Student Sandbox

Summer ‘12 Student Sandbox Applications Now OPEN!

The Summer 2012 Syracuse Student Sandbox application process is now open!

Apply to be a part of the program that’s help build: BrandYourself, Grafighters, Broodr, Helios, Skill Addiction, and has sent alumni to organizations like hack NY,  dell social innovation challenge, and the global student entrepreneurs awards.

The Syracuse Student Sandbox is an incubator that helps aspiring entrepreneurs push their ventures from idea to company. Unlike other incubators, the Sandbox does not currently claim ownership to any part of the student companies: Students participating in the program maintain 100% equity in their companies. The program is open to any student or student team from any accredited academic institution.

If you are interested in applying, please go the Student Sandbox Website and hit APPLY. You will be taken to an application management site run by Gust, where you will need to set-up an account. Applications will be accepted until 8pm ET April 4^th, 2012. An early acceptance period will end close of business March 27^th, 2012. Those chosen for early admission will be announced at Emerging Talk on March 30^th. The summer cycle will begin on May 30th, 2012.

As a reminder, here are the criteria for entry:

Product – The Sandbox is not for ideas, it is for products and services ready to accelerate their growth. A prototype, or even better an Alpha or Beta product/service, is required for entry.

Team – You have a team in place (or at least identified) Do you have a hacker, designer and hustler (or subject matter equivalents)?

Market – You should have a defined target market that has a need for your product or service.

Model – Your business model should ensure the sustainability of your firm. Simple concept, but not always well defined.

Eligibility: Any student led team from upstate New York is eligible. Not all members of the team are required to be enrolled in school (or from upstate New York).

Program: The course follows a 12 week process that takes teams through 3 phases:

   Business > Product Development > Finances

• Every team is provided up to five mentors to assist in their acceleration: lawyers, accountants, subject matter experts, experienced entrepreneurs, and technical mentors
• Weekly meetings for all to discuss general topics, as well as individual team meetings to gauge progress
• Each team is provided physical space in the Student Sandbox at the Tech Garden
• PERKS! Including: free administered storage on RackSpace, media coverage, internship matching and food #nomnomnom

 Demo Day: The program culminates in Demo Day scheduled for August 15^th, 2012.

If you have any questions about the application process or the Sandbox itself, please drop us a line: john@thetechgarden.com

Emerging Talk - A Conversation About Student Startups

Emerging Talk is an informal 2-day conference created by students for students everywhere! We’re talking startups, how to raise ca$h, find co-founders, mentors, share our, ‘been there, done that’ lessons learned and try to give away some money while we’re at it.

We (students at Syracuse University) created Emerging Talk three years ago to give our peers the opportunity to meet other innovators, share knowledge, find uniquely talented team members, and give us the chance to display what we’ve been hacking away on in our dorm rooms, labs and the semester-long projects that have taken on a life of their own. We’ve grown from 50 students in year one to 200+ from Syracuse, RIT, SUNY Binghamton, LeMoyne, SUNY ESF, Cornell, Ithaca, MCC and Clarkson University to name a few this year!

What’s New: During the Demo Alley, we’re also offering a startup career fair. Many of the teams showcasing their products and services are also competing for the RvD awards, which gives out $120,000 in seed funding on Friday from 1pm - 5pm. That means there will be plenty of PAID INTERNSHIPS up for grabs this summer! Honestly, life’s short - why wouldn’t you want to work for some awesome, hardworking folks, who are building stuff that actually matters? Did we mention you could be working in a great place with ping pong, free programming lessons, and epic shenanigans.

Why we don’t want JUST business majors (sorry guys). In an effort to facilitate the magic, which we strongly believe comes from cross-discipline teams, we’re looking for unique brains, perspectives and skill sets of: product designers, sound engineers, metal smiths, public health majors, chemists and photo journalists, etc. PLEASE NOTE: You don’t have to be competing for any awards, you don’t have to be a student, and you don’t have to have a full-fledged company to attend. We love interacting with curious individuals and community members interested in mentoring. Our goal is connect campuses and communities with the massive amount of FREE resources here in Upstate. So register, snag a name tag and nosh on some yummy food while you network!

Free to register: http://www.emergingtalk.com

Startups, Cool Tech and Funding for Students 3/29-3/30

Emerging Talk Day 1

Thursday, March 29, 2012 – University Sheraton Hotel 

4:00pm – 6:00pm Talks by Students Founders and Alumni with Startups

6:15pm – 7:30pm  90 Second Quick Pitch Competition - $500 Cash Prize

7:45pm  Happy Hour at Citrus with Panelists, Students, Alumni, & Investors

Emerging Talk Day 2

Friday, March 30, 2012 – Newhouse III

Student companies competing for the Raymond von Dran IDEA Awards will be eligible to win portions of a $120,000 seed funding pool. APPLY for funding until 3/24. 

