Teams from eLab, Cornell’s student accelerator, and Cornell Tech’s Runway Startups program will pitch their ideas to the West Coast Cornell community at Cornell Silicon Valley Presents: Student Startup Showcase March 30 at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco.
The evening will feature a keynote from Krystyn J. Van Vliet, the newly appointed vice president for research and innovation, who will discuss innovation and entrepreneurship at Cornell.
This event will bring together Cornell Silicon Valley, eLab, Runway Startups, Entrepreneurship at Cornell and the Student Agencies Foundation to highlight innovation throughout the Cornell community. While a few eLab teams have traveled to the West Coast to share their startup stories in the past, the opportunity was expanded to include the entire cohort this year.
“There have been similar events where we brought a few student startup teams to Silicon Valley to pitch, and seeing how successful it was, it became obvious that we had to bring everybody,” said Ken Rother, managing director of eLab and lecturer at the Cornell S.C. Johnson College of Business. “The alumni who attend these events are extremely excited to hear what students are up to, and this is one way they demonstrate their support.”
Following the pitches, the student entrepreneurs will be able to network with guests. The teams will also have time while in California to engage in customer discovery interviews, which will provide them with crucial information for the advancement of their startups.
“This is a great opportunity for students to get practice telling their stories and make connections with alumni who have real-world entrepreneurial experience,” Rother said. “Each person in the audience has their own network who could provide mentorship, or even investment opportunities, and we’re grateful to have Krystyn providing the keynote for the event.”
Tickets for the event are $40, and hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served during the networking session.
In addition to the 11 eLab teams comprising the spring cohort, five teams from the Runway Startups program are set to pitch in Silicon Valley. eLab alumni founders Keivan Shahida ‘20 of Response and Adele Smolansky ’23 of AI-Learners will also present their experiences to attendees. This will be the first of two spring events for the eLab student startups, who will pitch at eLab Demo Day April 13 in Ithaca as part of Entrepreneurship at Cornell Celebration.
If you are in the Silicon Valley area and are interested in attending, learn more and register for the event by March 27 at 6 p.m. PDT.
This story was originally published in the Cornell Chronicle.