Nick Barba ’20 is one of six grant recipients of The Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund (Hunter’s Fund), which “invests in young people who have shown talent, experience and passion.” The grants reward innovation and reflect on the talents and passions that Hunter Watson brought to his life. Hunter was a rising junior at Syracuse University majoring in Information Management and Technology, when he died tragically in 2016 in a distracted driving car accident. His family, friends and others created Hunter’s Fund to honor his legacy, and “provide support for young people who also approach life with powerful ideas.” Hunter’s Fund is also working with colleges and universities, including Syracuse, on educational initiatives designed to end distracted driving.

Barba was selected from the largest application pool in the history of Hunter’s Fund. In the announcement, Hunter’s Fund lauded him as “an entrepreneur, Eagle Scout and co-founder of Smarta, a cutting-edge app that streamlines communications between landlords and tenants.”

After pitching Smarta at the Whitman School of Management’s Orange Tank and winning a cash prize, the team registered as a C-Corporation and went on to win first prize in Whitman’s Panasci Business Plan competition this fall. It incubated in the LaunchPad where co-founders David Fox ’19 and Barba were Global Fellows. Barba is an an independent consultant project manager for the LaunchPad at Syracuse University.

The grant from Hunter’s Fund will enable the company to continue development of its technology and help pay a technical team to finish app development and launch a market-ready product.

Chloe Capital is a movement-driven venture capital firm that invests in women-led companies. In partnership with universities, foundations, and corporate leaders we travel around the country creating opportunities for women – on both sides of the table. If you share our passion for diversity and inclusion, we invite you to apply for our 2020-21 Fellowship. In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to shine a spotlight on not only our founders, but all who participate in our Movement to #InvestInWomen! 

Available positions include:

• Assignment Editor
• Content Writer 
• PR / Community Relations
• Social Media / Graphics 
• UI / UX Designer

The value of being a Chloe Capital Fellow is access to a community of founders, investors, corporate executives and innovation leaders. Fellowships include 12 months of career and leadership coaching from the Chloe team who will help you identify a career path, connect with industry leaders and build relationships with decision makers. The 2020-21 Fellowship will culminate with a Talent Pitch. Fellows will invite decision makers, and showcase how they’ve supported the Movement. The Talent Pitch will be part of Chloe Capital’s next #InvestInWomen program, where we’ll announce our next investment! 

The ideal candidates for this opportunity will be ready to hit the ground running. We have many stories to share, and we need to continue sounding the alarm! Did you know this year alone Chloe Capital helped invest $1.25 million in women-led innovation companies around the world? Here’s your chance to help female founders succeed, and take part in a Movement that empowers a global network of over 10,000 people and counting. 

Requirements and Compensation

• A 12-month commitment to the Chloe Capital Fellowship program
• A minimum of 5+ hours a week committed to Chloe assignments
• Tech-proficient and business email proficient
• Ability to work remotely with potential for occasional in-person meetings 
• Reliable computer equipment with stable internet connection
• $100 monthly stipend 

How to apply

Join Chloe Capital’s Movement to invest in women. Review more details on each Fellow opportunity below. If qualified, complete the Fellowship Application. Select which role you would like to be considered for on the application and include that role  in your cover letter, as well as specific reasons why you are best suited for this role. 

Next steps

Candidates must submit at least three references with their applications. Only one should be academic. Applicants with the appropriate background will receive Test Projects, which you will have one week to complete. Successful test projects will result in interviews. Seven lucky students will receive acceptance into Chloe Capital’s 2020-21 Fellowship. The program is tentatively scheduled to begin in mid-October.  If you have questions or comments,  reach out to info@chloecapital.com. 

