By Ain Center Staff

Are you ready to celebrate Meliora Weekend with the Ain Center? We’re hosting our first-ever Swarm Starter Competition on Saturday, October 5! This challenge will have the setup of ABC’s Shark Tank, with quick pitches and Q&A with our panel of distinguished judges.

The best part, though? The audience gets to decide who takes home the $20,000 cash prize! We’ll be sharing the voting info in real-time during the event, which you’ll also be able to watch via livestream video on our Facebook page.

Interested in learning more about the competition? Visit our Swarm Starter webpage – we’ll post the winner following the event!

By Akshay Rajput

StartFast is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator. Each year they invest in 5-7 software, mobile, or IoT companies & host a 3-month program. StartFast’s program is a highly selective, accepting just 0.25% of applicants; smaller cohorts allow them to tailor the program to the needs of each individual team. They invest $25,000 upfront, with up-to $100,000 in follow-up funding. Teams are plugged into a network of world-class entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives, and subject matter experts to help take their company to the next level.

StartFast’s leadership team has founded multiple companies, raised more than $350 MM in capital, had $250 MM exits, & $1 B IPO. StartFast uses their network of over 100+ world-class mentors to help entrepreneurs get in front of the right people to accelerate the growth of the company.

As a StartFast summer associate, I had the opportunity to help develop a promising group of startup companies that moved to Syracuse for the summer from across North America. I not only assisted with the daily operations of the StartFast program but also aided the companies in areas of need. I used my specialized skills in marketing and strategy, expanded my knowledge to help the startups design and develop applications, perform market research, prepare due diligence materials, understand markets, channels and competition, formulate strategy/financial pro-formas and other tasks from time to time. In assisting with the program’s daily operations, I prepared for and organized events, assisted with marketing, and provided content for social media.

For multiple companies at StartFast, I strategized and led the execution of lifecycle-based email marketing programs and lead-generation campaigns. Additionally, I led the development and implementation of multi-touch, multi-channel marketing programs inclusive of inbound and outbound tactics, utilized HubSpot to create, deploy and track campaigns, and update key metrics report to stakeholders.

This summer I was able to substantially grow my personal and professional network by connecting with a wide variety of experienced mentors, entrepreneurs and investors. From participating in mentor meetings to attending many community-wide social events, as a StartFast summer associate, I gained a unique perspective on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and beyond.

I believe that this experience at StartFast complements the formal education provided through the Technical Entrepreneurship and Management (TEAM) program and is a must-have exposure for budding entrepreneurs. I am grateful and appreciate all the efforts taken by the staff at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship in providing me with this unique internship opportunity.

Akshay Rajput ’19 (MS) has been working with multinational companies since his graduation. He holds expertise in field of business development, marketing, and resource management. Akshay’s latest experience stems from being a digital media & business development manager for a branding firm. He is currently a Masters candidate in the Technical Entrepreneurship and Management program, with a concentration in Energy & the Environment.

By Pooja Bansal

Pursuing a stable and growing career with a big management consulting firm in Mumbai, India, it was a difficult yet necessary choice to do a Master’s program. I always was very keen on pursuing higher studies and enhancing my skill set. When the learning curve started plateauing at work, I started investing my evenings in GRE preparation and grad school research. Learning of my admission to the University of Rochester was a very memorable day for me; I had received admits from a few other schools as well, but after extensive deliberation, I was convinced that the MS in TEAM Program at UR was the most aligned with my career goals. 

Two months later – with all the visa processing and packing done – I took my first ever international flight to the States, with eyes shining bright with so many dreams. Before joining the school, I completed a summer program in Strategic Management at Stanford, where learned about utilization of Global Strategic Thinking (GST) tools and published an article on the utilization of GST tools in the supply chain industry.

I started school at the University of Rochester in the Fall of 2017. On my first day, I met the MS TEAM program advisor, Andrea Barrett, with whom I had been in constant touch during the admission phase. She is, and has been, an extremely supportive and helpful advisor one could ever ask for. I had my first very entertaining plus informative week with an amazingly diverse group of classmates and an illustrious faculty.

