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.
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.
Cornell University
Graduate student Ananda Fontoura conducts dairy research at the Cornell University Dairy Science facility.
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.”
Tom Schryver, executive director of CREA, speaks at the Grow-NY contest announcement May 31.
“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.
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
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.
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.
$9,000 in prizes are supported by the Vijay (M.Eng. ’75) and Sita Vashee Promising Entrepreneur Award Endowment Fund.
Business Category:
1st Place Business Category- $3000
2nd Place Business Category- $1000
3rd Place Business Category- $500
Social Category:
1st Place Social Category- $3000
2nd Place Social Category- $1000
3rd Place Social Category- $500
Timeline
March 8, 2019 Application Deadline
March 22, 2019 Eight Finalists Announced
April 12, 2019 BIG Idea Competition Finale –Three minutes to present to live audience of peers, faculty, entrepreneurs, distinguished guests, and public audience this year at eHub Collegetown, Third Floor (305 Multipurpose Room). The winners will be selected based upon a combination of rankings by judges and audience popular vote.
Contest Rules
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:
Cannot be generating revenues
Cannot already have received funding or financing of any form
Must not have previously been accepted into an accelerator or incubator
Cannot have any legal form of incorporation
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.
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.
The BenDaniel Venture Challenge application is now live. For all details and to apply, please visit: http://www.brventurefund.com/bvc.
The Challenge is an annual innovation contest aimed at providing exposure, support, and funding to entrepreneurial Cornellians/NY local startups. The Challenge will help develop business ideas to actionable and high-impact ventures. Last year, this challenge had high-volume participation and received more than 70 qualified business plan demos.
The Challenge will be a half-day event. A select group of participants will have the chance to pitch their business ideas to the judge panel. Prizes will be awarded to the top three finalists, including non-dilutive cash up to $50,000.
The Cornell Engineering Innovation Award Competition is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurial students from across the breadth of engineering majors. The Innovation Competition offers student teams that have been working on developing physical prototypes and more fully demonstrated innovations the chance to compete for prizes to support their next stages in the development of their “real world” ideation and concept demonstration experiences. This competition will support will enable students who win the awards to continue with their goal of bringing new products to market.
The Cornell Engineering Innovation Award Competition is a college-wide competition open to all engineering students. Students who have developed business concepts and prototypes in their own “garages” and outside the formal engineering curriculum are encouraged to apply.
The innovation teams may include a broad range of students from across the entire university (for example students with expertise in user interface design) and from all levels (undergraduate to Ph.D.). However, as an undergraduate focused competition, undergraduate students from the engineering college must constitute a majority of each participating team.
One information session will be held January 24, 2019. Another will be held February 21, 2019. Applications due March 14, 2019. Click Innovation Awards for details.
For the third year in a row, in partnership with the College of Veterinary Medicine, we bring you the beloved animal health hackathon. With $8,000 in cash prizes for winning teams, students attending from UPenn, NC State, and Virginia Tech, this is one event you won’t want to miss.
Location: Clark Atrium, Physical Sciences Building Time: Nov. 30, 2018, 4:30 PM. – Dec. 2, 2018, 3:30 PM
You are invited for the Inaugural Digital Transformation Hackathon! Get ready to innovate across business, education and lives. ALL students from any major, degree, and background are invited to participate event is limited to 125 participants! Open To: ALL Cornell students Sign Up Here