More about the positions:

Assignment Editor

• A proven ability to empower and guide teammates
• Experience assigning and tracking the delivery of specific tasks and timelines
• Awareness of best practices in team communications and productivity 
• Familiarity with tracking and assessing the completion of team assignments
• Ability to deliver on targeted key performance indicators (KPIs) 
• Interest in creating and maintaining a daily Project Management System
• Passion for using leadership tactics to aid a strong company culture 

Content Writer

• A proven ability to create long-form content for web pages, blogs and press releases
• Experience using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices
• Awareness of best practices selecting “newsworthy” topics and interviewing talent
• Familiarity with tracking and assessing content performance 
• Ability to deliver on targeted key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Interest in creating and maintaining a weekly Content Calendar
• Passion for using SEO best practices to dominate on Google search results

PR / Community Relations

• A proven ability to rally the masses through PR or community outreach
• Experience creating contact lists and maintaining a CRM database
• Awareness of best practices selecting “newsworthy” topics to pitch to media
• Familiarity with tracking and assessing outreach efforts
• Ability to deliver on targeted key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Interest in creating and maintaining a weekly Lead Sheet 
• Passion for using give first tactics to build brand visibility alongside our sales team

Social Media / Graphics

• A proven ability to consolidate long-form content into bite-size posts
• Experience with Canva and social media for marketing 
• Awareness of best practices for tagging, scheduling and growth hacking
• Familiarity with automation tools such as Hootsuite, HubSpot or other
• Ability to deliver on targeted key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Interest in creating and maintaining a daily Content Calendar
• Passion for using social media and growth hacking as a sales tool 

UI / UX Designer

• A proven ability to create personal experiences that carry across an entire brand
• Experience with WordPress, Canva and Mailchimp, creating wireframe and mockups
• Awareness of best practices for “conversational marketing” like Chat, SMS and Bots
• Familiarity with automation tools like Airtable and HubSpot
• Ability to explore user performance and deliver on targeted KPIs
• Interest in researching competitors and performing customer discovery
• Passion for delivering stellar user experiences to attract, educate, close and delight

Video Production 

• A proven ability to attract attention with bite-sized videos across various multimedia
• Experience creating storyboards and editing video clips with sound and effects
• Awareness of best practices for transcribing video using the latest software tools
• Familiarity with cloud-based video editing tools, such as WeVideo
• Ability to deliver on targeted key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Interest in designing and developing a video content library
• Passion for producing videos for each stage of the buyer’s journey

Business Development 

• A proven ability to provide consistent outreach (emails / calls)
• Experience creating contact lists and maintaining a CRM database
• Awareness of best practices using storytelling to sell
• Familiarity with tracking and assessing outreach efforts
• Ability to deliver on targeted key performance indicators (KPIs) 
• Interest in creating and maintaining a weekly Lead Sheet 
• Passion for applying lead generation tactics to drive real results

We are pleased to introduce a new feature in this issue — the LaunchPad Creative Spotlight Film Series.  The first short film in the series, filmed and produced by Zain Elwakil ’21 School of Architecture for the LaunchPad, features Allie Westbrook, a singer/songwriter/producer who graduated from Syracuse University in the Spring of 2020 as a Sound Recording Technology Major, and has returned this fall to pursue a graduate degree in Audio Arts. Allie speaks about her journey as an artist and showcases a song she’s been working on called “Flowers in the Attic.”  See the video here. The profile is visually stunning, acoustically rich, and artfully captures the heart, mind and soul of a creative artist and entrepreneur.  Elwakil is founder of a movement called the Zuluecho Initiative, a platform for ambitious, creative discussion and empowering self-belief.  Watch for more of his work this year.  He is an extremely talented architect, artist, musician, designer and digital who combines his passions to inspire others 

Elwakil is an Orange Ambassador for the LaunchPad this year, a role generously funded by Todd B. Rubin ’04, School of Architecture, who is Minister of Evolution and President of the Republic of Tea. 

Five of Syracuse University’s “investable ventures” participated in the LaunchPad’s first ever pitch competition to European executives and investors.  MPD Partners, an investment and private equity firm based in Italy and Switzerland, hosted a Partners Global Venture Challenge for the top five most investable startups in the Syracuse University ecosystem as part of MPD’s “Give Back to the Community Program.”   

MPD Partners assembled a team of senior executives from large European companies in the product and technology space who want to work with a few university startups to help bring their ideas to market.  Many of these executives are also investors.  The executive experts are interested in meeting and working with (and potentially investing) in intellectually challenging founders and ideas. 

