Blackstone LaunchPad at Cornell

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Cornell University

Blackstone LaunchPad is inherently a multiyear (3) grant from Blackstone themselves, through their Blackstone Charitable Foundation & the Blackstone Entrepreneurship Initiative. Cornell is one of the few select universities that was lucky enough to be selected for this program a few years ago, in which we are tasked with increasing entrepreneurship at the university level and also around the communities we serve. We essentially are here as a free resource to students and Cornell affiliates alike, and are aiming to lower the barriers of entry into entrepreneurship. It is a completely free resource, and we are able to connect students to mentors that have founded successful startups, successfully raised seed money, and even individuals that are in VC positions themselves. The whole idea is to help the students (and Cornell affiliates), it doesn't matter if someone has just an idea they want to bounce off, or started their own company already, or even have a company that is taking in revenue, we help students that are at all stages of the entrepreneurship journey. We look to help students that may just have a problem they are looking to solve (or already have a solution to a problem), and try to help them grow that into something tangible. And the cool thing is, these consultations and the work we do with startups and students are 100% confidential (with nondisclosure agreements and etc).

So one may ask, what is different about Blackstone LaunchPad compared to eLab or Life Changing Labs (which are both great entrepreneurship organizations that I take part in)? The answer is that since we are part of a nationwide network, we are able to leverage this network from other universities (including Syracuse, The University of Texas at Austin (hook'em), NYU, and etc.). This gives us an essentially limitless network of individuals, orgs, and resources to help our students here. Our mentors don't just come from the Cornell community, they come from all sorts of background, which really drives home the leverage and network that I believe is at the heart of this program. Some events that Blackstone LaunchPad does include the Annual Cornell Entrepreneurship Summit in NYC (with attendees from both inside and outside Cornell community), Entrepreneurship KickOff, Annual Cornell Entrepreneurship Celebration in Ithaca, and more.