The Capital Foundation, with support from Upstate Capital and the NYBPC, is hosting online events to build connections between entrepreneurs and business advisors. These mentorship events are open to everyone who seeks to receive and/or share advice on topics related to launching and growing companies. The next is an interactive, informational workshop for college startups: NYS Entrepreneurship Resources on April 8, at 12:00 p.m.  The workshop is hosted as part of the Capital Foundation’s Mentorship+ program.

To sign up for mentorship opportunities click here, fill out your profile and the system will use an algorithm to match you to someone with similar interests.  It’s that easy.

The leaders of the Upstate Capital Association of New York founded The Capital Foundation of New York in 2019 to promote entrepreneurship in New York, after Upstate Capital took on the leadership of the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) in 2018.  We believe that entrepreneurship is essential for healthy economies, and society as a whole, and that resources should be available to everyone who wants to explore and pursue an entrepreneurial journey. 

We’re excited that the Dorm Room Fund is joining us for another exclusive LaunchPad Workshop on Tuesday, April 6 at 7 p.m.  The session is open to members of the LaunchPad community.  (Become a member by joining here.) The Dorm Room Fund (DRF) is a venture capital subsidiary that invests in student startups.  Joining us for this workshop will be Jason Brooke, Jarrod Barnes and Hillary Bush who are Investment Partners at Dorm Room Fund.  They will be discussing building viral marketing models for consumer-focused businesses + marketplaces, and also chatting with Syracuse startups who in the consumer-facing marketplace.  Zoom in here for the session.

The Syracuse LaunchPad recently deepened its partnership with the Dorm Room Fund to offer office hours and mentoring for campus startups. 

Hillary Bush, is an Investment Partner at Dorm Room Fund with a background in in international development, microfinance, online education, and co-living.  With experience at multiple high-growth startups, she has built products to support disenfranchised entrepreneurs at Kiva, led growth at MasterClass, and transformed internal operations at Bungalow. She is completing a MBA at NYU Stern as an Advancing Women in Business Scholar and Elizabeth Elting Fellow.

Bush’s key skills are user engagement, growth, UX, split (a/b) testing, prototyping, collaboration, systems architecture, subscription models, content strategy, and SEO.  She is an independent consultant on search engine optimization (SEO), growth, and conversion rate optimization (CRO), and helps companies scale their business through digital channels.  This includes search engine optimization (SEO), growth marketing, conversion rate optimization, and product strategy.

Some of her clients have included Adobe, Outlier.org, Outschool, MT Copeland and Bungalow.

She has also been engaged with select angel investments including: Imperfect Foods (Seed), Renewal Workshop (Seed), HomeCourt (Series A), Outlier (Series B).

Jason Brooke is an Investment Partner at Dorm Room Fund and MBA Candidate at Chicago Booth, specializing in Entrepreneurship and Finance. Jason previously worked in corporate strategy as a Principal for Kaiser Associates’ Financial Services & Payments practice. At Kaiser, Jason specialized in growth strategy assessments such as bringing new products to market, improving competitiveness, and customer segmentation. This past summer, Jason supported the Product Marketing team at Kong, a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for full cycle API management. At Booth, he is a member of several professional clubs, including the Entrepreneurship & VC Club and the Fintech Club. Jason has a BA from Middlebury College (’13) and is passionate about ‘all things Fintech,’ soccer and skiing.

Jarrod Barnes is an Investment Partner at Dorm Room Fund and a doctoral student at the University of Illinois with a research focus in Learning Design and Technology.  A native of Columbus, Ohio, he is a former student-athlete and college football coach at the Ohio State University. From launching his own startup to working as an NFL front office employee, Jarrod has continually looked to challenge the status quo.  In addition to his role as an Investment Partner with the Dorm Room Fund, he is a Venture Fellow with Unshackled Ventures.  His interests in tech and venture capital consist of educational technology, the future of work, and sports tech.

The Dorm Room Fund will also provide mentoring this spring to the most promising student startups at the Syracuse LaunchPad, as well as consider seed funding as part of the Dorm Room Fund’s Campus Organization Network (DRFCON), backed by First Round Capital. First Round provides seed-stage funding and focuses on portfolio companies’ growth during their first 18 months and Fortune Magazine dubbed First Round as the most connected venture network in the Silicon Valley. In 2012, the firm launched and funded Dorm Room Fund for college startups. 

The DRF has an extensive and successful history providing pre-seed funding for college startups, investing $20,000 to help commercialize great ideas by campus innovators. 