The first prize winner of the competition was MedUX, founded by Alec Gillinder ’20 and Quinn King ’20, both VPA Industrial and Interaction Design alumni.  Second prizes went to Smarta, co-founded by David Fox ’19, an iSchool alumnus and Nick Barba ’20, a Whitman alumnus, and also to Otherside AI, co-founded by Matt Shumer ’22, Miles Feldstein ’23 and Jason Kuperberg ’18, all Whitman students and alumni.

MPD Partners launched the MPD Partners Venture Challenge with the LaunchPad to contribute to the SME ecosystem in New York State by injecting smart and qualified opinions and helping local start-ups with post-COVID strategic decision-making, according to Mirco Coccoli, MPD Partners CEO and Miguel Dupret, MPD Partners’ director who is also COO of Sentient Blue, the $1 million winner of 2019 GENIUS NY competition.

“It is a wonderful opportunity for MPD Partners and its extended network of international managers.” says Dupret and Coccoli.  “This will be an enriching experience for all.  Ventures will receive a different and qualified point of view, and this initiative will be also very stimulating to involve our professionals who are passionate about innovation and new technologies.”

The #givebacktothecommunity initiative was first launched by Coccoli in Switzerland and Italy in the wake of post-Covid-19 recovery period, in July 2020. With the help of MPD Partners’ vast network of experienced managers from different sectors, this initiative aims at contributing to the venture and SME ecosystem through the decision-making process and by assessing post Covid-19 recovery approaches.

MPD Partners has been working with the region through joint efforts with CenterState CEO and Syracuse University, and the firm successfully supported the winner of GENIUS NY 2019, the world’s biggest unmanned aerial vehicle competition. MPD played a critical role in the start-up’s business planning, pitching, financial strategy and project management, and helped it relocate the business in Central NY.  The firm is also in strategic collaborations with the LaunchPad at Syracuse University’s Libraries. 

“This win-win partnership aims at helping start-ups understand their value proposition and better prepare themselves to pitch to professional investors,” says Coccoli.  “The values of MPD Partners and the LaunchPad are perfectly aligned, as we strongly believe that investing in enterprises that have the potential to stimulate economic growth and deliver long-term value is of paramount importance, even more so in this business cycle.”

Fardin Nasir, a student in the Whitman School of Management, won the $500 grand prize in the inaugural IdeaX competition sponsored by the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University.  Nasir won for Field, a sports-focused social media platform designed to connect emerging talent with recruiters.  IdeaX was a virtual mini startup “rocket lab” event on September 26 to jumpstart new ideas. It included virtual networking and idea sharing, elevator pitches, and a final round of pitching to judges.  IdeaX was coordinated and hosted by Nick Barba ’20, the LaunchPad’s project management consultant, co-founder and vice president of Smarta and recent grand prize winner of the Panasci Business Plan Competition, working with Jackson Ensley ‘22, co-founder of POPCYCLE, who is a LaunchPad Orange Ambassador.  Twenty teams competed in IdeaX.

“IdeaX was an excellent opportunity for young entrepreneurs who are new to entrepreneurship at SU to meet each other, share ideas about potential new products, services and technologies, and find resources to help them,” said Barba. “The judges were impressed with the great ideas that came out of IdeaX and the pitches by all of the teams were very competitive.  There is real talent in the new crop of innovators we hope to see competing in campus competitions this fall.”

While Nasir is a new transfer student to Syracuse University, he made the LaunchPad his first stop over the summer when he knew he would be starting here this fall.  He reached out in July to the LaunchPad to build a network that would complement his background knowledge in coding and UX design and his pursuit of a degree in marketing management.  “The atmosphere of entrepreneurship here is my dream.”

Nasir was part of America on Tech where he gained knowledge in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and then interned at Cheerful (Now Goodworld) to hone his skills in UX design and development, and JavaScript.  As a student he won first place in 2019 Web Design at SkillsUSA state competition and went on to the nationals.

Field allows athletes to post short video clips that highlight their skills, and create a profile that includes physical attributes, as well as in-game stats. The platform is designed to serve the needs of both the athletes, and recruiters. Recruiters will get access to detailed information on potential athletes in a simple mobile application, and athletes can showcase their accomplishments.  “It’s an all-in-one platform,” Nasir says. “My goal is to one day startup my own tech company, so I am looking for opportunities that can help me along the path to fulfill my dream.” 

