Welcome to the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE), the home for entrepreneurial thought leadership in the hospitality industry. We invite you to be part of our mission to engage leading industry experts and faculty to educate students and provide them with experiential opportunities to learn all aspects of entrepreneurship.
We are committed to helping students explore every facet of hospitality entrepreneurship—from ideation to execution. As the hospitality industry’s preeminent hub for entrepreneurship, we advance both students and industry leaders through our core pillars:
Engagement: We foster meaningful engagement among students, faculty, alumni, and the entrepreneurial community—at Cornell and beyond.
Experiential learning: We create innovative opportunities for students to apply classroom learning in real-world settings, gaining valuable hospitality entrepreneurial experience.
Education: We educate students and alumni interested in operating an enterprise in the hospitality industry, providing the knowledge, tools, and support needed for students and alumni to launch, lead, and grow ventures.
Let’s empower the next generation of hospitality entrepreneurs together!
Past updates from the director
December 2025
As we reflect on the past year, I am incredibly proud of the forward momentum the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship has made. Our progress is all because of the community—students, faculty, alumni, and industry partners—that continues to strengthen our mission and our impact. This year marked a deliberate move back to our roots, reaffirming our commitment to our core pillars, Engagement, Experiential Learning, and Education:
Engagement of students, faculty, and the entrepreneurial community both at Cornell and within the hospitality industry
Experiential Learning to connect students with real-world application of classroom learning
Education of students and alumni
Looking ahead, we are excited to celebrate our 20th Anniversary in 2026, a milestone that reflects our enduring commitment to empowering the next generation of hospitality entrepreneurs!
We look forward to marking this moment together, and I wish you all the best for the holiday season!
Christy McDowell Director
December 2024
As the end of the calendar year is upon us, it signals a time of reflection and a period of change, both personally and professionally. We take time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, where we may have fallen short, and, of course, what’s next in the coming year. Personally, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship.
This fall, we’ve had so many meaningful moments that truly communicated the essence of hospitality entrepreneurship.
In collaboration with others, we completed/achieved the following:
We presented the Hospitality Hackathon with Hilton (71 student participants) and ran the Hospitality Pitch Deck Competition (24 student teams).
We hosted a “Restaurant Entrepreneurship & Development” roundtable, bringing together over 24 entrepreneurs to discuss the current factors impacting restaurant operations, new opportunities for value creation, and plans for the future of the industry.
We held a networking event for current and aspiring undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs—all of which opened up creativity, innovation, and important conversation around hospitality entrepreneurship.
We welcomed six Entrepreneurs in Residence to campus this semester. They spent time meeting with students, offering business development advice, and sharing insights on networking and careers. They also spoke in classes, held fireside and coffee chats, met with student clubs, and judged competitions and class presentations, providing invaluable feedback to students.
We offered the “Conversations with Entrepreneurs” class. Over the semester, students engaged with 12 entrepreneurs who shared their knowledge on everything from product development with customer input to scaling the business and raising funds from venture capital investors.
And we kicked off the Hospitality Business Plan Competition with 27 teams (77 students) applying to compete this year. I’m excited about the diversity of business ideas submitted for the hospitality entrepreneurship space.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to welcome our new executive director in January, whose leadership will further strengthen our mission and impact.
All these moments reinforce a core value of hospitality entrepreneurship—the importance of human connection.
Cheers to an exciting year ahead!
Christy McDowell Interim Executive and Academic Director
June 2024
Welcome to the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE), the entrepreneurial hub of the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. In our role as directors, we steward the institute and execute the vision of our founders, Lee ’69 and Mary Pillsbury and our Advisory Board and serve as an integral component of Cornell’s tradition as an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.
PIHE has three missions tethered to the common goal of incubating and promoting entrepreneurial excellence in the hospitality industry. As an educational institute, our first mission is to guide and inspire the innovators of tomorrow, our students. Additionally, PIHE is a community where our board, our students and other hospitality entrepreneurs collaborate and innovate. Third, our faculty and staff consistently confront questions at the forefront of the hospitality industry and develop new theories regarding the path to entrepreneurial success.
Our programming is the conduit through which PIHE accomplishes its missions. Our Entrepreneurs in Residence program brings successful entrepreneurs from across the country to Ithaca to work with our student entrepreneurs. Additionally, PIHE offers three annual hospitality entrepreneurship competitions including a hackathon, a pitch deck competition, and a business plan competition and we produce several roundtable events annually where faculty, professionals and students discuss pertinent topics at the vanguard of hospitality entrepreneurship.
In the future, we will emphasize incubating and developing student businesses from concept through creation via a series of modifications to existing programs and curriculum. Also, there are new and exciting programs under development. Whether you are student, an alumnus or a hospitality entrepreneur, we invite you to contact us and connect.
