Daniel Goldberg, founder of Golden Gear, won second place in the products and services category in the fifth annual New York Business Plan Competition. The finals were held Friday, April 25, at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany. Goldberg secured $5,000 in funding.
Daniel Goldberg, second from left, received $5,000 in the RvD IDEA Awards. From left are Tony Kershaw, IDEA assistant director; Goldberg; Gisela von Dran, emeritus professor at the iSchool and benefactor of the RvD IDEA Awards; and Stacey Keefe, IDEA director.
Golden Gear is a fight gear company that provides superior quality training equipment for unmatched protection and performance with the mission of significantly reducing the chance of training injuries.
Ninety-two teams from 36 colleges/universities competed for $500,000 in awards in the Albany competition. David Pierre and Corey Jackson, founders of ElectroChem Tracking, took home the Team Spirit Award in the biotechnology/healthcare category. ElectroChem Tracking is building a biosensor that monitors hip implant corrosion levels with the ability to communicate through Bluetooth to an app on a computer or tablet.
Advlo, created by Jonathan Maser, Jeff Fine, Miguel Sancho, Caroline Castro and Willy Smith, and TOCK, created by Rachel Samples, Jacquie Greco, Pat McGowan and Mike Escalante, both received Rookie of the Year Awards. Advlo was in the social entrepreneurship/nonprofit category and serves as a community marketplace that empowers locals to upload and offer adventures and allows travelers to search and book these adventures on-site. TOCK was in the information technology/software category and is an anti-social media mobile application that engages users to disengage from their phones.
Thirty-nine Syracuse University teams competed in the New York Business Plan Competition regionals held at Emerging Talk, a two day entrepreneurship expo organized by IDEA at Syracuse University.
Glauconix, a team from Albany, won the $100,000 grand prize. Glauconix is a technology that allows for more effective drug screening to prevent glaucoma. Ph.D. student Karen Torrenjon began to develop the technology four years ago after a doctor she worked with expressed frustration at the current methods of drug screening for glaucoma and wondered if there was a better model.
In addition to organizing Emerging Talk, the Raymond von Dran IDEA provides contacts, resources and funding support for student entrepreneurs at Syracuse University. To learn more about IDEA, email idea@syr.edu.
