Teams from eLab, Cornell’s student startup accelerator; the Runway Startup Postdocs Program at Cornell Tech; and BioVenture eLab at Weill Cornell Medicine pitched their innovative business ideas at the annual Cornell Silicon Valley: Student Startup Showcase at San Francisco’s Autodesk Gallery on March 27.
Johnson Entrepreneurship Track
December 10, 2022
A Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management program supported by CREA
The Johnson Entrepreneurship Track builds on the MBA curriculum to support students in development of their business ideas through an immersive 2-year program geared towards helping entrepreneurially-minded MBA students launch new businesses.
Entrepreneurs in Residence
The Entrepreneur in Residence program guides Johnson MBA students in their entrepreneurial pursuits helping them connect with entrepreneurship programs, and funding.
Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator
Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator is a 10-week summer intensive that will continue to momentum of student startups finishing their spring semester. Supported by the numerous Cornell and Ithaca Entrepreneurial resources, teams will participate in weekly workshops and regularly meet with Entrepreneurs in Residence. The summer program is open to graduate student-led teams at the SC Johnson College of Business that want to spend their summer working on a startup.
Funding and Fellowship Opportunities
The Professor Vrinda Kadiyali Student Entrepreneur Fund
The Professor Vrinda Kadiyali Student Entrepreneur Fund provides stipends to MBA students so they can continue building momentum with their startups while they participate in the Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator between their first and second years. The stipend empowers MBA students to stay focused on their startups, while reducing the financial pressures they may face to accept a paid corporate internship.
The Kadiyali Fund gives MBA students the opportunity to move their startups forward with coaching, connections, and training from the Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator—a cutting-edge program dedicated to helping MBA students confidently accelerate the launch of their startups.
The Jonas Weil Entrepreneur Fellowship Fund
The Jonas Weil Entrepreneur Fellowship is a loan forgiveness program to assist students who pursue entrepreneurial ventures. It was established by a generous endowment gift from a distinguished alumnus and entrepreneur, Jonas Weil MBA ’59. The purposeof the fund is to assist Johnson students with substantial educational debt to pursue entrepreneurial careers that might otherwise need to be delayed. It provides eligible graduates with funding to help cover their regular student loan payments for up to a maximum repayment of $50,000 over 5 years.
Learn more about the Jonas Weil Fund.
Applications are now open for the Jonas Weil Entrepreneur Fellowship Fund. Apply now.
Co-Curricular Activities
MBA students at Cornell University have the opportunity to take a number of courses based on their interests. Students interested in the entrepreneurship track can take entrepreneurial-focused courses to compliment their MBA experience. Entrepreneurship offerings include: Designing New Ventures, Entrepreneurial Strategy, Big Red Ventures, etc. Find the full list of entrepreneurship courses here.
Big Red Tech Strategy
Students work with Cornell PhDs to develop a monetization strategy for their research, Great hands on practice around strategy and business models.
Big Red Ventures
Student run venture fund, that provides hands on experience in the venture capital space. Students are exposed to an investor’s thought process, which allows students to better understand startup financing.
Extra-Curricular and Networking Opportunities
Entrepreneurship Club
Providing a community of students looking to start their own companies, and is a place for students to pool resources to further develop each other as founders.
Meetups and Speakers
Students should attend campus meetups and guest speakers. This is a great way to deepen knowledge around entrepreneurship and meet students in other disciplines.
Hackathons and Conferences
Interdisciplinary exposure that allows students to network with other programs, and depend their knowledge around specific industries. These events will allow entrepreneurs to connect and understand key technical insights in select fields.
Rev Networking Nights
Students will receive exposure to the broader Ithaca startup community at Rev: Ithaca Startup Works.
Other Startup Resources
- The Center for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell University fuels economic growth and diversity in Upstate New York through entrepreneurship and innovation.
- The eLab Student Accelerator at Cornell University launches 8-12 real businesses each year.
- Rev: Ithaca Startup Works is a business incubator and co-working space located in downtown Ithaca.
- Entrepreneurship at Cornell is a diverse, university-wide program that finds and fosters the entrepreneurial spirit in participants from every college, every field, and in every stage of life.
- The Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars network helps students succeed in entrepreneurship and in their careers.
Johnson Entrepreneurship Track News
Students pitch innovative startups in San Francisco
Jiang Fellows welcomes inaugural cohort
The Jiang Fellows Program recently welcomed 20 students to its 2025 cohort. The students will spend the spring semester sharpening their entrepreneurial skills while preparing for a fully funded summer internship at a startup of their choice.
eLab welcomes 13 startups to Spring 2025 cohort
Twenty-four startups were accepted for the eLab student startup accelerator fall cohort, and 13 will advance to the spring cohort. These startups have shown remarkable progress in validating their ideas and refining their business models.
Continued Growth for Rev’s Startup Community in 2024
The numbers are trickling in for 2024, another successful year for the founders, employees, and investors of Rev: Ithaca Startup Works 32 member startups. Success looked different for our Rev members as some accepted new partnerships, some closed rounds of seed funding, and others continued to innovate. Regardless, Rev’s community continued to grow and scale their businesses while positively impacting the Ithaca region and beyond.
