Starry-eyed Yale innovators are joined by potential investors, community leaders and practitioners to reimagine the future at Startup Yale, scheduled for April 3-5 at the Yale School of Management.
Featuring the lure of Yale’s largest entrepreneurship awards — four prizes available totaling $100,000 — Startup Yale promises three days packed with pitches, prizes and potentially world-changing ideas.
The Startup Yale speakers roster includes Zoë Geller, founder and chief culinary officer of Zoni Foods; Sam Teicher, co-founder and “chief reef officer” of Coral Vita (an enterprise that grows coral to restore endangered reefs); and Ben Young, co-founder of the furniture design and fabrication company Hugo & Hoby.
Startup Yale prizewinners from 2018 included Concha Aquaponic Solutions, Penta Innovations (which repurposes used medical equipment for amputees in developing companies), Snackpass (a snacking app said now to be in use by some 80 percent of Yale College students) and the financial-technology company Raise Green.
The event kicks off with an April 3 “Women in Venture” breakfast session for Yale students with Insight Venture Partners, a global firm that invests in growth-stage software and internet companies and has $20 billion in assets under management. The event takes place from 8:30-10 a.m. in the Omni New Haven Hotel’s Chapel Room.
Eleven student innovation teams square off for an opportunity to take their innovative ideas to the next level as part of the “Tsai CITY Accelerator Pitch-Off” 5-7 p.m. April 4 at SOM. From 7-9 p.m. the same day the Startup Yale Venture Market is a lively showcase of student creations for sale and sampling.
While applications for student innovation teams closed March 8, Startup Yale is free and open to the public for attendees. Most events take place at SOM’s Evans Hall, 165 Whitney Ave. Registration is required.