At UR, I pursued the 3-semester curriculum with the summer internship track. The overall program was very well structured. With a perfect blend of both entrepreneurial sessions and technical classes, I found the program to be very conducive to my growth objectives. MS in TEAM not only helped me gain knowledge in the entrepreneurship and the technical domain (my technical concentration was Data Science), but it also gave me necessary exposure to the right group of people within industry and academia. I also got a chance to take part and represent the school for multiple business competitions during my course duration of 18 months.

Right from the beginning, I got a great deal of support and guidance from the staff throughout my MS journey. Kathy Driscoll, who works with students in the TEAM program on career placement, played a crucial role assisting me in designing my approach to network in the industry.

MS TEAM certainly has been a great conversation starter for me in any out-of-school setting. Even during the interviews, recruiters had always been curious to know more about this program and were left impressed by its offering. In short, this program helped me gain a very unique skill set in a well-designed way.

Today, I’m working in a reputed management consulting company as an Analytics Consultant. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to pursue the MS TEAM program, and I’ll forever be a happy TEAM alumna!

Pooja Bansal ’18 (MS) is an Analytics Consultant at Mu Sigma based in Atlanta, GA. She works with the Decision Analytics team for the world’s largest home improvement retailer. Just a few of her many responsibilities are to perform data analytics, obtain findings, and present insights to leadership. She graduated with an MS degree from the University of Rochester in Technical Entrepreneurship and Management in December 2018. While maintaining a great academic record, she also represented UR at various business and analytics competitions.

Originally from a town called Chandigarh in India, she completed her undergraduate studies in Electronics and Communications Engineering in 2013 and worked for 4.5 years as a management consultant before coming to the States. Pooja’s enthusiasm and structured approach to things has always helped her find her way. She is a lover of sushi, road trips and theater, and holds causes like climate change and UNICEF close to her heart. You can reach Pooja at pooja.bansal@outlook.com and/or connect with her on LinkedIn.

By Ain Center Staff

Welcome to Fall 2019! The summer was spent refreshing programs and planning new projects for our growing community of innovators. Our events calendar (below) is now coded by audience, so you can find exactly what programs you need and want to attend.

If you have any questions about the Ain Center’s fall programming (or if you’d like to get a preview of spring 2020), don’t hesitate to reach out! You can find us in 1-211 Carol Simon Hall or via email at AinCFE@rochester.edu.

By Ain Center Staff

Being an entrepreneur means being a leader. It requires steering a group of people toward a certain vision while navigating inevitable pitfalls. It entails an understanding of and ability to implement frameworks to transform an idea into reality. It necessitates a rise to challenges, as well as the determination to learn from failure. Being an entrepreneur is more than monitoring profit and loss; the experience is about becoming a better version of the self.

This is why the Ain Center is excited to debut its new partnership with the Office of the Dean of Students’ Medallion Program. The Medallion Program is an initiative that “aims to educate student leaders by providing opportunities for intentional learning, self-reflection, and skill development.” Bolstered by a variety of training sessions, this is a professional development program that focuses on a student’s leadership skills. The Ain Center has collaborated with ODOS to create a new Entrepreneurship Track within the program to offer students a structured, entrepreneurial leadership experience.

The Entrepreneurship Track is designed for innovative-minded students who aim to deepen their leadership skills while assembling their entrepreneurial “toolkit.” The blend of leadership and entrepreneurship workshops – plus the culminating experiential project – will immerse students in what it means to be an entrepreneurial leader.

Fully integrated into the basic requirements of the Medallion Program, the Entrepreneurship Track provides opportunities at each of the program’s three levels. This starts with six entrepreneurship-focused workshops that fold into the required leadership workshops of Levels 1 and 2. These workshops cover some essential topics:

• Team Building
• Voice of the Customer
• Learning from Failure
• Business Planning
• Startup Finances
• Pitching and Storytelling

Ultimately, the Track culminates in a Level 3 entrepreneurship-focused experiential learning opportunity. This is shaped by the student and guided by the Ain Center. A sort of capstone, this is a chance for students to test out the skills they gain through Levels 1 and 2, and to actually create something of their own. This could be a range of things, such as making measurable progress on an entrepreneurial project or venture, or developing and delivering a workshop to support the entrepreneurial activities of the Ain Center. The flexibility of the Level 3 project will let students dive deep into what they’re passionate about. And, once the program is complete, participants will have a solid foundation to build upon as they continue to grow as an innovative leader.

