Syracuse LaunchPad superstars Jack Kuveke, co-founder of Huddle, and Matt Shumer, co-founder of Otherside AI, have launched new ventures and raised millions of dollars this past month.  They join an elite group of LaunchPad startups — SparkCharge, PowerSpike, CLLCTVE, Verse Gaming. Gamercraft and a few others — who have raised more than $12 million this year in a pandemic.  What’s the secret to raising amazing amounts of seed capital to launch an idea? Learn from the pros at an awesome LaunchPad Huddle, Tuesday, December 8 at 7 p.m. co-hosted by Kuveke and Shumer. 

We’ll be using a hyper cool platform, Huddle, just launched by Kuveke’s team who have created a special Huddle for this event:  https://doahuddle.com/launchpad/.  Just go to this link and sign up for a fun, fast and furious inside conversation.

Huddle is a consumer social app, currently available in iOS, that creates small group video calls with interesting people around topics, trends, tech, innovation, business, brands, food, fashion, personalities, and more.  It’s a video chat & video podcast in a chatty informal style mashed up with a meetup style confab on a new platform that runs on digital steroids.  Plus, it is so simple easy to use.  We’re super excited to help launch it and share the platform with our favorite LaunchPad family and friends (and your family and friends, so feel free to share).

Kuveke is a former Syracuse student and active LaunchPad mentor who was most recently program manager at Antler and was previously a successful entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency sector.  He’s obsessed with building things, connecting people and chasing capital for great ideas.  He is in the final stages of closing a formidable seed round with brand name investors for Huddle.

Shumer is a Syracuse student who shares those same passions.  He built Otherside AI, a startup using GPT-3 tech to write automated emails, with co-founders Miles Feldstein and Jason Kuperberg, who are also a Syracuse student and alumnus. It has quickly become the darling of the AI world.  Madrona led a $2.6 million round for OthersideAI just months after the team met and conceived of the company during the LaunchPad’s SummerStartup Accelerator.  The venture has recently been featured in TechCrunch, Fortune, the New York Times and Wired, and has scored incredible customer traction, becoming a viral overnight success.  Shumer, Feldstein and Kuperberg are also active LaunchPad mentors.

This is an amazing opportunity to get the inside scoop from startups that have scored incredible success in the most challenging economic times in recent history – demonstrating that capital chases dynamic founders, and strong teams with great ideas. How can you be one of them?

Let’s Huddle.

The LaunchPad is super excited to welcome Ant Gentile, an award-winning content creator, cutting-edge film maker and SU alumnus for an inside look at the future of digital storytelling and how to build a life and career in the creative and digital world.  The Fireside Chat will be Wednesday, December 9 at 7 p.m. EST, co-hosted live from NY and LA via this Zoom link:  https://bit.ly/digital-fireside  It is open to all.

Ant Gentile is a founding partner and creative director of Hidden Content, a full-service creative production studio. With a slate of content that includes award-winning feature films, branded content, podcasts, and virtual reality experiences, Hidden provides innovative ways to discover and tell unique stories.  Hidden has developed and produced work for clients such as Nike, Google, The North Face, United Airlines, and Samsung.  In early 2020, Hidden produced the “The Spirit on Conviction” web series for Wild Turkey, which won the Webby Award for Best Documentary (Branded).  

Since March, Hidden was on the forefront of remote productions, developing proprietary, camera “drop kits” for shooting premium, contactless content.  This attracted notable clients including Sprite, Conde Nast, Zagat, and Netflix, for which they shot over 70 people around the world in just 6 days.    

Hidden Content films have won accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, American Film Institute (AFI), Fantasia, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Festival de Cannes.  Several have been selected as New York Times Critics’ Picks.  They are available for viewing on major streaming services. 

The company also specializes in virtual reality, augmented reality and 360 cinema and video. Hidden produced an interactive VR narrative entitled Broken Night, starring Emily Mortimer.  The film was accepted to Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes NEXT.  Hidden also produced a VR horror narrative entitled The Caretaker, which was also accepted to Tribeca and Cannes. 

He is a graduate of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management where he studied marketing and entrepreneurship.  As a serial entrepreneur who bootstrapped his ventures, he is very interested in sharing his journey and insights with young creatives, digital content creators and filmmakers.  He is an energizing and inspiring storyteller with great insights, and his engaging style and knack for networking and relationship building offers a model for anyone trying to break into this hyper-competitive space.

