You’ve perfected your pitch at campus competitions this fall.  Now kick it up a notch.  We are pleased to partner with leading global entrepreneurship networks to offer Syracuse University student two opportunities to shine on the global stage and win major cash awards for your big idea.  Apply now for The Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards and a $50,000 LaunchPad Pitch Competition coming up in early 2021.  Applications are now open.

Apply now for The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), the premier global competition for students who own and operate a business while attending college or university. Nominees compete against peers from around the world to qualify for the GSEA Finals. Syracuse University LaunchPad students have won significant GSEA cash prizes and advanced to the nationals. The regional competition will be held virtually on January 13, 2021.  Apply here and be sure to specify the U.S. – Western NY region. National finals will be in February 2021 at the Startup Grind Global Conference.

The $50,000 LaunchPad Pitch Competition in February 2021 will feature student startups from across the LaunchPad network competing for a chance at non-dilutive grant funding. The 2021 competition will be held virtually alongside the Startup Grind Global Conference. Up to 30 semifinalists will compete in the weeks leading up to the event for a chance at securing one of the 5 slots to pitch live in front of industry-leading judges and a global virtual audience. The winner will be announced on the Startup Grind mainstage.  Learn more here.  Want to give it a try?  E-mail LaunchPad@syr.edu for details because we will be nominating three Syracuse University teams.

This week is the last call for applications to the Syracuse University Hult Prize on December 4.  The event is a social entrepreneurship idea competition and qualifier for a $1 million global competition sponsored by the Hult Foundation with the United Nations.  It is hosted by the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at SU Libraries.  This year’s challenge is Food for Good, focusing on ventures that tackle a global food-related problem and use food as a vehicle for change.  Teams can apply here. 

Food for Good is an apt theme this year 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:

• Anne C. Bellows, a Food Studies professor specializing in food justice and community health, and previously the Director of the Research Center for Gender and Nutrition and Universität Hohnheim.
• 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, Syracuse alum and Boston public health professional focused on health and nutrition 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.

If you have any questions, please email LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard who is the Syracuse University Hult Prize campus ambassador:  clhoward@syr.edu.

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars is pleased to present two special events in December on the topic of social impact.  We invite you to join us December 4 and December 10 for virtual workshops with leading thinkers from the Gates Foundation, Venture for America, Future Founders, Echoing Green and the Blackstone Charitable Foundation.

Learn about the social impact funding landscape, Thursday, December 4 p.m. at a special event with Min Pease, Senior Community Manager at the Gates Foundation.  Pease will be discussing various options for funding social impact startups, including equity investment, impact investors, PRI and MRI grants, loans and credit, and more. Register here.

Learn even more at a social impact pipeline opportunities panel, Thursday, December 10 at 11 a.m. The journey of a social impact founder and startup are often different than that of a traditional entrepreneur and business. In this session, students will hear the ‘inside track’ from several individuals familiar with these pathways and the skills and steps required to access them.  Joining the panel are: Camila Pazos, Director – Investments, Echoing Green; Katie Sowa, COO, Future Founders; Jacob Robinson, Senior Talent Manager, Venture for America; and Takhani Kromah, Director, Blackstone Charitable Foundation.  Register here.

Both events are Eastern Standard Time.

Join us for a Syracuse LaunchPad virtual meetup with our new Dorm Room Fund team, Thursday, December 10 at 7 p.m.  Built by students and powered by First Round, Dorm Room Fund provides founders with a strong network of investors, world-class mentors, and a $20,000 check.  To learn more and attend this free speed networking event, join us at https://bit.ly/DRF-Syracuse-LaunchPad-meetup. 

The event will feature three components:

• Meet the Dorm Room Fund team and learn how it works, funding criteria, knowing when you’re ready to apply, and getting investment ready
• Digital demo alley with lighting pitches by Syracuse teams
• Open Q&A

Joining us from the Dorm Room Fund team will be Chris Seitz, Jason Brooke and Jarrod Barnes, who will be working with the LaunchPad this spring on an engagement strategy for Syracuse University student startups.

Chris Seitz is a Managing Partner at Dorm Fund and co-leads the Philadelphia team. He is a 2nd MBA student at Wharton in the Healthcare Management Program and interned at Nantahala Capital Mgmt. this summer, a $1.5B hedge fund, where he invested in private and public healthcare companies. Prior to Wharton, Chris was an Associate at Excel Venture Management, a $250MM life sciences and healthcare fund in Boston investing in healthcare technology, biotech, diagnostics, and healthcare services. Chris graduated from Williams College in 2015 with a major in Biology and a focus on Pre-Medicine and played on the varsity soccer team. Most importantly, Chris is the proud oldest brother to 5 siblings and enjoys all things mountains—skiing in the winter and climbing in the summer.

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 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.  Dorm Room Fund companies are built by over 300 founders from 40 universities.

Among them have been Syracuse founders & startups:  AJ Damiano and Michael Paris, PowerSpike; Attila Melegh, Indulo and Julia Haber WAYV / Home from College.

