Editor's note: The Founders Night event received funding from the NYU Entrepreneurs Network Collaboration Fund. The Collaboration Fund provides grants to help promote entrepreneurship across NYU via cross-club collaboration. This post was originally published on the NYU Stern ESA blog.

Any founder knows that networking is a necessary part of the job. From pitching to friends and family to seeking executive advice to recruiting cofounders and employees, there are many exhausting conversations to be had.

After talking to some entrepreneurs at NYU, we got the sense that there is never time to talk to other peers that truly understand what it’s like to be a founder today. On Friday, November 16th, NYU Stern’s Entrepreneurship and Startup Association (ESA) and NYU InnoVention Society (IVS) teamed up to host an event at the Leslie eLab, where fellow founders could feel free to do just that: NYU Founders Night.

This was a night for NYU undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni founders to take a break from juggling all of the work on their plate, grab some refreshments and connect with founders like them.

Just to name a few…

NYU Founders Night: Students and alumni enjoy some conversation (+ Dos Toros)

Liz Holden, Russell Lieberman, and William Brower founded WiseWallet, a startup focused on impact spending, which allows consumers to see exactly what they are supporting with each individual purchase.

Concier, created by Tony Lew and Rahul Bhaskar, is a chatbot that alleviates the pain of making shopping decisions and provides instant, reliable product recommendations based on shopper’s needs.

Caleb Simmons launched ScrollGrade, allowing educators to grade short answer work in 85% less time.

Habit House promotes wellness habits to empower career-driven women like Ilse Paanakker herself.

Rachel Serwetz is the founder of WOKEN, a career exploration platform helping job seekers figure out what job they’ll actually like before they begin the search process.

Susty Express, created by Mia Overall, helps sustainability managers optimize their time.

These are just a few examples of the amazing founders in attendance. Needless to say, we are very proud of our NYU community, and would love to host another event like this one. A big “thank you” to all of the founders who participated, The Leslie eLab for hosting, as well as IVS for being consistently great partners!