Steven VonDeak, ’08 (College of Law), co-founder and chief of staff at Density, will give a Fireside Chat in the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars at Bird Library on Friday, October 18 at 4 p.m. He will be sharing his experience building a high-tech company that uses powerful sensors, combined with state-of-the-art depth data, computer vision and deep learning. He will also offer insight into how to find and create optimal product-market fit to build and scale a successful business business. Density recently closed its B round, raising a total of $26 million in external funding to date, and now employs 50 in offices in Syracuse, San Francisco and New York City.
Density was founded in 2014 in the Tech Garden, and now has offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Syracuse. Density co-founders all have Syracuse connections. They include Andrew Farah ’09 (Writing) and G ’11 (iSchool), Ben Redfield ’12 (iSchool), Brian Weinreich, ’10 (Psychology and Biology), Robert Grazioli ’11 (iSchool), and Jordan Messina, who grew up in Syracuse and attended Binghamton University.
Together, they built Density as a solution for building owners to improve efficiency and enhance the occupant experience in workplaces and other real estate settings. Together, Density’s customers manage over 100 million square feet of corporate real estate.
VonDeak became an entrepreneur in the Tech Garden shortly after graduating from SU Law School. Along with partners, he created App Fury, which launched early iOS apps that were noticed by Apple. He then joined forces with another Tech Garden team to create Rounded, a digital product team, which grew into an anchor tenant role at the incubator. Many members of the Rounded team then went on to create Density.
VonDeak is also the first LaunchPad Alumni Entrepreneur in Residence at Syracuse University, and has been actively mentoring student teams, and participating in events such as Startup Weekend. He recently led a group of SU entrepreneurs through Density’s new hardware center at the Tech Garden. He also holds office hours (typically late Friday afternoons) to mentor students on product development and business model creation.
Von Deak brings a commitment to mentoring students, along with subject matter expertise and functional skills that can help commercialize an idea. He has been instrumental in helping LaunchPad startups through their discovery, market research, value proposition, and investment thesis process.
The event is open to the community, and refreshments will be served.
Photo: Steven VonDeak leads a group of LaunchPad student entrepreneurs on a behind-the-scenes tour of Density’s new hardware center at the Tech Garden.