Rev: Ithaca Startup Works

Rev: Ithaca Startup Works is a business incubator in downtown Ithaca, NY, established by Cornell in collaboration with Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College. This facility is open to the local and regional community, regardless of affiliation with any of the educational institutions. Rev provides critically needed space, programming, and support for local startup companies, and provides a place for student-led startups from local colleges to “graduate to,” giving high potential young entrepreneurs a place to set permanent roots into the community. Upon completion of its expansion in 2016, Rev will have approximately 8,000 sq. ft.

Passenger to Pilot

Kickstarted by Rev: Ithaca Startup Works in early 2015, the Passenger to Pilot: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs program was created to address the noticeable gender imbalance affecting women entrepreneurs in upstate New York. This program made history in the area, becoming the first of its kind to develop a comprehensive support structure to assist women entrepreneurs in the Southern Tier at all stages of entrepreneurship.The program took on 16 women for its first year, and established a focused network of accountability teams coupled with professional coaches that improve the women in entrepreneurship community and provide resources that increase the chances for a startup’s success. This program, funded by a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, is designed as a platform for larger recurring opportunities. As a network of female business owners grows, it will strengthen the entrepreneurial community in Tompkins County.

Hardware Accelerator

Hardware creation presents unique physical challenges that keep the process slow and painful for the lone entrepreneur. The Hardware Accelerator program, housed in Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, brings the rapid iteration prototyping of the software world to hardware. With the help of experienced instructors and an equipped prototyping lab, teams take their hardware idea from napkin to prototype and explore the feasibility of various technical approaches. The accelerator is exceptional not only in its rarity, but also in its purpose to start earlier in the process, bringing a design that might be barely past a concept to a working prototype.