech and life sciences:

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

Emergency response and first responder:

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

NYBPC event organizers will select the top three teams in each track participate in live pitches on May 7. The top team from each track will compete for the Grand Prize.  The Grand and Track prizes, along with all special awards, will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on the afternoon of May 7.  Special prizes are not limited to the track winners.

The NYBPC finals are being held in conjunction with Venture NY, May 6 to 7, hosted by Upstate Capital Association.  The two-day event is a celebration of entrepreneurship across New York. Venture NY includes opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs, business professionals and people interested in entrepreneurship to gain access to startups, investors and experts across the state.

A Venture NY Startup Showcase will feature fast-growing startups from 43North, GENIUS NY and other accelerators and incubators across the state.  The event also includes workshops to learn from entrepreneurs and business leaders who drive innovation aeach day

Register now to start networking and getting to know the people and organizations who are involved. Tickets are $25 for general admission and free for students.

AJ Damiano ‘18, co-founder and CEO of Powerspike and a Whitman School of Management, LaunchPad and Techstars alum, joins Patrick Linehan ’21 (Newhouse) for this week’s “Commute to Class” podcast.  In this episode Linehan and Damiano discuss finding focus, developing a personal mission, and turning a college startup into a full-time job.  Listen here.

Damiano founded Powerspike with Michael Paris ’20 (VPA communications design) as students at Syracuse University.  The Powerspike platform allows brands and sponsors to create campaigns, connect with Twitch influencers and teams at scale.  The media and technology company is focused on building the most compelling and streamlined destination for activating sponsorships within gaming communities. Powerspike collaborates with 40,000+ gaming and esports influencers to execute premium, authentic influencer marketing campaigns. Powerspike’s influencer network reaches over 160M+ viewers every month and grew over 1000% in 2020. The 5-year-old company is backed by Techstars, Cox Enterprises, the Sixers Innovation Lab, the Dorm Room Fund, and Ocean Azul Partners.

Damiano will share the story of building the venture as a student, and the challenges of staying focused on building the company milestone by milestone.  By the time they graduated from Syracuse, the Powerspike team had closed an initial round of funding, raising around $500,000.  AJ’s team completed the Atlanta Techstars Accelerator program after he graduated, and while Paris was still a college student, and they then went on to close on $1.3 million in funding. 

Powerspike is based in the NYC metro area and Saratoga, NY, and have built out a team to further develop their innovative marketplace platform that helps livestreaming influencers create relationships with potential sponsors and brands interested in accelerating business growth through live streaming influencer marketing.  Some of their strategic partners and brands have included ActiVision, Bethesda, Logitech, Sketchers and Express Men.

Weekly episodes of The Commute to Class feature 12–15-minute interviews hosted by Linehan with Syracuse University LaunchPad alumni who have gone on to create successful ventures or join innovation teams at leading companies.

Catch the entire series here, on Apple, or wherever podcasts are distributed. 

The first eight episodes are now available and feature:

• Starting Up with Linda Dickerson Hartsock, executive director of the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars
• Building Community with Dylan Kim ’18 (Whitman), co-founder of Brevité
• Stepping Out with Julia Haber ’18 (Newhouse), founder of WAYV and Home From College
• Burning Out with Kelsey Davis ’19 (Newhouse) G’20 (Whitman), founder of CLLCTVE
• Jumping Out with Jose Javier Garcia-Rovira ’19 (Whitman) and Quentin Rosso ’18 (Whitman), co-founders of Gamercraft
• Defeating Gremlins with Kayla Simon ’19 (Engineering and Computer Science), co-founder of InSpire
• Failing Up with Steven VonDeak ’08 (College of Law), co-founder of Density
• Finding Focus with AJ Damiano ’18 (Whitman), co-founder and CEO of Powerspike

Learn more about the entire series here:  https://anchor.fm/blackstone-launchpad

Research and discovery are essential to innovation.  Enhance your skills through these two opportunities from the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (The SOURCE), located on the second floor of Bird Library.

Upcoming Research Workshops:

Whether you’re interested in getting started, are already working on a project, or looking for help in presenting your work please join us for one or all of the sessions.

• Tues, April 13th, 11am-12pm | Creating and Presenting Effective and Meaningful Presentations
• Fri, April 16th, 1-2pm | Crafting a Research Elevator Speech
• Fri, April 23rd, 11am-12pm | A Guide to Resumes: Research Experiences
• Wed, April 28th, 11am-12pm | Crafting a Research Elevator Speech

Register Here

First Year Student Application or Young Research Fellows Program Due April 16

The Young Research Fellows (YRF) program is currently seeking applications for its 2021-23 cohort. Young Research Fellows, guided by a faculty mentor, engage in two years of group mentoring in early research and creative inquiry development and have access to up to $7,000 in funding towards research expenses during their undergraduate career.  The program is open to students in all disciplines. To be eligible students must be a first-year student who:

• Have a minimum 3.75 grade point average;
• Have the endorsement of a faculty member willing to serve as faculty mentor for the two-year program; and
• Have a demonstrated commitment to research/creative inquiry.

