Applications Open for 2025 IDEAS FEST Competition
Applications are open now through September 8 for the Blackstone LaunchPad’s IDEAS FEST competition. The competition will be held on Friday, September 12 from 12:30 – 3:30 pm in Bird Library. Student teams will deliver a 90-second ‘elevator’ pitch on their entrepreneurial idea to a panel of judges, for a chance to win up to $500 in cash and in-kind prizes, including an opportunity to meet with CEO’s. This event is designed to put early-stage funding into founders’ hands to help offset startup expenses. The IDEAS FEST competition is open to all full and part-time undergraduate and graduate students at Syracuse University. Individual students or teams can pitch ideas for products, services, technologies or creative ventures as either for-profit or nonprofit enterprises and can be conceptual ideas or go-to-market businesses.
Last year’s IDEAS FEST winners included: Olutosin (Tosin) Alabi G’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Nathan Thor Brekke ’26 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Nicolas Philippe Courbage ’26 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Mario Antonio Escobar Jr. ’26 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Aphrodite Ruby Gioulekas ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), Ania Kapllani ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), Sandy Lin ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Omar Mohammed ’27 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), Clara Dorothy Gienapp Olson ’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Emeka Christopher Ossai G’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), Elizabeth E Paulin ’24 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs), Briana Alexis Salas ’27 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Avery Byrd Shelley G’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), and Olivia Venezia Simons ’26 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Martin J. Whitman School of Management).
Some of last year’s winners went on to kick-start their innovative ideas while others used the money to further develop specific areas of their ventures. If you want the chance to do the same, join us and share your most ambitious and creative entrepreneurial idea at IDEAS FEST!
Story by Renée Giselle Kurie (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications)