Attention student entrepreneurs: UB Startup Week returns

UB Startup Week will take place from Sept. 19-24, with events celebrating UB’s innovation and startup ecosystem.

Offerings range from a Customer Discovery Lab in Capen Hall, where participants will learn how businesses gain insight into the markets for products and services, to a virtual Erie Hack Night focused on a competition that unites coders, developers, engineers and water experts to generate enduring solutions to Lake Erie’s greatest challenges.

On Sept. 21, a UB industrial engineering student Jonathan Garriques will interview Max Ringlheim, a UB alumnus, serial entrepreneur and motivational speaker, regarding his experiences in the startup world. Garriques is a Western New York Prosperity Fellow. This fellowship program supports students who are preparing for careers that further economic development and growth in the region.

“The fun part with these interviews, part of our ‘Founder Stories’ series, is that the interviewee does not see the questions in advance, so it’s really an authentic conversation,” says Hadar Borden, director of the Blackstone LaunchPad at UB, which is hosting UB Startup Week in partnership with UB’s Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships powered by the UB Innovation Hub.

A schedule of UB Startup Week events, with details on how to register, is available on the Student Life website.

The initiative provides UB students with an opportunity to get to know the startup community in the region, connecting with entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, investors, like-minded peers and alumni like Ringlheim, who will meet with three School of Management classes during his visit, in addition to sitting for the Q&A.