Want to participate?  To get started, please join the LaunchPad if you are not already a member:  https://launchpad.syr.edu/join/

College students are facing unprecedented challenges around job and internship prospects, as well as launching ventures. Despite an economic downtown, the pandemic has fueled explosive growth in ecommerce, new marketplaces, virtual community building and technology solutions. Innovators are seizing this to solve problems and chase opportunities.  To encourage promising collegiate startups, the LaunchPad is accepting applications through April 27 for a Summer Fellowship open to 50 student founders across the network.  Each founding team will be awarded $5,000 in non-dilutive grant funding to support their time working on advancing technology ventures.

The Fellowship is largely self-driven, but will include weekly skill-development workshops, goal setting, and peer and professional networking opportunities, as well as reporting requirements and regular check-ins with their LaunchPad campus director. The Fellowship is open to all current students (graduate and undergraduate) of LaunchPad network schools as well as 2020 or 2021 graduates.

Application link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DZ65Q2C

Key Dates:

• Applications close: April 27
• Students notified of selection: May 10
• External team announcement: May 17
• Fellowship runs June 14 -August 6

Upon receipt of final report, program deliverables, and completed financial documentation, payments will be issued in August 2021

Application Criteria

The primary applicant must:

• Be a current student (undergraduate level, graduate level) OR 2020 / 2021 graduate enrolled at LaunchPad university.
• Be a lead founder / co-founder of the venture.
• Be self-motivated and driven to complete work independently and with minimal oversight.
• Have well-defined, quantifiable S.M.A.R.T. goals and milestones to be completed within the 8 week period of the fellowship.
• Ge past the idea-stage and ideally have a pitch deck, executive summary, a logo, a website, social media accounts (Ex; LinkedIn and Twitter). Other activities that we consider to be “past” the idea stage include: working on a prototype, working on customer discovery, or building a business model.
• Have some form of traction e.g. early sales, MOUs, funding raised, customer interest, user base, etc.
• Have demonstrated leadership in both executing on business or program operations and galvanizing support.
• Have experience working with mentors or advisors, integrating feedback into their venture, and demonstrating coachability.
• Be able to complete and fulfill all required duties as posed by the Fellowship and dedicate 3-4 hours per week on Fellowship meetings and deliverables.

Selection Criteria

Applicants will be judged based on the quality of their 60 second video pitch, articulation of realistic goals and milestones, quality and detail of the proposal narrative, description of next steps following the Fellowship, and need statement. Special consideration will also be given to ensure selected companies represent the diversity of the LaunchPad network. Please note that feedback on applications will not be available due to the large amount of applications received.

There will be special consideration given to diverse leadership and/or founding teams.

Fellowship Grant:

$5,000 will be awarded to fellowship participants to support financial needs during the program period. It should be noted that grants are issued after all deliverables are completed for program participation by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. Grant processing will be coordinated with Future Founders. Grants are issued in August 2021 after all required documentation and paperwork is received by Future Founders. Payments will be issued during August 2021 assuming all documentation is complete.

Fellowship Structure:

As with a typical Fellowship, this initiative is largely self-directed and independent of a strict curriculum. Because of this, it is critical that applicants have demonstrated the ability to work independently with little guidance or structure. Despite this format, the Fellowship will include a number of programmatic elements:

• Program kickoff call, initial skills assessment survey
• Regular calls and activities
  • Workshop series
  • Peer Community and Ecosystem Building Social events
• Weekly goal tracking
• Start, mid, and final check-ins with LaunchPad Directors
• Final program survey and skills assessment survey

Fellowship Requirements: All participants must…

• Clearly define and track goals and objectives for the Fellowship.
  • Track progress towards these goals on a weekly basis
• Participate in at least 3 workshops.
  • If selected, designated Fellows must fulfill the workshop and community engagement requirements, but they are allowed to encourage other co-founders to participate in addition.
• Participate in a program kickoff call.
• Complete a final survey detailing their work in the Fellowship, results and next steps.
• Fulfill the marketing and promotional obligations of the Fellowship.
• Meet with their Campus Director at least 3 times during the program and review goal tracking progress.

Workshop Topics and Tentative Dates:

• Onboarding: June 15
• Workshop 1: June 22
• Social 1: June 24
• Workshop 2: June 29
• Workshop 3: July 6
• Trivia: July 8
• Workshop 4: July 13
• Workshop 5: July 20
• Social 3: July 22
• Workshop 6: July 27
• Completion Call: August 3

Other Resources:

For a look at our past Fellowship, you can view the Fall 2020 Lookbook HERE or read our Summer 2020 Fellowship Wrap-Up Blog

About the organizers:

What is the Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative?

The Foundation focuses its efforts in targeted regions of interest to the firm, and works closely with local stakeholders to build programs and make grants to support entrepreneurs. These programs foster networks and provide resources like mentorship, content, and events, to help entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses.

What is Techstars?

The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now we are on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, we do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 2,400 companies with a combined market cap of more than $204B. www.techstars.com.

What is Future Founders?

