SYRACUSE — The third annual Emerging Talk event brought 37 startup companies more than $150,000 in seeding funding.
The event took place March 29 and 30 at Syracuse University.
Emerging Talk is aimed at anyone with a business idea, current company, an interest in entrepreneurship in Central New York, and potential resources for startups.
The event includes food, a student business showcase, cash giveaways, and seed funding competitions for students. The conference, created by students, aims to bring entrepreneurs together to share successes and failures, network with investors, and find potential co-founders and teammates.
This year’s event drew more than 300 attendees and included two startup funding competitions.
The Raymond von Dran (RvD) IDEA Awards is part of the Raymond von Dran Innovation and Disruptive Entrepreneurship Accelerator (IDEA), which has provided seed funding to help launch student ventures since 2009.
The L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science Invention & Creativity competition aims to encourage engineering students to create ideas for commercial products.
Students from Syracuse University (SU), Clarkson University, Le Moyne College and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry pitched their ideas and companies to panels of judges. The companies were working on ideas including a product that improves on the modern walker and a mobile app that allows spectators to track athletes during events, according to SU.
“The judges were impressed again this year with the quality of business ideas, talent, and excitement in our student entrepreneurs,” Bruce Kingma associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation at SU, said in a news release. “The number of applications tripled from last year, so it was very competitive to make it to the final pitch round. We hope that even more students know about these competitions next year so that we continue to grow as a resource for student entrepreneurs.”
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com