Dave Fox ’19, Nick Barba ’20 and Sam Hollander ’22 complete Blackstone LaunchPad Techstars Fellowship

Dave Fox at a Techstars event
Dave Fox ’19 speaking at a Syracuse LaunchPad event

Syracuse LaunchPad founders Dave Fox ’19 iSchool and Nick Barba ’20 Whitman (co-founders of Smarta) and Sam Hollander ’22 Whitman and Newhouse (founder of FSCL) recently completed the first-ever LaunchPad Fellowship offered by the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars network.  The program provided tools and content, along with access to experienced founders and mentors.  They were selected to be part of a cohort of 10 top teams from across the 32-campus global network for the eight-week program.  Read what they accomplished here.

Here are some quick success stats for the LaunchPad Fellowship program:

  • 86% said they achieved the goals they originally set at the beginning of the Fellowship, or achieved goals adjusted following a pivot;
  • The 10 startup teams conducted more than 385 critical customer discovery interviews;
  • 9 teams completed a prototype, MVP, or proof-of-concept, or began product trials;
  • 8 teams added co-founders or team members;
  • 5 teams created or significantly overhauled their investor deck, based on recommendations from mentors;
  • 6 teams reported seed investment or sponsored research agreements totaling more than $150,000;
  • 80% of entrepreneurs met regularly with their campus directors, for a total of 247 meetings.

Read the full story here: https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/launchpad-fellowship-student-entrepreneurs-achieve-summer-success-in-8-weeks