Gentile will be interviewed by Peter Hartsock ’19, co-founder and creative director of 410 Pictures, an award-winning midnight movie genre house focused on producing original and boundary breaking content.  410 Pictures is based in Los Angeles and has won awards in national and international film festivals for its unique narrative which explores distinct cinematic worlds.  It produces short films for festival distribution, but currently has multiple feature film projects in various stages of development.  410 Pictures was founded by Hartsock and Daniel Simoni ’19 when they were attending Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and members of the Syracuse LaunchPad. Through a shared love of all things macabre and genre, they created a production house to tell unique stories and now work bi-coastally.

The Fireside Chat will feature remarks and insights by Gentile with a thoughtful conversation facilitated with Hartsock and an open AMA (ask me anything) session for aspiring creatives to chat with Gentile and pitch their own ventures and projects.

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University is pleased to accept applications for a LaunchPad Fellowship planned for this spring.  Student founders will receive $5,000 in non-dilutive grant funding to support their technology-focused ventures.  LaunchPad Fellowships are eight-week programs that are largely self-driven, working with the campus program, and augmented by speaker series and other opportunities to build a peer and advisor network. Resource and programmatic support of the program, including participant selection, is provided by Techstars and Future Founders.

LaunchPad Fellowships are open through January 29, 2021 to current students and 2020 or 2021 graduates of campus LaunchPad programs.  The spring program is focused on technology ventures.  Examples include hardware, software, SAAS and mobile applications and computing, AI, VR, machine-learning, blockchain and cybersecurity, and products, services or technologies related to the IoT, remote/cloud computing, electronic communication and entertainment, digital platforms and other emerging tech sectors.

Key program dates:

• Applications are open through January 29, 2021
• Applications will be reviewed February 1 – February 12, 2021
• Selected companies will be announced February 22, 2021
• Fellowship runs virtually March 1 -April 23, 2021

Please note that you MUST work with our Syracuse University campus LaunchPad to apply, and a letter of recommendation from our program is recommended.  This is a highly competitive offering, so we encourage you to work us before you submit an application.

E-mail for more info and to be considered for the program: LaunchPad@syr.edu

Four Techstars accelerators have opened applications through December 20, 2020 for Term 2, operating March – June 2021.  They include: Techstars New York City Accelerator, Techstars Tel Aviv Accelerator, Techstars Toronto Accelerator, and ABN AMRO & Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator.  Three Techstars accelerators have opened applications through February 28 for programs that will take place during Term 3, operating from June – September 2021. They include Techstars Kansas City Accelerator, Techstars Sports Accelerator Powered by Indy and Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator.

Interested in joining one of these three-month accelerators to gain funding, mentorship and access to the Techstars worldwide network? Start your application today.

Want to connect before applying? Attend an upcoming Meet and Greet event to learn about each program or request private one-on-one office hours to discuss your startup. 

Startups that apply to the highly selective Techstars accelerators program are evaluated by the Managing Director of each program, along with a screening committee composed of entrepreneurs, investors, program alumni, mentors and strategic partners who are part of the global Techstars network. If accepted, ventures receive $20,000 plus a $100,000 convertible note, access to the Techstars network for life, and over $1 million with of benefits and credits from service providers, along with the three-month accelerator program culminating in a Demo Day where teams pitch to investors for capital to scale their ventures.

Learn more about the Techstars accelerators here:  https://www.techstars.com/accelerators

December 8 is going to be a busy day at Techstars, and we invite you to join us.  Enjoy an action-packed schedule for those interested in Techstars to learn from managing directors, program managers, Techstars alumni, as well as an exclusive opportunity to be selected for Mentor Office Hours.  This is your invite to two fun events that day.

Inside Techstars Event – December 8 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Meet the Techstars MDs – the leaders in fundraising and startups within fields of sustainability, fintech, energy, longevity, hardtech & more.  They are each looking to meet their next cohort. Could you be one of those ventures who are selected to be part of these prestigious programs? Sign up here

Representation Matters Event hosted by Techstars NYC – December 8 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. — First, we will kick off with two Techstars alumni as they share pain points and tactical advice on how to navigate the entrepreneurial ecosystem as an underrepresented founder. Second, we will select several underrepresented founders to participate in 1:1 Mentor Office Hours. Sign Up here  

Get to know Techstars mentor-driven #GiveFirst culture.  We’re so proud to be part of it here at Syracuse University.  The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars network has launched so many success stories, including our very own SparkCharge (Techstars Boston), PowerSpike (Techstars Atlanta) and CLLCTVE (Techstars Los Angeles). 

Now it’s time to write your own success story.  Work with us to learn how.

Teams have been announced for the Syracuse University Hult Prize on December 4.  Eight student teams will participate in the social entrepreneurship idea competition that is the qualifier for a $1 million global competition sponsored by the Hult Foundation with the United Nations.  The campus competition is hosted by the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at SU Libraries. 

