on You’re invited to eLab Fall Demo Day!
When: November 21, 5-7 pm
Where: Rev: Ithaca Startup Works
The 2019-20 eLab cohort and Cornell Engineering’s Commercialization Fellows will pitch their business ideas and progress made during through the program to C-suite entrepreneurs and investors. Please RSVP.
on When: Friday, October 4th from 9:00-10:30am
Where: Upson Lounge, Upson Hall, Cornell University
What: This isn’t the same old ideation workshop. One of the challenges with getting started on your entrepreneurial journey is identifying an unmet need in the market aligned with your passion and your expertise. In this workshop, we will walk through a series of activities to help you tackle all three of these: customer needs, your strengths, and your domain areas of interest to you!
on EMRG – a talent showcase and pitch competition in NYC – has announced two exciting opportunities.
EMRG Pitch Off: 15 ambitious student founders competing for up to $30K worth of prizes and the attention of NYC’s investors, mentors and media. Sign up to compete here and attend here: https://ramenworks.typeform.com/to/NNejth
EMRG Talent Showcase: We’re connecting top student talent with exciting internships and jobs at NYC-based technology companies and startups. Sign up to attend here: https://ramenworks.typeform.com/to/UZg22y
Please contact them directly if you have any questions.
on Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) has opened applications for it Winter 2020 cohort. In the past, several Cornell teams have gone through ERA. Please direct any questions to Emily Bell, emily@eranyc.com at ERA.
ERA holds itself out as NYC’s leading tech accelerator. They invest $100K in selected startups and work closely with founders to help them build their businesses. To date, ERA has invested in 190+ companies who have gone on to raise $450M in investor capital and have a combined enterprise value of $2B.
ERA invests $100K in seed funding with potential follow-on funding and gives entrepreneurs access to NYC’s largest mentor network of 500+ industry leaders and the strongest alumni network of 190+ companies. Application Deadline: Oct 28, 2019; Program Start Date: Jan 13, 2020
on
76West is a $20 million competition designed to build clean energy businesses and grow jobs in New York’s Southern Tier region. The participating companies are vying for $2.5 million in prize money, including a $1 million top prize.
You are invited to attend the 76West Pitch Competition at Binghamton University to hear business pitches from some of the world’s most innovative clean energy startups. Learn about the latest in clean energy technologies as the competing startups pitch their plans to a panel of esteemed judges and wow the crowd. Please RSVP.
on Say the words “New York” to people from outside the state, and more than likely their first thought will have something to do with the Big Apple – New York City. But the Empire State is known for its little apples, as well.
According to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, more than 7 million acres of New York – or about 20% of the state’s land – is farmland. Nearly 36,000 family farms have helped the state rank No. 2 nationally in the production of apples, snap beans and maple syrup, and in the top 10 in 30 commodities overall.
New York is a leader and an innovator in both agriculture and food production, and Cornell is partnering with the state to foster more growth in those spaces.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced May 31 that entries are being accepted for Grow-NY, a business competition and support program for innovative, high-growth startups in food and agriculture.
“New York’s agricultural industry is one of the best in world, and the Grow-NY competition will attract innovative startups focused on this industry to put down roots in upstate New York,” Cuomo said in a statement. “By bringing in new companies to find new ways to transform our state’s food and agricultural industry, we are continuing to bolster these regional economies and foster growth in this critical industry statewide.”
“New York has among the best food products in the world, and the agricultural industry is an important part of our upstate economy,” said Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who made the announcement May 31 in Rochester. “Continuing to build on our investments in agriculture, we’ve launched the Grow-NY competition to fund and support startups in the industry. We are committed to fostering innovative ideas, boosting job growth, and promoting our farms and agricultural products that will further strengthen the economy.”
Scheduled for 2019, 2020 and 2021, Grow-NY will distribute $3 million in awards each year, including a $1 million award, two $500,000 awards and four $250,000 awards. Mentorship, incubator space and other services will be provided to support the startups.
Grow-NY, expected to be one of the largest food and agriculture business competitions in the nation, will leverage existing resources in the rapidly growing food and agriculture innovation cluster in the Finger Lakes, central New York and Southern Tier regions of the state. Winning companies will be required to operate in these regions for at least one year and execute bold plans to grow jobs, connect with local partners, and contribute to a thriving upstate economy.
