Panelists sport new Colgate gear. They are (from left) John Donahoe, Tony Bates, Ashton Kutcher, Daniel Rosensweig P’15’17, Brian Chesky, and David Faber. (Photo by Andy Daddio)
Colgate student entrepreneurs, showing the grit that Ashton Kutcher said was vital to success, pitched their ideas Friday night to an A-list of innovators who were on campus for the university’s third annual Thought Into Action Entrepreneur Weekend.
Thanks to the generosity of Daniel Rosensweig P’15’17, the students were rewarded with $5,000 to further develop their projects that were cultivated through the university’s Thought Into Action Entrepreneurship Institute.
The announcement by the CEO of Chegg followed the student presentations and a panel discussion in a filled-to-the-rafters Cotterell Court about founding, funding, building, and scaling the most innovative companies in the world.
In addition to Kutcher and Rosensweig, the lively discussion featured Tony Bates, former executive vice president of development and strategy for Microsoft, CEO of Skype, and head of enterprise for Cisco Systems; Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, one of the most innovative companies to come out of Silicon Valley in the past 10 years; and John Donahoe, eBay president and CEO.
President Jeffrey Herbst introduces the panelists at Cotterell Court on Friday night. (Photo by Andy Daddio)
Kutcher, the actor, director, and co-founder of A-Grade Investments venture capital fund, was asked by the panel moderator David Faber of CNBC about how he assesses which projects to support. “It’s all about the person, or the people,” Kutcher said. “There is one thing that I think is common, and it’s a person’s grit, or ability and willingness to work and overcome problems. And that’s really hard to find, and only special people have that.” The Colgate student entrepreneurs who showed some true grit will now have additional capital support to work out any problems with their projects, which received thoughtful critiques from the panelists. The recipients were:
- Katie Rydell ‘14 and Amara Wilson ‘15, for their LateDate app
- Ariel Sherry ‘15, for her Age Together consulting service
- Daniel Swiecki ‘14 and Joshua Lasker for their Sapling Advisory project that matches financial advisors with clients.
Many more student entrepreneurs will present their projects as Entrepreneur Week continues with a full slate of events. Check back throughout the next few days as we update this story. See a Syracuse Post-Standard article here.
@aplusk and the boys pic.twitter.com/Z859riKQzX
— Jake Kulevich (@JKulevich11) April 11, 2014
E-weekend #CUSelfie pic.twitter.com/CH2ZciKdHm
— Colgate University (@colgateuniv) April 11, 2014