The Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator (JSSA), offered by the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, is an intensive, summer-long program that guides MBA student founders through three phases of entrepreneurship education: customer discovery, developing solutions, and testing. The trek to pitch their startups at the Cornell ILR NYC Conference Center was the culmination of a summer’s worth of hard work for the JSSA 2024 cohort, and inspired participants to consider the next steps in their entrepreneurial journey.

“JSSA was one of the most meaningful parts of the program because I had the opportunity to connect with students across other MBA programs in the business school and see the types of businesses they’re working on and the passion they have,” said Kelly Fitzsimmons, MBA ’24, a graduate of the Johnson School’s Executive MBA Americas program and founder of RELAYS. “It has been the perfect cap on the program and it’s pushed me to go farther as an entrepreneur and really think of myself as a founder.”

Throughout their day in New York City, JSSA participants heard from six speakers who offered expertise critical to founders poised to launch their companies. Florence Luna, MBA ’23, CEO of Fig Medical, recounted her journey of scaling up her startup—or as she put it, “building the plane and flying it too”—and Loren Busby, director of the BioVenture eLab at Weill Cornell Medicine, presented on executive decision-making.

“I think there’s real value in understanding what it means to go on this journey before you commit to it,” said JSSA program codirector Greg Ray, PhD ’14. “And for us as educators, our responsibility is to make sure our students are prepared for whatever journey they take.”

Other speakers shared resources available to participants post-graduation. Fernando Gòmez-Baquero, director of the Runway Startups program and Spinouts at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and Johnson School visiting lecturer, provided background on New York City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: It is the second-largest startup ecosystem in the world, equipped with 120 universities and thousands of funding opportunities.

“The reality behind the scenes is that if you’re an entrepreneur, that’s a job that didn’t exist before,” said Gòmez-Baquero. “Those direct jobs create indirect jobs too. If you build a company here, you are going to create a multiplication effect; there aren’t a lot of other industries that do that.”

Next, Jeremy Kagan, managing partner at Textbook Ventures, a pre-seed venture capital fund in New York City, advised JSSA founders on securing angel investments; and Perry Solomon, operating partner at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, presented about their startups funding, workspace, and entrepreneurial training offerings.

After the speakers presented, JSSA participants formally pitched their startups. During the post-pitch reception, they had an opportunity to connect with Cornell’s NYC alumni network.

“The New York trek allows [JSSA participants] to showcase what they’re doing in front of a much more diverse and additive audience than maybe they would see elsewhere, so when they’re looking for support to advance their companies, they may find that support from our audience,” Ray said. “It’s a bridge between Ithaca and New York that sets these startups to go into whatever they’re going to do.”

Read the original story on the SJ Johnson College of Business blog.