The “elite eight” selected to pitch in the December 4 event include:

• Cuapa Monde Conservation, Claire Chevalier, Sasha Temerte
• Gather, Nolan Kagan
• Keep Coffee Casual, Murray Lebovitz
• MUNCH Jerky, Selim Dangoor
• Orts, Daisy Leepson, William Ducott, Kevin Wu
• Viridi, Dibya Patnaik, José Arrieta, Ruth Bang, Grant Kaufman, Paige Koss
• WaxPax Solutions, Erica Morrison, Lidia Menbaeva, Daniel Hamrahi
• Yum Yum, Charis Asante-Agyei, Stefano Selanu, Oliver Ortiz

This year’s Hult challenge is Food for Good, focusing on ventures that tackle a global food-related problem and use food as a vehicle for change.  It is an apt theme as the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has just been awarded to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace. 

Former WFP director and World Food Prize laureate Catherine Bertini is the opening welcome speaker and a judge for this year’s Syracuse competition. 

Other distinguished judges are experienced food entrepreneurs, innovative business professionals and food experts. They include:

• Joseph Dunaway, a veteran and Syracuse ’12 alumnus who started the company KnifeHand Nutrition, a meal prep service focused on creating healthy meals to fuel success.
• Dylan Gans, Syracuse alumnus and current Director of Growth and Marketing at Good Uncle, a quality college meal-delivery service.
• Samadhi Moreno-Rodriguez, Syracuse alum and Boston public health professional focused on health equity for vulnerable populations.
• Derek Wallace, Syracuse alum and CEO and founder of Kalamata’s Kitchen, a company opening kid’s minds to the diversity of the world through food.

The virtual competition will be held from 12 noon to 2 p.m. and is open to all who would like to view it.  The link to watch is:  https://bit.ly/syracuse-hult-prize-2020

The competition is being coordinated by Blackstone LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23, who serves as the Syracuse University campus Hult Prize Ambassador.

The Sam M. Walton College of Business invites graduate student entrepreneurs from around the world to apply to compete in the Heartland Challenge Startup Competition, which has a cash prize pool of $95,000. Applications will be accepted from January 4 – February 12, 2021, and the virtual competition will be held on April 15-16, 2021. The competition is made possible by generous support from the Walton Family Foundation.

Twelve semifinalist teams will be selected to compete in a formal pitch competition and a 60-second elevator pitch competition. The Heartland Challenge is designed to simulate the process of raising venture capital for a high-growth venture. The competition allows graduate students to gain valuable experience and networking opportunities, while developing new ventures that may be based on their own ideas/technologies or those developed by others.

2020-21 timeline

• Jan 4, 2021 – Applications open
• Feb 12, 2021 – Applications close
• March 1, 2021 – Notify semifinalist teams of selection
• March 7, 2021 – Semifinalists submit intent to compete
• March 8, 2021 – Semifinalists announced
• April 7, 2021 – Full business plan due
• April 15-16, 2021 – Virtual competition dates

The University of Arkansas sponsored competition is for student-created, managed, and owned ventures. Students must play a major role in conceiving the venture by having key management roles and owning significant equity in the venture (50 percent or more of the equity allocated to the management team and key advisers). While it is a competition for graduate students teams with a minority of undergraduate students can also compete. Exceptional undergraduate teams may also be considered. Students from any graduate program (not just MBAs) are eligible to participate, including executive and evening format programs. Non-students may be members of the venture’s management team and may participate in planning the venture. However, only students may participate in the competition. Any team participating in an undergraduate competition, regardless of team re-configuration, is disqualified from the competition. 

To sign up for updates on competition rules and requirements, please email Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Director of Student Programs, Deb Williams, at startup@uark.edu

Learn more here:  https://entrepreneurship.uark.edu/programs/heartland-challenge.php

Do you have an old family home that you had to leave behind? Or a pet that you would like to commemorate? Well, now you can create timeless personalized pieces through the home decor online store Home in Your Hand, founded by Quinn King 20′ (VPA Industrial and Interaction Design) 

King, who gained Syracuse fame as co-founder of award-winning MedUX, has spent the pandemic months founding his second start-up, Home In Your Hand. It is launching just in time for holiday giving. Home in Your Hand offers customers the opportunity to personalize pillows, mugs, and posters with a custom design portrait of their home, pets or favorite images.

