As mentioned, our events have been a huge success, with over 800 attendees total, many of them Poly students. The two competitions we organized facilitated 19 student startups, 7 of which are still going strong.
- Commercializing Innovation:
Students heard about startup success stories from members of the NYC community and from our very own NYU family, mingled with fellow entrepreneurs in the NYU Entrepreneurs Network.
- Fred Wilson: venture capitalist, Union Square Ventures
- Frank Rimalovski: managing director for NYU Innovation Venture Fund
- Michael Aiello: Poly alumni, Founder of DIFR Wear and LifeEnsured
- Stacey Ferreira: NYU student, Co-founder of MySocialCloud
- >100 attendees
- Startup Toolkit:
A prominent startup lawyer and business guru talked about the basic steps to filing a company and hiring the right people.
- Peter Fusco: attorney, partner at Lowenstein Sandler
- Frank** Cicio: business strategist, Founder at iQ4
- >50 attendees
- Sparkstart Competition:
Students called on their invention, innovation and entrepreneurial (i2e) skills and collaborated with classmates from across the University to compete for a prize at the end. To test the viability of their ideas, they got feedback from mentors and entrepreneurs, and pitched to a panel of alumni and investors.
- 12 teams formed and pitched on Final Demo Day
- 45 student participants
- >90 students came to each event
- 7 alumni and 3 faculty judged pitches
- Engagement with entrepreneurs in the Varick Street Incubator
- Summer Incubation Program (SIP):
SIP was a 12-week summer program designed to support the growing number of student run startups. Based out of the NYU-Poly Incubators, 9 teams went through weekly workshops, one-on-one mentoring sessions, presentations by entrepreneurs, and feedback from investors to help transform their ideas to ventures that are able to scale and reach profitability. These events were open to all NYU students, but were mandatory for participant startups, who had to present their progress in a pitch on the final demo day for a prize.
- 10 teams enter program, 5 teams pitch on final demo day, 1 winner
- Stern Business school, Wagner School of Public Service, NYU-Poly
- 40 students at weekly Wednesday night events
- 18 speakers from NYC community
- 5 mentors for startups
- 5 investors give feedback and judge pitches