“Grow-NY is a tremendous opportunity to fuel growth in New York’s farm and food economy through spurring innovation across our local food systems,” said Kathryn J. Boor ’80, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “By supporting entrepreneurship, the Finger Lakes, central and Southern Tier regions of New York can drive creation and sale of delicious and healthy local food products to meet the changing tastes of consumers and help New York lead the way as an innovation hub in the local food movement.”
Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA) will leverage its experience managing the state’s 76West Clean Energy Competition to administer the competition, with support from organizations across the state including Cornell AgriTech, its New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture, and Cornell Cooperative Extension programs.
“As a top-10 national institution for entrepreneurship with a top-five global agriculture school, Cornell is passionate about fostering startup growth and advancing breakthrough innovations in food and agriculture,” said Tom Schryver, executive director of CREA.
Funding for Grow-NY will be provided through Empire State Development and the Upstate Revitalization Initiative organization connected with each of the three regions – Finger Lakes Forward, CNY Rising and Southern Tier Soaring.
Applications for the 2019 competition opened May 31 and will be accepted through July 15. A panel of industry judges will trim the applications down to a group of up to 20 finalists, who will receive mentorship and a curated, complimentary business development trip spanning the three regions this summer.
Finalists will pitch their business ideas at the Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit, to be held Nov. 12-13 at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. The summit will include the live pitch competition, an awards ceremony announcing the winners, a symposium hosted by the Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture, and an exhibition featuring more than 100 innovative food and ag businesses and industry resources.
Visit the Grow-NY website to learn more.
Molly Israel is a marketing strategist at the Center for Regional Economic Advancement.
on The New York Business Plan Competition is the only leading collegiate business plan competition that is a regionally coordinated, collaborative, statewide program. With thousands in prizes, it is one of the largest collegiate business plan competitions in the world.
** THE BUSINESS VENTURE MUST BE AT LEAST 80% OWNED BY A STUDENT
Dates to remember:
on Technology Entrepreneurship at Cornell (TEC) will be hosting a pitch competition for graduate students on Monday April 22nd. You will have the opportunity to showcase your entrepreneurial spirit and pitch your startup or startup idea in front of judges and win cash prizes.
TEC Graduate Pitch Competition: 1st place prize – $1,000 2nd place prize – $250
Startup/ideas can be in any area and teams must be composed of primarily graduate students (no restrictions on size). To enter, please submit pitch deck and team bio to cornelltec@gmail.com by Friday April 19th 5pm. Teams selected to pitch will be notified, with preference given to early-stage ideas and submissions from non-MBA students. Pitches will be limited to 6 minutes followed by 6 minutes Q&A with judges.
For questions, please email cornelltec@gmail.com
Pitch competition time: Monday, April 22nd 5-7PM
Location: eHub Kennedy Hall
on Open to all current Cornell Undergraduate Students. Eight finalists will be determined by a group of experienced entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, non-profit, and business professionals. Semi-finalists will also receive consultations with a mentor/coach about their idea and ways to improve their submission.
An idea can be submitted by a “team” (consisting of multiple people), but all team members must be current Cornell Undergraduate Students. Only one person needs to fill out the form and put their name on it.
If you have previously entered The Big Idea Competition (formerly known as The Undergraduate Business Idea Competition), you can re-enter your exact same idea or a different idea. If you previously won prize money from the competition, you are not allowed to enter your previous winning idea.
Entries must be early-stage ideas, and not developed businesses. As such, an idea that already has a functioning business associated with it will not be accepted. Specifically, the idea:
Once submitted the idea is finalized for that round, if the team/individuals advance in the competition the idea may be amended based on comments and feedback from mentor/coach. Although amendments can be made, the fundamental idea cannot change from round to round.
on The deadline for the Commercialization Fellows program has been extended by a week to March 7, 2019.
Cornell Engineering is now offering Commercialization Fellowships—a unique opportunity for Ph.D. students to spend a fully-funded semester and summer in an intensive entrepreneurship program with a personal mentor to explore commercializing a product of the student’s choosing. From intellectual property management to supply chains, students will learn the tools, methods and skills for bringing a product or technology to market.
The fellowship experience will enable deep experiential learning in the commercial side of innovation, and one-on-one mentoring assures a deep, personalized educational experience unmatched by traditional entrepreneurship programs.
Learn more about the Commercialization Fellowship curriculum and the expected commitment of participants
New deadline to apply is March 7, 2019. The application and instructions are available through the link below.