Join us for a Syracuse LaunchPad book launch and chat with Courtney Gras Gerowitz, entrepreneurial evangelist and author of The Student Startup Guide, on Tuesday, April 26 at 5 p.m. Four Syracuse University startups are featured in her book – Josh Aviv, founder of SparkCharge, Kelsey Davis, co-founder of CLLCTVE, Matt Shumer, co-founder of Otherside AI and Sam Hollander, founder of Share Club. Join us virtually at this link.
Courtney started her career as an engineer but soon discovered her true passion — supporting early-stage founders. Starting her career as a Power Systems Engineer at NASA, she left to work fulltime on the cleantech startup she founded in college. She then moved into leadership roles in the startup community in Ohio where she lives. In 2018, she joined the team at Techstars as Director for the LaunchPad university entrepreneurship network where she helped develop and scale program offerings that serve 46 universities. She then continued her journey with Techstars by leading Techstars Founder Catalyst programs.
Today, Courtney supports founders across the globe as Startup Community Lead for Amazon Web Services.
Leveraging her recent experiences with the LaunchPad network and Techstars, she has just released a book designed to serve as a roadmap for students starting a company in college. The book offers real-world advice for launching a company in college by focusing on students who have “been there and done that.”
More than 30 founders and experts are part of the book, offering insight into how they overcame challenges and started something amazing.
“I wish I had a book like this when I started by company in college,” says Syracuse University LaunchPad alum Josh Aviv ’15 and G ’17. “I spent so many hours learning the process, and I feel like this book would have saved me so much time.”
“As co-founder and chairman at Techstars, I’ve met thousands of student founders over the last 15 years,” says David Cohen. “But starting a company in college isn’t easy, and until now, no one has truly captured that experience. Sometimes the best way to gain confidence and learn to do something is to hear from others who’ve already done it. This book does just that.”
“I started my first company when I was a freshman in college,” says Brad Feld, co-founder of Techstars co-founder and partner in the Foundry Group and co-founder of Mobius Venture Capital, both venture firms. Feld’s first company failed. “I started my third company, Field Technologies when I was a senior. We sold it to a public company.” Feld notes in the forward to the book, “I’ve learned a lot about what makes an entrepreneur successful. It has nothing to do with age, where you went to school, or what you studied. It has everything with your character, what you are obsessed about, and your willingness to focus a lot of energy on creating a new business where one didn’t previously exist.”
More than 60 percent of college students are interested in starting their own company, according to Courtney. Like Feld, some fail at their first attempt. Other succeed. Yet others go on to either launch or join other successful companies or carve out innovation career pathways in their life. Along the way they learn incredible lessons, which they share throughout the book.
Learn more: www.students-start.com