The fifth annual Syracuse University Global Entrepreneurship Week celebration is November 16 – 20.  Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is a celebration of innovators who launch startups and bring ideas to life. For one week each November, the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurship inspires people around 180+ countries from around the globe explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.  Past GEW events at Syracuse have included activities ranging from competitions to large scale conferences, intimate networking and meetups, lectures and panel discussions, film screenings and meetings with investors.  This year in a global pandemic we’re taking it a little differently, and introducing aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators to possibilities and exciting opportunities.  We’re promoting and celebrating the cultural diversity that is part of the LaunchPad, and connecting students to world innovation leaders, local communities and colleges and universities around the globe that have embraced the campaign as a way to fuel ideas by high-growth startups.  We’re proud to be part of making GEW a truly global platform for connection and collaboration.

Coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University, GEW@SU empowers entrepreneurs at all stages – from start-up to scale-up – and inspires innovators to take their first step.

This week we encourage Syracuse’s entrepreneurship ecosystem – entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, resource providers, and more – to connect and help our university innovators unleash their ideas, and to become self-starters through start-up thinking. 

You are encouraged to use social media to share your own story as an innovator. What are the ideas and experiences that are shaping your journey? Share them this week using the hashtags #GEW2020, #GEWSyracuse, and #LaunchPadSYR, or @GEW2020, @GEWSyracuse, and @LaunchPadSYR.

For more information, e-mail LaunchPad@syr.edu

Are you wondering how to market your company during the pandemic? Join Thinc-Hub Founder Patrick Prioletti and Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Davis on Thursday, November 19 at 2:30 pm to learn how to increase your social media following, start producing great content and discover the secrets of audience engagement.  This free informal Zoom workshop will help you take your marketing to the next level. Join the conversation here.

Thinc-Hub is a user-oriented collaborative and interactive platform for innovators and entrepreneurs to share their ideas and find help. Founded by Patrick Prioletti, it a one-stop-shop to connect to help find team members, discover experts and build a better venture. Thinc-hub’s mission is to foster opportunities for the entrepreneurial and innovative community. Thinc-Hub has continued to market itself through the global pandemic with a strategy led and innovated by Kelly Davis ’23, B.S. Marketing, EEE and TRF at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Here’s the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3ntXyAR for November 19 at 2:30 p.m. EST”

The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition. It is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.  Last year, 42 teams from around the world competed for more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes.  The competition is open to Syracuse University graduate students who are working on venture ideas.  Learn more here.

The competition offers real-world opportunities to experience:

• Mentoring from investors and experienced entrepreneurs
• Networking with potential venture capitalists and other investors over three days
• High-caliber, experienced judges, the majority of whom are senior level investors, entrepreneurs and industry leaders
• Personalized, individual feedback during three separate sessions as well as on your written business plan before the competition
• Competition against top-ranked and emerging global student-led startups

Any graduate-student startup from any university in any degree program in any country around the world can apply to the RBPC. There are only a few eligibility requirements.  To apply:

• There must be at least two current students in your startup
• There must be at least one graduate-level student founder or management team member in your startup
• Your startup cannot have passed certain milestones
• You will fall into one of these sectors:
• Energy, Clean Technology and Sustainability 
• Life Science and Healthcare Solutions
• Hard Tech
• Digital Entreprise
• Consumer Products and Services

Interested in applying?  Get all the details and competition guidelines here.  Create a team account in order to apply by Sunday, January 17, 2021 at 11:59 PM CST.  The competition will be April 5 – 9, 2021.

You can email the competition director at rbpc@rice.edu with specific questions not answered on the competition website.

Have an existing student business you want to take to the next level?  EEE 400/600 “The Entrepreneurial LaunchPad” is the spring class for you.  Offered only once a year, the small studio class will provide you with the tools needed to grow a startup venture.  The intended audience is students who are actively engaged in launching or operating a business while still enrolled as students. The goal of the class is to get your startup ready to apply for an accelerator, become investment ready, approach funders, or to launch a product or technology into market.  This is a highly experiential learning opportunity where you will be challenged in ways you probably have not been challenged as a student. Only students who have taken fundamentals such as EEE370 and other entrepreneurship courses, and who are actively working on a real startup venture, should take the course.  For those who are, this is the course that will help you accelerate and rocket launch.

EEE 400/600 follows a structured format that is organic and free flowing. Due to the diversity of backgrounds and businesses in the class, topic areas covered will be largely based on an assessment of needs. The course content is highly customized, and the goal is not to run students through a predetermined set of content areas, but to create a uniquely personal experience to maximize the learning outcomes for each member of the class. In addition to regular class meetings, students are required to have weekly individual one-on-one meetings to assess progress on your goals and provide personalized feedback and advice regarding your unique business.

The faculty member serves as facilitator, coach, teacher, and connector.  Students will also become peer mentors and coaches for other members of the class, bringing respective backgrounds and experiences to the class.  Students will also take on the role of teacher, presenting on startup topics and interesting case studies.  Each student will set personal SMART goals and will identify measurable KPIs and milestones for the ventures. 