Apply Here

The SOURCE fosters and supports diverse undergraduate participation in faculty-guided scholarly research and creative inquiry. Student participants can enhance their skills through training in research or other creative skills, and by designing projects that culminate in research, creative and professional contributions that are original and timely. 

The SOURCE team is working an alternate-day arrangement in Bird Library Monday-Thursday and the  office is open remotely each day.  Staff are available to answer questions and meet by phone, video or email Monday-Friday.  E-mail ugresearch@syr.edu to set up a time for a phone or video call.

Join us Tuesday, May 4 at 7:00 p.m. for our LaunchPad Spring Speaker Series with Elizabeth Ruscitto ’07 G’12, owner of Elizabeth Ruscitto Consulting, based in New York, Boston and the San Francisco Bay areas.  She is an angel investor and global leader with extensive expertise in data-driven operations and partnership and ecosystem development, and has scaled communities of 3.5 million+ members. An adjunct faculty member in the School of Information Studies, she was previously director of Developer Relations at HubSpot and Director of Developer Programs and Platform Integrations at Leap Motion.  Join the conversation here.

Ruscitto is a technical executive with 15 years of experience in building and scaling global software, hardware, and community programs. Since graduating from Syracuse, Elizabeth has helped companies build communities through thoughtful brand stories, servant leadership, and global-first program creation. Her expertise is in community development, growth and behavior models, scaling developer ecosystems, product go-to-market strategies, and accelerator program development.  As a seasoned leader, she has created mission-driven, cross-functional teams with a strong sense of culture and meaningful growth.

Elizabeth got her launch in the startup world as a Syracuse University student, where she was employee number one and the community program manager for the Student Sandbox when it launched in 2010.  She was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Student Sandbox and was the co-founder of the original IDEA Connect Board at Syracuse University while pursuing her M.S. at the iSchool.  

Join us Tuesday, April 27 at 7:00 p.m. for our LaunchPad Spring Speaker Series with Jordan Fox, founder of MMP Digital and global digital brand strategist who has worked with organizations like VaynerMedia, the vaulted brand-building agency.  Fox is a 2013 graduate of the Whitman School of Management where he majored in accounting. Join the conversation here.

Fox is a lifelong learner and future-minded thinker. He began his career at SocialCode, then the largest social media buying agency in the world, before joining VaynerMedia, the vaunted brand-building agency. During this time, he worked with clients like Chase, Verizon, Reckitt Benckiser and more.

At 26, he left the agency world to launch his own business, MMP Digital. In naming MMP, Jordan was inspired by his grandfather, Arthur Dock, who would always say to him, “Make Me Proud.” Fox founded MMP with a mission to improve upon the outdated practices and processes of the traditional business model.

Core to this mission was departing from the red tape, bloated payrolls, and unnecessary overhead that in his experience, worked to the detriment of both clients and employees alike. Instead, Jordan sought to create a new model which would comprise of specialized collectives of remote freelancers who could work on their own terms, have an ideal work-life balance, and be assembled and configured based on the needs of clients.

His first client at MMP was musician, Alicia Keys. Fox led the global digital strategy across all of Alicia’s digital platforms, reaching her audience of 80MM+. He built smarter work streams while managing Alicia’s in-house, digital agency and record label teams.

Since officially launching in 2019, MMP has signed 20+ clients across different industries including Sports, Music, Advertising, and CPG.

When not working on MMP, Fox stays involved with non-profit organizations. Jordan was selected to the ADL Glass Leadership Committee of 2020-2021; he is on the Board of Directors for the Brooklyn Youth Sports Club; he is the Communications & Social Media Chair for Syracuse’s NYC Alumni Club; he was selected by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to help create their new Social Media certification course; and he was selected to be a judge of the 2020 Reggie Awards, presented by Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

Join us Tuesday, April 20 at 7:00 p.m. for the next in our LaunchPad Spring Speaker Series with Jack Kuveke, co-founder and COO of Huddle, a platform for small group video calls, called “Hoodles” led by brands, influencers, and interesting people.  The company recently closed on several million dollars of seed financing and is actively expanding.  Jack also runs a startup financing bootcamp, sharing his experiences as a serial entrepreneur, former program manager at Antler, and an early-stage investor.  Join the conversation here.

“Hoodle” is in private beta. Download the app to reserve your username and join the waitlist.  Apply here to host a Hoodle.

Check out just a few recent Hoodles here.