Adam Sternbach ’09 of McCarter & English, LLP, a NYC metro based “powerhouse” law firm, will be the featured speaker at the LaunchPad & Techstars Fireside Chat on Friday, October 2 at 3 p.m.  Attend the chat:  http://bit.ly/launchpad-fall-fireside-chat and learn about turning your idea into a legally incorporated venture and topics related to different types of business formation, developing founder and operating agreements, structuring for fund raising, and other topics related to the startup world.  He has been actively mentoring LaunchPad startups that have recently closed on significant funding.

Sternbach works with startup, early-stage, emerging-growth, and middle-market companies in high-growth sectors such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, proptech, cannabis, Internet of Things, fintech/financial services, and life sciences. He advises clients on corporate transactional matters, including entity formation and structuring, debt and equity financing, technology commercialization, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining the firm, Adam served as associate counsel to NJ Gov. Philip D. Murphy. In this role, he worked with several independent state authorities where he was responsible for overseeing their managerial, fiscal, and policy operations as well as all board governance matters. 

Sternbach received undergraduate degrees from Syracuse University in 2009 in the fields of policy studies and sport management.  While at Syracuse, he received the 2009 Department of Sport Management Director’s Award for Academic Promise 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship.  He then went on to the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, where he received a 2012 JD degree specializing in corporate law. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal as a law student.

Joining him on the Zoom will be Daniel Zimmerman ’20, co-founder and CEO of Verse.  Zimmermann holds a degree in Sports Management from the David B. Falk College of Sport & Human Dynamics with a minor in Information Management & Technology from the School of Information Studies. Verse, which just raised investment, is a social media and peer to peer marketplace for friendly wagering.  Powered by smart contracts on the blockchain, Verse users can place bets against other users on the platform, and the platform mediates those wagers without the need for a ‘house.’ 

Zimmermann grew up in London, where he went to an international high school where wagering was a friendly sport. In 2018, the U.S.  Supreme Court gave states the individual option to legalize commercial gambling and paved the way for online sports betting platforms. Zimmermann and his roommate David Rosen launched the idea for Verse that year and worked with the LaunchPad and Sternbach to legally incorporate it and fund the venture.  The app uses its own form of cryptocurrency, called VerseCoin, to represent real monetary values and hold a 1-1 ratio with the U.S. Dollar. This effectively allows people to bet with the equivalent of real money.  Zimmermann sees interesting applications this fall – from sports to politics, current affairs and even pop culture wagers.

Fireside Chat feature intimate discussions with innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs who share their journey and insights along the way.  Each is a dynamic, successful entrepreneur with a powerful message.  They are unique opportunities to meet innovation leaders and enjoy genuine conversations from the hearts and minds of great entrepreneurs.  They are offered in partnership with the Republic of Tea. 

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse will host George Dawson ’08, Techstars Fund Controller, for a “Fireside Chat” on Friday, November 6 at 3 p.m. at http://bit.ly/launchpad-fall-fireside-chat  Dawson will join us via Zoom from Techstar’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, where he leads the organization’s fund and investment finance team. The team oversees 50+ venture capital funds and internal investment vehicles and a portfolio of approximately 4,000+ investments. He will be talking about gearing up for investment and how startups can approach financing their ventures through the capital continuum.

Dawson is responsible for all aspects of portfolio company valuations, accounting, investor reporting, operations and fund structuring, and plays a critical role in Techstars’ capital formation efforts. Prior to Techstars, Dawson was the assistant controller at JLL Partners, a mid-market private equity firm in New York. Earlier in his career, he worked at EY and KPMG, where he served large private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, mutual fund and fund-of-fund clients. He is a licensed CPA in New York and graduated in 2008 from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management with a dual major in accounting and finance and a minor in economics.

At the Fireside Chat, Dawson will discuss startup finance topics of interest such as valuation, incorporation, term sheet economics, cap tables, convertible notes and other investment structures. He will also share best practices for startups and common pitfalls.