1:00-4:50   RvD IDEA Pitches for $120,000 in seed funding

•   Business Ventures in Experimental Media Lab  Room 254
•   Nonprofit Organizations in Room 252
•   Products and Services in Room 463
•   Green in Room 436
•   Invention and Creativity Competition in Room(s) 432 and 434

Teach Me How To Ruby

Ever wanted to learn how to build a website, create a mobile app or just edit your damn word press blog without waiting weeks for the IT guy to do it?

Then, come #Learn 2code in the Student Sandbox every Friday from 3pm – 5pm at the Tech Garden!

Just bring your laptop and we’ll supply the rest.

With every new topic, local developers like our very own Rounded.Co and Startup Weekend Syracuse folks will stop by. These people have generously donated their time and badass skills to teach us some serious knowledge. We’ll be working on HTML/CSS for the next two or three weeks then moving on to Javascript, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Android and iOS. Don’t worry if you’ve never coded before all different skill levels are welcome.

As if you really needed more convincing…. Top 5 reasons to swing on by

5. Let’s face facts here - you’ll never actually sit down and learn a new language or skill unless you’re registered for a class

4. Why not give yourself the opportunity to really live that baller lifestyle you’ve been betting your buddies you would since 3^rd grade. (Average starting salary for a good programmer - $100k+)

3. Ahhhhhhhh… I know I’ve totally got the next Pinterest or Twitter BUT #IjustNEEDaProgrammer to build it!

2. You have a sneaking suspicion that the firm you’re outsourcing to is laughing all the way to the bank. If only you spoke their language…

1.  Because programming has now become a requisite for being culturally literate . Luckily, you decided to come on down to the Tech Garden and learn to code.  And wouldn’t you know, you just landed you an interview at that hot new startup by wittingly using phrases like, “backbone” and ” ruby scaffolding,” while chatting up that stranger at SXSW

We’ll be using free online resources like: Cold School, Code Academy, and Rails for zombies, which you can re-use again on your own time. We’ve also set-up a phenomenal group discount with tree house (an awesome video library from master programmers)! Earn badges, bragging rights and produce actual projects - for $9/month with unlimited viewing. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you on Fridays!

Any questions? Tweet: @eruscitto or email: studentsandboxny@gmail.com

Phewwww…. we’re back

Hi All,

Apologies. We’ve been remiss at posting (really we means me … E, your well meaning and whirling dervish of a GA). There’s a lot going on and we haven’t stopped growing since our Demo Day in August. 

Right now we’ve got Idea 2 startup, which translates concepts into prototypes and the sandbox where we take those prototypes and bring them to market. You can follow the conversations, shared resources and fun schtuff via our handles.

Check out our pitches on Ustream here:

We’ll always post our teams, guest panelists, roundtables, awesome classes by our EIR @JohnLiddy, and other startup events. Team check-ins are on Friday’s from 10am - 1pm ET so excuse our excessive tweeting during those times.

We’re open to students around the world, and are currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 cycle. A sandbox cycle is a 14-week iteratively intensive and customer acquisition focused program. Teams which are accepted are assigned 5 personalized mentors including a lawyer, accountant, subject matter expert, professor, and veteran entrepreneur. Students are also eligible for seed funding through the RvD IDEA awards. Applications are due February 17th and can be found through the IDEA site.

Check out our calendar for business plan,events and pitch competitions!

T-2 weeks …. Demo Day is August 17th!!

SCHEDULE

3:00 PM Kick-Off AXA Towers Lobby

3:15 PM Pitches AXA Towers 2 Rounds 5 Min / ea.

6:00 PM Demo Alley Tech Garden Reception & Voting

7:30 PM Winners Announced AXA Towers Judge / Crowd Favorites

*8:30 PM After Party Armory Square TBD

*Please RSVP here: http://studentpitches.eventbrite.com

EVENT

Demo Day 2011 is FREE and open to the public.