Jack was also previously CCO at GameCredits, a cryptocurrency building solutions for in-game monetization and also a cryptocurrency (GAME) that operates on the Ethereum platform. From its inception in 2014 until late 2017, GameCredits was the most successful altcoin in price growth ever — more than Ethereum, Ripple or Litecoin.  With the help of the GameCredits community, it raised $53 million in 2017, at the time the largest crypto ICO ever. It still remains the largest crypto ICO ever to not receive investment from any venture capitalist group. GameCredits later merged with the NovaToken network, leveraging a full eSports platform, experienced team, partnerships and a new vision.

Join us for a great conversation with Jack about what it takes to be a founder that builds a great new tech platform, a connected network of experts and influencers, gets noticed, and gets funded.

Josh Aviv ’15, G’17, founder and CEO of SparkCharge, will be the featured guest at the LaunchPad Spring Speaker Series on Tuesday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m.  Aviv recently walked away with a million-dollar deal for his portable ultra-fast, modular electric vehicle (EV) charging system on last fall’s season premiere of ABC’s Shark Tank.

Aviv started SparkCharge in the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University, built his first prototype in the Kimmel MakerSpace and graduated into his first R&D lab at the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems Innovations. After graduation he went on to become a dynamic figure in the clean-tech community and remains an active member of the LaunchPad, serving on the Founders Circle and as the LaunchPad’s alumni entrepreneur in residence. 

He is a new member of the Syracuse University Libraries’ Advisory Board, supporting work being done by the LaunchPad around innovation, invention and entrepreneurship.  He frequently speaks on behalf of the LaunchPad at Syracuse University alumni events around the country.

As a student, Aviv won the grand prize in the New York Business Plan Competition, as well as top honors in more than seven business competitions. He won the top prize of $1 million at 43North, a Buffalo-based startup competition and was also the recipient of a NYS FuzeHub Commercialization Competition award. He has won the California Climate Cup, Startup Fest’s global pitch competition, and Plug and Play’s clean energy innovation award. TechCrunch most recently named SparkCharge as a top tech disruptor.

After winning the first ever Blackstone Launch Pad – Techstars Training Camp global pitch competition, he was selected for the prestigious Techstars accelerator program in Boston after graduating from Syracuse.  The company now has an engineering and sales division in Somerville, Massachusetts, and a manufacturing facility in the Buffalo area.  SparkCharge also held residencies at the Plug and Play Tech Center, a renowned industry-focused accelerator program in Silicon Valley and at the Los Angeles Clean Tech Incubator (LACI).

SparkCharge recently closed on $3.3 million to scale production of its portable, modular charger, led by Point Judith Capital (PJC) with participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, PEAK6 Strategic Capital, M&T Bank and Tale Venture Partners. This round brings SparkCharge’s total funding to $5 million since its 2017 launch. The company plans to use the new investment to scale up manufacturing and aggressively expand development of its products.

This spring SparkCharge partnered with Allstate Roadside, Spiffy, HONK Technologies, and Mark Cuban to launch BoostEV, the first-ever on-demand mobile EV charging network.  SparkCharge recently launched the new service in 12 cities including New York, Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. EV owners can order a charge to be delivered to their vehicles by using SparkCharge’s BoostEV mobile app. SparkCharge plans to open up in a different city every month and roll out the service in 25 cities by the end of 2021.

SparkCharge’s goal is to build the world’s largest mobile electric vehicle charging network through hardware, software, and partnerships.

Aviv will be speaking about his Shark Tank experience, offering tips on how startups can prepare to become investment ready, talking about how to approach investors for funding, and crafting a sales strategy.

The link to attend is here.

Next up in the series:

• April 13, 6:30 p.m. — Shark Tank Winner and founder of SparkCharge, Josh Aviv who raised $5 million for his ultra fast EV charging platform, including a $1 million investment on Shark Tank.
• April 20, 7 p.m. — Founder of Huddle social media platform, Jack Kuveke, formerly program manager at Antler accelerator, who recently closed on several million dollars for his new venture
• April 27, 7 p.m. — Founder of MMP Digital, Jordan Fox, formerly with SocialCode, then the largest social media buying agency in the world and VaynerMedia, the vaunted brand-building agency
• May 4, 7 p.m. — Elizabeth Ruscitto, founder of Elizabeth Ruscitto Consulting, previously director of Developer Relations at HubSpot and director of developer Programs and platform integrations at Leap Motion, now adjunct faculty in the iSchool 

Syracuse University Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars virtually hosted approximately three dozen teams from 19 countries and all five continents for the prestigious Hult Prize Regional Impact Summit competition. This year’s Hult Prize 2021 Challenge centered around the theme “Food for Good.” Hult Prize Impact Summits are hosted in 100 locations around the world, and this year Syracuse 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 Syracuse University campus director of the Summit is Claire Howard ’23 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy), a Global Fellow at the Syracuse University LaunchPad. The day-long event kicked-off with keynote speaker Catherine Bertini, Professor Emeritus from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, at 9:30 AM EST.  Bertini is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate andlong-time director of the World Food Programme which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The distinguished panel of competition judges included:

• Adam Motiwala – 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.
• Ryan Riegg – 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.
• Sheryl Chamberlain – 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.
• Kailesh Karavadra – Karavadra is the Global Coordinating partner for EY services of a major healthcare 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.
• Ankha Marza – 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.
• Derek Wallace – CEO and Founder of Kalamata’s Kitchen, Wallace is a Syracuse University alumnus dedicated to creating a more open-minded generation of children through exploration of food and diversity of culture.
• Catherine Bertini – 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. She is professor emeritus at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy at Syracuse University.
• Amjad Janjua  – Former committee member of the World Economic Forum and CEO of the Pakistan State Oil Company, Janjua is the President & CEO of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Pakistan and works on projects to shape future policies for sustainable growth.
• Ashok Mahbubani – Mentor for the Hult Prize, Mahbubani is the co-founder and CEO of the Multitronics Group, a business in the automotive electronics industry utilized to become a force for social good.
• Ethan Tyo – A Syracuse University graduate student in food studies, Tyo is the author of his own cookbook Fetagetaboutit, which highlights a plant-based diet. He’s also worked with several global entrepreneurs and food companies in content creation and planning.

Two Syracuse student teams competed in the April 9 event hosted by Syracuse University:

• 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.

Also, another Syracuse 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.

All three were winners of the Syracuse campus Hult Prize competition in December.

The Syracuse event included a panel “Advice of a Lifetime” featuring Derrell Smith, a Syracuse alumnus, former NFL player, food show host for Mad Good Food, and founder and CEO of the culinary brand 99EATS, a virtual brand working to connect people through food, and William Wright, Senior Vice President of Global Product Innovation and EVP and Chief Operating Officer at Tupperware Brands.

The program also included a musical interlude with performances by Syracuse University student band  NONEWFRIENDS and a networking panel moderated by two Syracuse University alumni and former LaunchPad Global Fellows and Hult Prize winners, Audrey Miller, and Amanda Chou.

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.

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A new episode in the popular “Commute to Class” LaunchPad podcast series by LaunchPad Global Fellow Patrick Linehan ’21 (Newhouse) has just dropped.  This week’s podcast is Failing Up with Steve VonDeak, a 2008 graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law who is the LaunchPad’s Alumni Entrepreneur in Residence. He is co-founder and chief of staff at Density, a high-tech company that uses powerful sensors, combined with state-of-the-art depth data, computer vision, and deep learning to measure space density in real-time. Founded in 2014 in The Tech Garden, Density now has offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Syracuse.  The venture has closed on more than $90 million in external funding.

In this episode Linehan and Von Deak discuss bouncing back from failure, balancing family responsibilities, and saying no.

Weekly episodes of The Commute to Class feature 12–15-minute interviews hosted by Linehan with Syracuse University LaunchPad alumni who have gone on to create successful ventures or join innovation teams at leading companies.

Catch the entire series here, on Apple, or wherever podcasts are distributed. 

The first seven episodes are now available and feature:

• Starting Up with Linda Dickerson Hartsock, executive director of the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars
• Building Community with Dylan Kim ’18 (Whitman), co-founder of Brevité
• Stepping Out with Julia Haber ’18 (Newhouse), founder of WAYV and Home From College
• Burning Out with Kelsey Davis ’19 (Newhouse) G’20 (Whitman), founder of CLLCTVE
• Jumping Out with Jose Javier Garcia-Rovira ’19 (Whitman) and Quentin Rosso ’18 (Whitman), co-founders of Gamercraft
• Defeating Gremlins with Kayla Simon ’19 (Engineering and Computer Science), co-founder of InSpire
• Failing Up with Steven VonDeak ’08 (College of Law), co-founder of Density

Learn more about the entire series here:  https://anchor.fm/blackstone-launchpad

Applications are extended until April 11 for the $30,000 Intelligence ++ Competition, a challenge focused on inclusive entrepreneurship and design.  Apply here and read more about the competition details.

The Intelligence ++ Competition is supported by a generous gift to SU Libraries by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09 and the Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence (Intelligence++).  The challenge is open to all undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines, with a $30,000 prize package.

Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged to submit proposals for products, services or technologies that address problems or create new opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families.

It is offered through a partnership between the LaunchPad, the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education (InclusiveU) and the  College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

Use this simple QR code to apply now for the $30,000 Intelligence ++ Competition.

Applications now close April 11 for the competition on April 16.  Qualifying teams will be notified by e-mail if they have been accepted.