Techstars, a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, has invested in several Syracuse University startups including SparkCharge (Techstars Boston), PowerSpike (Techstars Atlanta), and CLLCTVE (Techstars Los Angeles).

Techstars consists of both an investment management business with $500+ million in assets under management, as well as an operating business that is rapidly approaching $100+ million in annual revenue. Techstars’ investment activity includes global accelerator programs in cities around the world,  deploying $80 million+ into nearly 500 startups on an annual basis. The Techstars portfolio of 2,200 companies currently attracts an annual $2 billion+ in downstream investment from the venture capital industry. Techstars also invests in global emerging startup communities by operating approximately 1,000+ annual Techstars Startup Weekend events in 600+ cities across 120 countries to help surface and support future high growth companies.

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars is Syracuse University’s innovation hub, connecting the entire University’s resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students and alumni across disciplines who are interested in innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, venture creation and taking ideas from concept to commercialization.

Join Geena Matuson, a serial founder and CMO with a focus on marketing and sales psychology, community development and messaging, and systems design, for a workshop, Thursday, October 1 at 3 p.m. The event will be hosted on the LaunchPad’s new Discord platform, so  join to tune in.  Here is a quick primer to get you started on our new Discord network.  Geena will be talking about innovative ways to put your your skills to work in the time of COVID-19, from free-lancing to creating premium content, creating on-line courses and workshops, podcasting, blogging, livestreaming, to making money and optimizing GoogleAdSense and more. Now is the time that so many recent grads are challenged with finding creative ways to produce revenue while they are looking for jobs or between gigs. Putting your skills to work in new ways and monetizing “yourself” can be both fun and profitable.

Building online communities from a young age, Geena went on to receive a B.F.A. in Film Production, M.A. in Journalism and Communications, and several certificates in business analytics and marketing. She uses formal education to apply to her business endeavors, knowing that research, good content and marketing — with a focus on being human — is how you grow a movement. She has also worked as a graphic designer and instructor, promoting UX/UI and accessibility.

Geena is launching a multi-platform community with focus on media based on creativity and connection for a new human model through neuroeconomics. 

Join the conversation on Discord, and learn a few new tools, techniques and tips. Learn more about Geena at geenamatuson.com.

This is the week to apply for more than $65,000 in prize funding offered through campus idea competitions this fall. Apply here for three competitions sponsored by the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University: ‘Cuse Tank on October 16, The Impact Prize on November 13 and The Hult Prize on December 4. Students may compete in all three, or select which ones they are most interested in. The first deadline, October 4 for ‘Cuse Tank, is coming fast. 

Here are some basics on the competitions:

• October 16, 2020 – ‘Cuse Tank (Applications close October 4 at 11:59 p.m.). Cuse Tank is sponsored by the LaunchPad as part of Family Weekend. It features parent entrepreneurs and “LaunchPad family” as judges in a “shark-Tank” style idea pitch fest with $10,000 in prizes.
• November 13, 2020 — Impact Prize Competition (Applications close November 1 at 11:59 p.m.). The Impact Prize Competition is a social impact entrepreneurship event showcasing ideas that solve pressing societal issues, with change-maker entrepreneurs as judges, and $15,000 in prizes for the best ideas.
• December 4, 2020 — Syracuse University Hult Prize Competition (Applications open on October 1 here and close November 22 at 11:59 p.m. for the Syracuse campus competition). Considered the “Nobel Prize of social entrepreneurship,” the global finals offer a $1 million grant prize. This year’s theme has been announced, “Food for Good.” Learn more here and register here:  http://www.hultprize.org/challenge/

Work with us on your one-page executive summary and we’ll assign you mentors to help you.  Many great ideas come for classes that require group projects, so consider taking your class idea and turning into a competition pitch.  Ideas that started in Syracuse University dorm rooms or classrooms are now successful companies. 

The Martin J. Whitman School of Management is also accepting applications by October 2 for the Orange Tank business pitch competition October 22, 2020, at 6 p.m., open to Whitman students and alumni.  Apply here to Whitman for the Orange Tank competition.

Have questions, e-mail: LaunchPad@syr.edu

Are you a LaunchPad member? If not, please join here: https://launchpad.syr.edu/join/

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