Future Founders believes every youth can become an entrepreneur. We were created to foster inclusion in the entrepreneurial community and to seed diverse founders into the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

For 18 to 30-year-olds across the country, Future Founders offers various business accelerators to help them create and scale ventures across all industries. Our methodology focuses on pairing a strong peer community of like-minded entrepreneurs with intensive coaching from seasoned entrepreneurs. We bring together dozens of universities, incubators, community organizations, and businesses to provide a dynamic suite of services for young founders.

We have three main programs: Startup Bootcamp, the Fellowship, and U.Pitch. Startup Bootcamp is a crash course in “Startup 101” designed to help underestimated and underrepresented 18 to 30-year-olds turn their idea, passion, or side hustle into a business. The Fellowship is a prestigious year-long cohort designed to support young entrepreneurs from across the country grow and lead sustainable companies. And U.Pitch is a national elevator pitch competition where collegiate entrepreneurs showcase their business ideas for a chance at glory and a cash prize. Together, these programs offer young entrepreneurs at any stage the opportunity to scale their impact. In fact, founders in our Fellowship program have generated $32.8 million in revenue, raised $34.9 million in capital, and created 543 jobs over the last four years alone. Visit the Future Founders website to learn more today!

Applications are open through June 1 for a four-month hybrid Watson Semester Accelerator based in Boulder Colorado this fall.  Students selected to the Watson Semester Accelerator leverage training, mentorship, and community to accelerate their ventures during a time when the world needs brave leadership and creative solutions to issues of complex injustice and inequality, such as climate change, human rights abuses, poverty, access to quality education, and more.

Watson Institute is also proud to announce the Martini Education and Opportunity Trust (MEOT) Fellowship. These fellowships are designed for changemakers, innovators, and leaders primarily from the US, or doing work in the US, to drive forward impactful innovations and solutions to significant social, economic, environmental, and corporate governance challenges. This Fall, 5 MEOT fellows will join the Watson Semester Accelerator and learn to increase their impact through the vehicle of entrepreneurship. To be considered, apply by June 1.

Audrey Miller ’20, former LaunchPad Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar and Hult Prize campus ambassador at the Syracuse University LaunchPad is now the operations coordinator for the Watson Institute in Boulder.  Feel free to reach out to her with questions at:  Audrey Miller audrey@watson.is

Watson Institute is a place where next generation entrepreneurs and leaders can find their community, discover their calling, and accelerate their careers.  It provides the tools, network, mindset, and courage for the next generation to solve the toughest challenges facing the world, launch successful careers, and lead impactful lives.

Watson Institute has locations in Boulder, Colorado, at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (UFM) in Guatemala City, Guatemala.  It is now building partnerships with innovative institutions of higher education in the US and globally.

Watson Institute’s 260 Scholars and Alumni from 60 countries have raised over $100 million, created over 800 part or full-time jobs, and impacted 150,000 people around the world through initiatives it helps lead.

Watson alumni have been selected to Y Combinator, the Echoing Green Fellowship and four have been named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 lists.

Read more about Watson Institute’s scaling strategy in this recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article: The Intel Inside Higher Education.

Learn more about the Watson Institute here. 

Apply for financial assistance for a summer 2021 internship experience. Check Handshake for information about a funding award program designed to assist full-time undergraduate students at Syracuse University participating in external internship opportunities during the summer term.  The award can help cover the cost of credit for students when required by a company, and/or to provide support for living expenses associated with summer internships. The award for credit is only available for internships taken during the summer term, and the application is live through June 23, 2021. 

Qualifying internships must be away from the University and under the guidance of a professional who can help the student explore opportunities that link theory with practice in the field of the student’s career interest.

Internship funding options:

There are three internship funding options for students to choose from – students will be awarded one of the options below only once during the course of their undergraduate college career at Syracuse University:

Funding to pay for an unpaid internship credit (one credit, max) that is required by an employer during summer term

All students who wish to participate in an unpaid summer internship for which an employer requires credit will receive a one-time award to cover the cost of earning one credit during their college career. Preference will be given to applicants who wish to take advantage of this offer during the summer between their junior and senior years. 

Funding required for travel and living expenses due to financial hardship, for a paid internship

Awards may be used to pay for internship-related travel, accommodations, living expenses, and required materials, but may not, in most cases, be used to pay for salaries, tuition for Syracuse University required courses, or major equipment/technology that will become the possession of the applicant at the conclusion of the internship.  

Funding to pay for an unpaid internship credit (one credit, max) that is required by an employer during summer term, AND travel and living expenses due to financial hardship (see notes on what expenses qualify in items 1 and 2 above).

Eligibility & Requirements

• Open to Sophomore & Junior standing students, all majors welcome.
• Must complete a minimum of 120 hours on-site at the internship.
• Applicant Handshake profile must be 100% complete.
• Students must complete the Internship Funding Award Qualtrics Survey associated with this posting, for consideration.

