Making matches at mentor madness
Startup Weekend didn’t stop at the end of the weekend. Scores of new entrepreneurs attended “Mentor Madness,” a mentor matchmaking event sponsored by the LaunchPad at SU Libraries. The event paired new student innovators with experienced peer mentors who have already launched successful student startups, and offered another opportunity to build teams around mentor ideas.
This speed-networking style event was based on similar events offered by prestigious accelerators, but was unique in that it was peer-to-peer, featuring The Rubin Family Innovation Mentors who are part of the Blackstone Launchpad powered by Techstars. The mentors are teaching soft skills such as problem solving, opportunity recognition, team building, and project management, while also helping first time innovators shape a product and business model roadmap — utilizing the Toolkit that the LaunchPad has successfully developed to help commercialize ideas.
Todd B. Rubin ’04 (School of Architecture), Minister of Evolution and President of The Republic of Tea, established a grant through his family foundation for the 2019-2020 academic year for five Rubin Family Innovation Mentors at the LaunchPad. The mentors for the coming academic year are:
- David Fox ’19 (School of Information Studies), Global Media Fellow, founder of Jumpstart Marketing, and currently enrolled in Syracuse University’s College of Law;
- Kelsey Davis ’19 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), co-founder of CLLCTVE, and currently enrolled in Martin J. Whitman graduate EEE program;
- Alec Gillinder ’20, an industrial and interaction design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and co-founder of MedUX LLC;
- Quinn King ’20, an industrial and interaction design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and co-founder of MedUX LLC; and
- Matt Shumer ’22 an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and founder of Visos VR.
Mentor office hours are posted on a large sandwich board in front of the LaunchPad in Bird Library. Feel free to drop in, or grab a mentor business card and e-mail them to make an appointment.