Ready to learn more about the Track and get started on the program? Contact Matthew Spielmann, Senior Program Manager at the Ain Center, to sign up! 

By Ain Center Staff

Spring 2019 had a recurring theme: no one can build anything alone. Entrepreneurs need a solid team behind them every step of the way, as evidenced throughout our workshops, lectures, and competitions. In case you missed anything, below is a summary of some events we hosted or co-hosted this semester.

Monthly Faculty & Staff Luncheons

Workshops

Students 2 Startups

Buzz Lab Boot Camp

Business Strategy Panel Event

Upon writing, we realized that we did too many things (yay entrepreneurship events!) to contain it all in one post. You can find Part II here.

By Xueying “Shelley” Chen (with Carolina Lion He and Shengyang “Shawn” Wu)

In April, Team Calorie Surplus participated in the University at Buffalo Case Competition, where each team was given a business case to solve. The assigned case – whether or not a Chinese-born entrepreneur, Jane, should enter the pearl market in Canada – required analysis and a presentation to a panel of judges. During the semi-final round of the competition, these presentations were twenty-minutes long, followed by a ten-minute Q&A session. The team, made up of Shengyang “Shawn” Wu, Xueying “Shelley” Chen, and Carolina Lion He, said it was an intellectually stimulating experience because every minute they were challenged to come up with solutions, supported by valid evidence.

We booked a bus to Buffalo and checked into the hotel. The first day was hosted at the Buffalo Club, a private club with a long history (we heard it was once connected to the White House when President Reagan was in the office). The welcome event was a great networking opportunity where we connected with professionals who work at Bank of America, Citibank, and Deloitte. We also spoke to MBA students who had ample work experience.

While we did not advance to the final competition, we learned plenty of lessons from people we were fortunate to meet at the competition. Below, we will tell you some key takeaways from our experiences and participation in this competition.

Xueying “Shelley” Chen ’19 is a researcher, activist and writer of social entrepreneurship and a believer of impact-driven businesses. She thinks business is a vehicle to deliver profitable, sustainable and socially responsible returns. Shelley puts human-centered impact in the core of her daily business practice. Additionally, Shelley is an active member of the UR entrepreneurial community and she is a member of the Ain Team – a group of elite student ambassadors chosen to promote and increase the visibility of the department and the MS in TEAM program.

By Ain CFE Staff

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell,” writes Seth Godin. A fantastic idea can’t sell itself – it needs a powerful narrative to grow and take on a life of its own. Whether trying to attain funding or recruit new team members, a well-structured story can make all the difference.

On March 25, Kathryn Cartini (Partner, Chloe Capital; COO, Upstate Venture Connect; Founder, Peacock Media) spoke to students about building relationship capital and how that factors into storytelling. This was the third and final session in the 2019 Mark Ain Business Model Workshops. Held to help prepare students for our upcoming business plan competitions, the Mark Ain Workshops build on the more soft-skill-focused Foundry Forums held during the fall semester. Below are 5 key points drawn from the event.

If you have any questions about pitching or learning more about any of the topics discussed during the workshop, please contact the Ain Center at AinCFE@rochester.edu or meet with one of our Experts-in-Residence.

By Vatsal Agarwal

On March 9, I had the privilege of representing the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and attending the University Technology Transfer and Commercialization Workshop at the College at Brockport (SUNY), which is a part of the SUNY Conversations in the Disciplines Workshop series. The series is designed to “contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge on transferring and commercializing university technology to foster innovation and entrepreneurship” in college campuses in the Upstate New York region.

For those unfamiliar with the term technology commercialization, the University of California’s Office of the President defines it as “the process of transitioning technologies from the research lab to the marketplace”. This is a highly complex process which ensures that the results of research are made available for public use and benefit. Historically, the University of Rochester has been among the top 10 universities in the US for licensing royalty revenues through the virtue of technology commercialization with patents spanning diverse fields from healthcare and medicine to proprietary software solutions.

Throughout the day, I attended 4 different training and discussion sessions, along with remarkably insightful opening and mid-session keynote addresses. I would like to highlight and share the key takeaways from the day, arranged in chronological order of the different sessions.

Opening Keynote: SUNY Innovation Policies and Initiatives

[Address led by Heidi Macpherson, President of SUNY Brockport and Matthew Mroz, Director of Enterprise Technology Transfer at SUNY-RF]

• Analyzing the significance of universities and partner companies in the development of the regional, as well as national, economy is key. This can be done through a discussion of university researchers and alumni, focusing on experiences and major breakthroughs.
• Keep an eye on innovation and entrepreneurship through programs such as The Research Foundation, Industry Engagement Bootcamp, Technology Accelerator Fund, and changes in Patent Invention Policies.

Session 1: Best Practices in University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer

[Discussion led by a panel of 5 professionals working with technology transfer offices/initiatives]

• Fruits from the partnership of business schools and engineering/STEM schools – in funding and research capacity and intentions – are tied to the analysis of commercial viability of academic research.
• Ideas to consider:
  • Student Incubators – why every innovative university needs one
  • Principles of ownership of research and inventions contributed by students, industry partners and faculty
  • Roles of university faculty and researchers in student ventures and innovations
  • Management of conflicts-of-interest and risks for different parties involved

Session 2: NSF I-Corps Nodes on University Technology Commercialization

[Address led by I-Corps Nodes representatives from University of Rochester and Cornell University]

• Why do startups fail? No market need for the product (biggest and arguably, the most important reason), shortage of cash, and/or not involving the right team.
• Regional NSF I-Corps Nodes and Short Courses (resource for customer discovery)
• PLUG: Go to https://www.rochester.edu/aincenter/icorps-site/ or email Matthew Spielmann to learn more about UR’s I-Corps offerings!

Mid-Session Keynote: Unleashing Technology Transfer with Real Options

[Address led by Dr. Philip Phan, Alonzo and Virginia Decker Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University]

• The most important question: What is the true price/intrinsic value of a patent?
• Problems in price analysis include: market value, heavy litigation, re-issuance, subjective estimates, future cash flows, price elasticity, and time heterogeneity of patent value.
• There is a need for a new continuous price discovery process and pioneering work on the Real Options Patent Management Strategy.

Session 3: Founding Dos and Don’ts

[Discussion led by a panel of 5 successful founders and entrepreneurs]

• Enable the entrepreneurial mindset and culture.
• Develop a plan for a venture project.
• Provide training for starting/growing a startup.
• Emphasize importance of mentors/coaches, as well as ways to find financial support/funding.
• Share how-tos for getting a leg up through access to resources (such as an incubator or accelerator).

Session 4: Entrepreneurial Development Activity Workshop

[Activity-based workshop led by Dr. Amir Bahman Radnejad, Associate Professor of Management, SUNY Brockport]

• Learn how to recognize when human intuition and biases are creating problems for entrepreneurs.
• Participate in problem-solving activities that include guidance on how to think for successful innovation.

Through the workshop, I had a chance to learn more about various topics related to promotion and commercialization of innovation and entrepreneurship. Even more importantly, I also had a chance to meet and talk to industry professionals and founders – all of whom I found to be dedicated thinkers and ardent researchers with innovative ideas on how to change the world for the better.

I am ever grateful to the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship for the opportunity to attend this workshop, not only through financial support but also helpful guidance.

Vatsal Agarwal ’21 is a Financial Economics and Computer Science major at the University of Rochester. He is currently interning as a Court Efficiency Analyst at the New York State Unified Court System. He is also a part of the Ain Team, helping promote entrepreneurship and the Ain Center on and off the UR campus. Vatsal is highly interested in a career where he can feed his interests in finance and technology simultaneously and has past experience in customer service, educational fundraising and consulting, and writing business plans.