Credit-based internships require a faculty sponsor. Each awardee is required to obtain the support of a Syracuse University faculty member who agrees that the proposal complements the student’s academic program and who is willing to act as academic “sponsor” of the proposed internship. A sponsor must have knowledge and expertise in the subject area of the proposed internship.

Student must have already secured their internship opportunity and be able to provide information on the organization/company/non-profit, as well as their anticipated main contact throughout the experience.

Students will not be able to use financial aid towards multiple credits for internships.

Students who are awarded financial aid to cover the one credit hour required by the employer will be unable to enroll in additional academic courses for the entire summer term (Maymester, summer session 1, summer session 2, and combined). Students who receive funding cannot enroll in additional summer term courses, as their financial aid could impact their internship funding (or vice versa).

Living and travel stipend applications will be reviewed and awarded by Career Services and the Office of Financial Aid based on need. 

Applications remain open until April 30 to the CNY Biotechnology Accelerator’s Medical Device Innovation Challenge (MDIC).  Five teams will be selected to receive intensive mentorship by experts throughout the six-month program.  Teams may participate virtually or receive free workspace within the CNYBAC Creation Garage with access to shared equipment. 

Additional opportunities include:

• Paid stipend for commercialization services through the Syracuse University College of Law Innovation Law Center
• Access to Student Engineering Capstone Design Programs
• FDA Regulatory Guidance
• Expansive Innovation Ecosystem and Networking opportunities
• CNYBAC Concept to Commercialization Virtual Series and Manufacturing Workshop

Applications will be accepted online until April 30: https://www.cnybac.com/medical-device-innovation-challenge-in-the-national-grid-creation-garage/mdic-2020-application/

For more information: https://www.cnybac.com/medical-device-innovation-challenge-in-the-national-grid-creation-garage/

Questions?  Feel free to contact:

Stephanie Carbone, CNYBAC Office Coordinator
carbonst@upstate.edu

Kathi Durdon, MA, CCRP, CNYBAC Executive Director
durdonk@upstate.edu

The world’s largest accelerator competition for unmanned systems, IoT and big data technology start-ups, the Syracuse-based GENIUS NY program has extended applications for its fifth cohort to April 30, 2021. Five finalists will be selected for this year’s program and split a total of $3 million in cash with the winner taking home a $1 million top prize. To apply, click here.

​The program helps companies scale their operations and make the necessary connections to secure partners, customers and follow-on funding. Finalists spend a year at The Tech Garden in Syracuse where they have office space and amenities plus workshops, training, mentoring and opportunities for networking.

Since 2017, GENIUS NY has invested over $12 million in 22 early stage companies from around the world.

GENIUS NY is looking for companies focused on unmanned systems, IoT, big data and robotics. To apply and see program requirements visit, www.geniusny.com/apply. 

The program is funded by Empire State Development and administered at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden incubator in Syracuse, New York. 

It’s officially spring in Syracuse and the LaunchPad is excited to invite you to join us for a conversations with dynamic alumni entrepreneurs and other experts in digital marketing, product development, fundraising, community building, sales and customer relationship management.  Each virtual session will be each Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.  The series is open to all student members of the LaunchPad.  Not a member yet?  Join here.  The link to attend any of the speaker series is here.

Upcoming sessions:

• April 6, Dorm Room Fund
• April 13, Shark Tank Winner and founder of SparkCharge, Josh Aviv who has raised millions of dollars for his ultra fast EV charging platform
• April 20, 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, 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, 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 

Roger Misso joins the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) as its inaugural Syracuse University Program Director. In this role, Roger will be responsible for connecting Syracuse University students, faculty, and early-stage ventures with bespoke NSIN programming. As the first formal university partner in New York State, the Syracuse University community will have unprecedented access to Department of Defense problem sets, hiring and internship programs, and opportunities to create and expand start-ups leveraging dual-use technology. NSIN is dedicated to the work of bringing together defense, academic, and entrepreneurial innovators to solve national security problems in new ways.

Prior to joining NSIN, Roger was a candidate for the US House of Representatives and executive director of a political action committee supporting veterans and military family members of integrity for public office. A 12-year veteran of the United States Navy, Roger has deployed as a naval flight officer, served as a speechwriter in the Pentagon, and led as a senior analyst for digital engineering and cyber operations. He is a veteran of the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum, Defense Innovation Lab, and the Center for International Maritime Security.

Roger is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Harvard Kennedy School. He and his wife, Christy, live in the Meadowbrook neighborhood of Syracuse with their two children, Amelia and Jack.

Apply now for the $30,000 Intelligence ++ competition. Use this simple QR code. Applications close April 5 for the competition on April 16.