EII - Cornell Startups

Val Tsanev, MBA ’13: SponsorShipped by Dick Anderson Corporate sponsorship is big business, and it’s getting bigger. According to IEG Sponsorship Report projections, sponsorship spending will reach $23.2 billion this year in the United States alone and $62.8 billion worldwide. But what do sponsors get for their money? That’s the question driving SponsorShipped, a SaaS […]

Michael J. Fallquist, MBA ’04: Viridian Energy, Crius Energy by Dick Anderson In 2009, Michael Fallquist founded Viridian Energy in Stamford, Conn., with the vision of creating “the first friends-and-family-focused green energy company focused on selling sustainability.” By going into deregulated electricity markets, buying energy wholesale from clean sources such as wind and solar power, […]

Christian M. Miller, MBA ’85: Full Glass Research, WineOpinions.com by Dick Anderson Christian Miller has the heart of a sommelier and the soul of an entrepreneur. After a couple years as an operations analyst at Merrill Lynch in the 1980s, “I impulsively jumped into the wine industry, first as a wine steward at Windows on […]

Matt Ronen, MBA ’11: ServiceCorps by Dick Anderson As a senior at Colorado College in 2004, Matt Ronen felt compelled to pursue a service year before settling down professionally. He even wrote a business plan for a partnership between companies and nonprofits that would create a service “gap year” between college and career. His professor […]

Cameron Brooks, MBA ’03: E9 Energy Insight and Tolerable Planet Enterprises by Dick Anderson Cameron Brooks was smitten with the outdoors as a teenager, spending countless hours exploring California’s Sierra Mountains. His hero was John Muir (1838-1914), the Scottish-American naturalist, author, and pioneering wilderness preservationist. “I was very interested in environmental issues,” says Brooks, who […]

Alice Leung, MBA ’86, Sapientiae by Dick Anderson Alice Leung didn’t develop her new business by today’s rules. Sapientiae, a biotech management consulting firm, has no website, no app, and no real online presence. (“Most of the work I do is confidential,” she explains.) Clients find her by word of mouth, referrals, and a well-connected […]

Javed Singha, MBA ’09, Fieldwire by Dick Anderson For all the construction design tools that look like something out of “The Jetsons,” the building process itself still resembles “The Flintstones.” “There’s all this phenomenal software that’s happened in the design process, then the execution goes back to paper and pencil,” says Javed Singha. Seeing opportunity, […]

Robert Frisch, MBA ’13, Firelight Camps by Dick Anderson If your ideal camping companion is Gwyneth Paltrow — not Bear Grylls — then Firelight Camps may be your ecotourism destination. Located on the grounds of Ithaca’s La Tourelle Resort and Spa, the elevated campground caters to an upscale clientele who are eager to commune with […]

Understanding your customers can’t be delegated by Tom Schryver ’93, MBA ’02 A few years ago, I invested in a promising startup run by an energetic, young entrepreneur — let’s call her Ellen. Recently, she reached out to let me know that she and her cofounder realized that they were barking up the wrong tree. […]