Media Advisory: UB students to flex new entrepreneurship skills and pitch big business ideas

By Kevin Manne

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Undergraduate and graduate students will pitch their entrepreneurial ideas as part of University at Buffalo’s Entrepreneurship Lab (eLab), a business boot-camp-style course that gives students the skills to develop and manage a successful new venture.

What: Teams of students have spent UB’s winter session evaluating their ideas, learning every step of the startup process and attending guest lectures from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, consultants and business lawyers. Now it’s their turn to sell their big idea to a panel of judges.

When: 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 22

Where: 106 Jacobs Management Center on UB’s North Campus.

Who: Yong Li, associate professor of operations management and strategy, UB School of Management, and Martin Casstevens, business formation and commercialization manager, UB Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR), will be available for interviews.

Why it’s important: Each student who completes the eLab will receive a scholarship, of $500 for undergraduates and $1,000 for graduate students, to help defray tuition costs. In addition, students compete for a Student Entrepreneur Fellowship, which includes at least $5,000 of seed funding, co-working space at STOR’s tenX facility and up to a year of mentoring and other professional services.

In the past two years, eLab students have gone on to win the Henry A. Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition, participate as a finalist in the Rise of the Rest competition, complete a successful Kickstarter campaign and receive a grant from the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program, among other achievements.

The eLab is offered in partnership by the School of Management and STOR, with funding provided through an anonymous donation to the School of Management.

The course is taught by Yong Li, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the School of Management, along with Robert Genco, vice provost, STOR, and Martin Casstevens, business formation and commercialization manager, STOR.