The course will be taught this spring by Linda Dickerson Hartsock who directs the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University, the campus innovation hub.  She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Whitman School of Management.  Prior to joining Syracuse University, Linda was Vice President, Innovation and Technology, for CenterState CEO and launched an award-winning NYSERDA-funded incubator. During her time with CenterState CEO, she also served as executive director of The Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse where she helped establish and fund the award-winning Student Sandbox as an U.S. EDA University Center.  She previously was a senior member of Empire State Development and ran an Industrial Development Agency. 

Before moving to the Syracuse area, she led Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress and was a long-time faculty member at Marist College.  She has a long career as an ecosystem builder, fusing innovation-led business and community development, with a particular focus on impact entrepreneurship.  She has helped finance nearly $1 billion in projects over her long career and serves on the executive board of a $2 billion fund.  She has served in leadership capacities on many boards at the state and regional level and is the winner of numerous awards for her work in innovation-led economic development and community revitalization.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the perfect time to think about making a global impact.  Applications are open through November 22 for the December 4 Syracuse University Hult Prize, part of a global social entrepreneurship competition.  The LaunchPad coordinates the Syracuse competition which is the qualifier for the $1 million global competition sponsored the Hult Foundation with the United Nations. This year’s challenge is Food for Good, focusing on ventures that tackle a global food-related problem.  

“Food defines the human experience. Family dinners, religious feasts, quick snacks eaten during breaks at work, and our many other relationships with food combine to shape our bodies, our minds, our communities, and the world we call home. Food is the ultimate equalizer,” writes the Hult Foundation.  “Yet increasingly over recent decades, food systems have become machines of extraction that reduce our well-being, weaken communities, and impoverish the world around us.  Parents wage a daily battle to nourish and nurture their children, while food supply chains funnel massive profits to corporations and billionaires. We are challenging you to transform food from a bare necessity for survival into a vehicle for human wellbeing and prosperity.”

Download the full Challenge brief here for ideas about how to use food as a vehicle for change.  Teams of three can apply here for the Syracuse campus competition on December 4.  Undergraduate and graduate students at Syracuse University from across all academic programs and majors, and SUNY ESF students who study entrepreneurship at SU, are invited to apply.  “Together, the Hult Prize global community will reclaim the potential and power of food as the most basic and fundamental resource required to fuel humanity for the century to come,” writes the Hult Foundation.

Food for Good is an apt theme this year, 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 a judge for this year’s Syracuse competition.  Other distinguished judges are experienced food entrepreneurs, innovative business professionals and food experts. They include:

• Anne C. Bellows, a Food Studies professor specializing in food justice and community health, and previously the Director of the Research Center for Gender and Nutrition and Universität Hohnheim.
• 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, Syracuse alum and Boston public health professional focused on health and nutrition 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.

Entrepreneurship Week is the time to think about big global challenges, so, it is the perfect time to consider taking the Hult Prize challenge.  Long considered the Nobel Prize of student entrepreneurship, the Hult Prize each year tackles a huge societal problem in the world’s most prestigious social entrepreneurship competition, with a $1 million grand prize for the team that develops the most radical and breakthrough idea. 

The winner of the Syracuse campus event will automatically advance to compete in one of fifteen global regional finals happening around the world next March. One winning team from each host city will then move onto a summer business incubator, where participants will receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning as they create prototypes and set-up to launch their new social business. A final round of competition will be hosted in September 2018, where the winning team to be awarded the $1 million prize.

If you have any questions, please email LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard who is the Syracuse University Hult Prize campus ambassador:  clhoward@syr.edu.

Applications are now open until October 20 for The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), the premier global competition for students who own and operate a business while attending college or university. LaunchPad student founders Quinn King ’20 of MedUX and Nikita Chatterjee ’20 of PAANI (pictured above), were previous GSEA winners of significant cash prizes, along with AJ Damiano, co-founder of PowerSpike, Kayla Simon, co-founder of In-Spire and Shawn Gaetano, founder of Solace Vision.

Syracuse University students start with live finals on November 11 at the U.S. — Western NY regional competition in Buffalo with $5,000 in local prizes. The winner will go on to the GSEA Global Finals.

When you apply, be sure to specify the U.S. – Western NY region.

Step One: You must be an undergraduate or graduate college/university student with a company that has been operating for at least six months with at least $500 in generated revenue or $1,000 in investment or funding.

Step Two: Apply and compete in a regional competition. Syracuse University participates in the U.S. — Western NY region, so be sure to select that as your region.

Step Three: Win a regional competition and advance to the national competition.

Step Four: Win a national competition and advance to the GSEA Finals with 50 of the world’s best student entrepreneurs

Step Five: Win the global award, become the EO GSEA Student Champion and receive recognition and accolades.

With more than 1,700 competitors from over 30 countries each year, GSEA is an exclusive opportunity for student entrepreneurs to make connections, find resources, and grow their businesses.  It is sponsored by The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a global business network of 13,000+ leading entrepreneurs in 160 global chapters.  EO offers resources in the form of global events, leadership-development programs, peer-to-peer learning, an online entrepreneur forum, executive education opportunities, and connections to experts.