Íø±¬ÃÅ

hosted its first Investor-Ready Symposium on April 19 in Bird Library, with attendees coming from members of Blackstone LaunchPad from Íø±¬ÃÅ, Colgate University and Blackstone LaunchPad at State University of New York at Albany.

The symposium included a networking breakfast and panel discussion with young startup founders who have successfully raised funds: Sean Lattimore ’23, founder of Suptho; Aidan Meany, founder of Found Surface; Ben Haber, founder of Monark Markets; and Matt Schneider, founder of e-States.

The panel was followed by an open session where student entrepreneurs learned about the various types of early-stage investors, including a distinguished panel from across the country, including Libraries Advisory Board member and angel investor, Yvonne Hyland; Andrew Schwartz ’20, Zenyatta Capital co-founder; Andy Reed, ESD–NY Ventures director; Sashi Tripathi, Nurture VC managing director; Dustin Doucette, director of Upstate Venture Connect; and David Tsung, co-founder of Oculus VC, a local venture capital firm. The symposium wrapped up with a lightning round of elevator pitches by current LaunchPad student founders to the panelist judges.

The following student startups were the People’s Choice awardees for the event:

• First place: Sam Hogan, founder of HireBird, from SUNY Albany’s Blackstone LaunchPad
• Second place: Natasha Brao ’22 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), G’23, G’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Shooka Sauce
• Third place (tie): Frank Marin ’24 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), founder of Marhold Space Systems; and Yaneeka Nichols ’26 (School of Information Studies), founder of SNDER
• Honorable mentions: Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Tá Beautie; Neil Adams ’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), founder of Band Launch Media; and Chris Cherniakov, founder of Telemetree, from Colgate University.

Funds for the awards were generously donated by Andrew Schwartz ’20.

Prior to the symposium, the LaunchPad hosted a series of workshops designed to prepare students to meet potential investors on the topics of contract negotiation; due diligence-data room preparation; term sheet overview; and financial instruments review.