News from Westchester’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Featuring news, entrepreneur profiles, and mentorship and growth opportunities

Element 46 Alum Chosen for

Business Council of Westchester's

Westchester Innovation Network (WIN)

Congratulations to two graduates of the Fall 2022 cohort of the Element 46 Tech Accelerator powered by Cela, who have been selected to participate in the Business Council of Westchester's WIN program.

Mark Ferguson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Innervation Finance (IF), a cloud-based Fintech platform focused on addressing the access to capital challenges of small and medium sized businesses, particularly those run by women and people of color. The company’s technology allows it to seamlessly accelerate payments cheaply and efficiently to vendors when their customers demand longer payment cycles. IF’s innovative solution improves working capital, increases cashflow and strengthens the buyer-supplier relationship through the releasing of liquidity locked up in global supply chains.

Traci Jones is the Founder/Inventor of Everfoam Products. EverFoam’s mission is to provide a solution to dwindling helium availability through innovative alternatives, and to build products that delight event planners and party decor retailers, while driving down use of critical helium reserves.

Apply to the

New York I-Corps Hub x Gotham Innovation Gambit

Spring 2023 Bootcamp

Have an exciting research discovery or idea? Are you ready to learn what it takes to create your own startup?

The New York City Hot Spot, along with the New York I-Corps Hub and CUNY I-Corps, is continuing to facilitate entrepreneurship with its entrepreneurial training course, the Gotham Innovation Gambit. The Gotham Innovation Gambit enables participating teams to develop a business model and understand and perform customer discovery, the process of evolving the product market fit based on intensive customer feedback.

The bootcamp is designed to teach scientists, inventors and first-time entrepreneurs the fundamental building blocks of the Agile Development and the Lean Launchpad methodology – in particular, Customer Discovery and the Business Model Canvas (Value Propositions, Customer Segments, and Distribution Channels).

Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis until 12:00 PM Wednesday, March 15, 2023. Apply here.

It's Time to Start Something New!

Apply to Westchester County's Launch1000 Today

Launch1000 is a free program offered in English and Spanish to any Westchester County resident who is looking to launch a new income stream or pivot an existing venture.

This action-based accelerator provides a step-by-step framework to test, validate, de-risk, and/or launch your venture. Participate in live workshops each week and tap into weekly office hours with coaches. You'll receive feedback from experienced entrepreneurs during every step of your journey, expand your network and gain support from a vibrant community of hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs.

More than 365 ventures have gotten off the ground with Launch1000 and yours could be next. Apply today!

New York State Small Business Revolving Loan Fund Round 2

Did you know? New York State has a small business revolving loan fund that provides loans to small businesses, ranging from $500 to $2 million. Many different types of businesses are eligible and the loan can be used for many purposes. More information can be found here.

Seeking Financial Mentors for College Student Teams Participating in 11th Annual

Mid-Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition

The Mid-Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition is looking for judges and mentors – especially financial mentors – for student teams applying to participate in the 11^th Annual event, which will be hosted in-person on campus at Marist College, March 31, 2023

Application here. Mentoring can all be done remotely.

Interested in the Life Sciences Sector? Sign Up for Our Newsletter Today!

Are you an entrepreneur in the life science space? Sign-up to receive our weekly newsletter, which features news, events and industry trends. Click here to register and to see an archive of past newsletters.