The Tech Garden & AXA Towers

235 Harrison Street - Downtown Syracuse

Wednesday, August 17

WHO’S THE NEXT ROCKSTAR?

google stanford grad

microsoft harvard undergrad

fedex yale undergrad

facebook harvard undergrad

yahoo stanford grad

wordpress houston undergrad

reddit uva undergrad

57 STUDENTS • 21 TEAMS • 70 MENTORS

SANDBOX DEMO DAY 2011

Stampede.it: Trample the deal, lower the price

Growndswell: the future of social event planning – know who’s going to be where

Activ Music: A concert booking and Interactive Media Experience

Venue Spy: “See it… Live it…”

Safe Sip: SafeSip Tech + Transport serves to provide safety to students during their college experience.

Luuxki: Luukxi is desirable discovery. We combine location, contacts, local search and useful offers to help you see where you

are, who’s nearby to engage and what to enjoy while saving money.

Helios Innovative Technology: UV-C sterilization that’s changing the world.

Portfolio Portal & CollegeArts.com: The Online Gallery for College Artists of All Kinds

Write Flick: The ability to annotate anywhere on the web and then share in one click

DownUpDesign: is a cutting-edge website design and mobile application development firm

The Front: The Front is a hub for Public Interest Design, a tool for Syracuse to realize its potential as a vibrant city, and a

storefront transforming neglected spaces into points of public pride

Meeting Sprout: an online community of individuals, groups and businesses that do not have time to trade multiple phone

calls, text messages or emails to schedule meetings

One Place: One Place is an e-portfolio platform, selective for influential creators in the entertainment industry - it strives to be a

virtual talent agency

Animalysis: What kind of Animal are you? Animalysis is a web-based service that allows users to upload their Garmin HR data

and receive a physiological profile.

Cans for Causes empowers philanthropy through the everyday act of recycling

iGetMoreFit: iGetMoreFit Turns an iPhone or iPod Touch into the ultimate all-in-one fitness computer by connects a users’

iPhone or iPod Touch to four types of wireless fitness sensors (heart rate monitors, foot pods, weight scales, and ANT+ multisport

GPS), from over twenty of the most popular names in fitness, including Adidas miCoach, Garmin, and Timex

ProActive Computer Services is an Information Technology Service and Integration Company dedicated to providing nonvendor

specific computing systems networking, web design and development, security audits and implementation, and

technical training services for our clients

Tagg Lynx: A sidebar offering engaging conversation on what you’re browsing, with those who share your interests

Bloodhound: We crawl the internet for information about users’ favorite authors to satisfy the rabid fan within us all

Persona: Persona is a mobile application that helps the user meet new people, share contact information, and discover local

points of interest.

Demo Day is August 17th!!

Teams: 21; Students: 57; Mentors: 71

We are in week 9 of the 2011 class of the Syracuse Student Sandbox. Many teams have made significant progress.There have had a dozen workshops and many successful interactions with folks from the startup and the Alumni community. 

 Save the date: August 17^th for demo day. We are looking to make this a true celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit. While the final schedule is not set in stone, the current anticipated schedule is:

3:00        Welcome Remarks                                                    AXA

3:15        Pitches (5 minutes, no Q&A)                                      AXA

4:30        Break                                                                       AXA/Tech Garden

4:45        Pitches (5 minutes, no Q&A)                                      AXA

6:00        Tradeshow/demos/crowd voting                                  Sandbox/Tech Garden

7:30        Awards                                                                     AXA

8:00        Dinner on your own                                                    Downtown

10:00     After party                                                                  TBD

Due to the expected turnout, we have secured space in the lobby of AXA towers which is adjacent to the Tech Garden for this event. In the future this space will be known as Sandbox II for our alumni and graduate teams.

As many as 21 teams will be pitching with:

3-5 judges will vote on teams     50%

Attendees will vote on teams    50%

—————

So what will you see on demo day? Here is a schedule of where teams stand regarding product releases:

Company

Status

Date

Act1v Music

Alpha

15-Jul

Bloodhound

Alpha

17-Aug

Calibr

Alpha

17-Aug

Growndswell

Alpha

15-Jul

Helios

Alpha

17-Aug

iGetMoreFit

Release

18-Jul

Lujo

Alpha

31-Jul

Luukxi

Alpha

17-Aug

Meeting Sprout

Beta

30-Jul

PortfolioPortal.com

Alpha

29-Jul

SafeSip Technologies

Alpha

17-Aug

Stampede.It

Beta 2.0

12-Jul

Tagglynx

Alpha

10-Aug

Touch-Not

Alpha

17-Aug

Venue Spy

Beta

22-Jul

WriteFlick

Alpha

5-Aug

We hope to see you on demo day! Please @ us on twitter or email us with any questions!

Cheers