Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Stampede.It takes first place at Syracuse Student Sandbox Demo Day

Thursday, August 18, 2011, By J.D. Ross
Share
entrepreneurshipSchool of Information Studies

Seventeen teams of students and recent graduates from nine colleges across Upstate New York pitched their startup businesses Aug. 17 at the Syracuse Student Sandbox Demo Day at the Syracuse Tech Garden.

The Syracuse Student Sandbox is an incubator that helps aspiring young entrepreneurs move their ventures from the idea phase to a viable company. The Sandbox provides each team with a workspace, resources and access to five mentors in areas such as business development, design and law.

John Liddy, Entrepreneur in Residence at the Sandbox, is responsible for shepherding the teams through the process. “At the Sandbox, we give students a choice,” says Liddy. “They don’t just go to school to get a job, they go to school to create jobs.”

In its third year of hosting summer teams, the Sandbox has a strong track record. Forty percent of Sandbox companies are still in business, and of those, nearly three-quarters have chosen to stay in the Upstate New York region.

Standing on a stage in the AXA tower adjacent to the Tech Garden building in downtown Syracuse, each team was given five minutes to pitch their business idea to an audience of more than 200 venture capitalists, investors, academics and business people. The winning team, based on judges’ votes as well as audience votes, would receive $1,000.

The winner was Stampede.It, a web-based company that offers discounts on digital merchandise based on a group discount. Similar in practice to the popular deals site Groupon, Stampede.It focuses on digital content like games, apps and e-books.

Stampede.It is the brainchild of Justin Groden and Conrad Barrett. Groden is a 2008 graduate of Clarkson University, and Barrett is finishing up his studies at Monroe Community College and plans to head on to New York University.

The Syracuse Student Sandbox is part of the Raymond von Dran Innovation and Disruptive Entrepreneurship Accelerator (IDEA), and is sponsored at Syracuse University by the School of Information Studies, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Whitman School of Management, and through an Enitiative award. Enitiative is funded by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., focusing on entrepreneurship in the arts, technology and neighborhoods.

PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Groden (left) and Conrad Barrett with their $1,000 prize.

PHOTO CREDIT: Maren Guse

  • Author

J.D. Ross

  • Recent
  • Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion
    Monday, July 7, 2025, By John Boccacino
  • Empowering Learners With Personalized Microcredentials, Stackable Badges
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Hope Alvarez
  • WISE Women’s Business Center Awarded Grant From Empire State Development, Celebrates Entrepreneur of the Year Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Dawn McWilliams
  • Rose Tardiff ’15: Sparking Innovation With Data, Mapping and More
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By News Staff
  • Paulo De Miranda G’00 Received ‘Much More Than a Formal Education’ From Maxwell
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Jessica Youngman

More In STEM

6 A&S Physicists Awarded Breakthrough Prize

Our universe is dominated by matter and contains hardly any antimatter, a notion which still perplexes top scientists researching at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but now nearly everything—solid, liquid, gas or plasma—is…

Setting the Standard and Ensuring Justice

Everyone knows DNA plays a crucial role in solving crimes—but what happens when the evidence is of low quantity, degraded or comes from multiple individuals? One of the major challenges for forensic laboratories is interpreting this type of DNA data…

Student Innovations Shine at 2025 Invent@SU Presentations

Eight teams of engineering students presented designs for original devices to industry experts and investors at Invent@SU Final Presentations. This six-week summer program allows students to design, prototype and pitch their inventions to judges. During the program, students learn about…

WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony

This spring, Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) held its annual Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Award Ceremony. WiSE was honored to host distinguished guest speaker Joan-Emma Shea, who presented “Self-Assembly of the Tau Protein: Computational Insights Into Neurodegeneration.” Shea…

Endowed Professorship Recognizes Impact of a Professor, Mentor and Advisor

Bao-Ding “Bob” Cheng’s journey to Syracuse University in pursuit of graduate education in the 1960s was long and arduous. He didn’t have the means for air travel, so he voyaged more than 5,000 nautical miles by boat from his home…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.