Home in Your Hand is a website that is embracing the trend of personalization. Users upload their favorite photos and designers create watercolor style portraits or images printed onto mugs, pillows and posters. Customers also can customize product colors, text, and product sizes. In today’s saturated home decor market, personalization is a great way to connect with customers and draw them in, offering unique products for each customer. Home in Your Hand provides the perfect gift for loved ones during the holidays, capturing home and family sentiments through custom designs. 

King recalled coming up with this idea when he noticed a large number of artists offering house portraits online. “I noticed there were hundreds of artists doing this, but no one ever tried to make it into an online brand.” King believes that the future of business is online. He has been studying influencer marketing, Facebook ads, and Google ads as methods of finding new customers online. 

King has already been changing the way we consider infusion treatment with his company MedUX which he co-founded with another LaunchPad alum Alec Gillinder ’20. In an effort to learn more about e-commerce as we enter into our new digital world, King decided to learn like he always has, by doing. “I encourage other entrepreneurs to start learning about e-commerce today! I’ve learned so much from building Home In Your Hand, and I’m already starting to use my new skills to grow MedUX.”

Order a special gift at the holidays while supporting King on his journey into the world of e-commerce. Check out https://homeinyourhand.com/ and subscribe to the company newsletter. Follow Home in Your Hand on its beautiful Instagram: @homeinyourhand   

30-40% of the U.S. food supply becomes waste. 80 billion pounds of food — worth $161 billion – is left unconsumed each year, simply rotting or filling landfills. These dramatic statistics point to a profound problem.  With hunger and food scarcity on the rise, and millions around the world starving, we are simply throwing food away.  Yum Yum, a team that won an award in the recent LaunchPad & Techstars Startup Weekend, and is competing in the upcoming Syracuse University Hult Prize, is tackling a solution to help better manage food waste and turn it into “food for good.”

Yum Yum, was created by Stefano Selanu ’20 School of Information Studies, Charis Asante-Agyei, a current PhD student in the School of Information Studies, and Oliver Ortiz, a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The team hopes to tackle this problem through an app which reduces food wastage through information tracking. The app has a three-fold functionality: 1) a receipt-scanning system to help families track their food purchases; 2) a system where families can find discounted grocery store items soon to expire; and 3) a distribution mechanism to match excess food with philanthropic organizations.

Yum Yum was conceived through a Techstars Startup Weekend jointly co-hosted by the  University at Buffalo, Syracuse University and Cornell University last month. Startup Weekends challenge teams to identify a problem and build a business solution in just a weekend. Asante-Agyei, one of the participants in startup weekend, came up with an idea of how to mitigate food waste through tracking household consumption and pitched it to the group.

Selanu and Ortiz heard Charis’ pitch and were struck with the impact and potential to positively transform food systems. “ Food waste is a major problem today.  It is an ethical, economic, and mental problem that we really need to be addressing,” said Stefano. The three innovators blended their unique strengths together and worked on creating Yum Yum in the hopes to address a critical real-world problem.

Before Startup Weekend, the three team members didn’t know each other at all. In fact, they still haven’t met in person. The story of Yum Yum’s creation is a critical story to tell because it illustrates a hopeful truth – that the barriers and constraints of COVID-19 have also opened doors and created opportunities that would otherwise inaccessible.

“It’s a blessing. We’ve really been able to come to together through this digital startup weekend and then have been able to build on that and gather momentum,” said Asante-Agyei.

If Startup Weekend was hosted in person, as it was before the pandemic, Selanu who lives in Syracuse and Ortiz who lives in Texas would never have met. The Yum Yum team would never have been created.

“In a way it’s our fortunate outcome in an unfortunate condition. We have to take advantage of this difficult situation and very existence right now.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have met Oliver and Charis,” Selanu said.

Since their first introduction at Startup Weekend, the Yum Yum team hasn’t slowed down. They’ve been pitching in campus business competitions and are set to compete in the Syracuse University Hult Prize on December 4.  They have been continually refining their business model to fit user needs. Through Zoom calls, online brainstorming sessions, building presentations together, and hours of collaborative work through digital tools, Yum Yum has evolved into a venture with not just a vision but a trajectory towards societal impact.

The story of Yum Yum inspires hope in a world that seems stuck in a crippling global pandemic. The pressing social problems in the world can be tackled by passionate minds like the Yum Yum team not despite — but because of — our forced digital existence.

It’s simply up to us to turn a negative situation to our advantage and use it for social good. In the words of Ortiz, “ Don’t let fear overcome you because you fear will eat you up. Even if you’re scared you should just do it.”
 

Story by Claire Howard ’23, LaunchPad Global Fellow; photos supplied

We are pleased to announce the winners of this year’s $15,000 Impact Prize Competition. The event, sponsored by the LaunchPad, featured 28 teams from across campus pitching products, services or technologies that could change the world.  Winners included:

• $7,000, Justin Diaz, EcoBamboo Living, ’23 College of Engineering and Computer Science
• $3,000, Sam Hollander, FSCL, ’22 Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
• $3,000, Dana Immerso, ’20 and G ’21 You’re Not Alone, Arts and Sciences
• $1,000, Jackson Ensley, Popcycle, ’22 Whitman School of Management
• $500, Ben Ford, DoNation, ’23 Whitman School of Management

Winners of a special inclusive entrepreneurship category included:

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

Contestants included:

• Ben Ford, DoNation
• Charis Asante-Agye, Yum Yum
• Claire Chevalier, Cuapa Monde Conservation
• Dana Immerso, You’re Not Alone
• Hanna Seraji, Multi Hue Magazine
• Jack Adler, Three Dollar Challenge
• Jackson Ensley, Popcycle
• Justin Diaz, EcoBamboo Living
• Lauren Levin, vintageU
• Mario Garcia, Pairinc
• Mashundra Maclin, Juggernaut
• Murray Lebovitz, Keep Coffee Casual
• Patrick Prioletti, Your Perfect Dose
• Raul Hernandez Guardans, Sonder Films
• Russell Fearon, SugEx
• Ryan Ondocin, Satellite
• Sam Hollander, FSCL
• Sardorek Askarov, Aphinity
• Season Chowdhury, Field
• Shawn Gaetano, Solace Vision

Competitors in the inclusive entrepreneurship category included:

• Gokul Rishwanth Beeda, Inclusive and accessible education platform
• Hannah Woodruff, Inclusive dining
• James Richard Ruhlman, Inclusive interactive installation
• Justin Diaz, Adaptive Xbox controller
• Madison Reece Worden, Accessible dating app
• Noah Hollander, Environmental Stimulus Reduction
• Ricardo Sanchez, InclusiveU mentorship program

Judges for the Impact Prize were alumni who have either launched ventures or are in innovation careers, and who have come through the LaunchPad program.  They included:

• Amanda Chou, Kaiser Permanente
• Audrey Miller, Watson Institute
• Dylan Gans, Good Uncle
• Jack McCarthy, Prosek Partners
• Jake deHahn, Breinify and Accessible Masks.org
• Josh Jackson, Promptous
• Kate Beckman, Ripple Match
• Kennedy Patlan, Ashoka
• Phil McKnight, Promptous
• Quinton Fletchall, Conifer Research
• Ryan Williams, Good Life Foundation

Two special judges also joined the event: 

• Megan McCann, Principal & CAO, Portfolio Operations at The Blackstone Group
• Jill Rothstein, award-winning accessibility, inclusion and innovation advocate and chief librarian, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library at The New York Public Library

LaunchPad students and alumni who assisted in producing the event included showrunners:

• Claire Howard, LaunchPad Global Fellow
• Emma Rothman, LaunchPad Rubin Family Innovation Mentor, Orange Ambassador and Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar
• Kelly Davis, LaunchPad Global Fellow
• Krishna Pamidi, LaunchPad Orange Ambassador
• Nick Barba ‘20, LaunchPad project management consultant
• Peter Hartsock ‘19, 410 Pictures
• Quinn King ‘20, MedUX

This year’s competition included a $10,000 Dr. Gay Culverhouse Impact Award prize package through a gift from SU Libraries Advisory Board Member Carl Armani and his wife Marcy, made in honor of Dr. Gay Culverhouse.  Marcy Armani gave a very touching memorial reflection on Gay Culverhouse at the opening of the program.  Dr. Culverhouse and Marcy Armani were friends for more than 30 years, volunteering together, and focusing on philanthropy and social causes.  Dr. Culverhouse was a pioneer in education, sports and medicine, serving as president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and an advocate for players with brain disorders, an issue she raised to the national level.  She was also an educator with a focus on intellectual disabilities research, an entrepreneur and former president of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. She passed away on July 1, 2020. 

The competition also included a $5,000 prize package through a gift from Dr. Gisela M. von Dran, director emerita of the iSchool’s MSLIS program, and who has a special interest in social entrepreneurship.  She is a retired member of the faculty at both the iSchool and the Whitman School of Management, and is the wife of Raymond von Dran, dean of the iSchool from 1995 until his death in 2007.  She was instrumental in establishing the Raymond F. von Dran Fund at the iSchool.

Syracuse University’s Inclusive Entrepreneurship program is supported through a generous gift from Gianfranco Zaccai through his Intelligence ++ Foundation.