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The NYU Entrepreneurial Institute marked the launch of its 2025 Summer Launchpad (SLP) on June 10, welcoming a cohort of 11 innovative teams on the path to refining their business models, gaining traction, and positioning their ventures for scale and funding.
Week 1 Recap:
Workshop: Crafting Mission, Vision, & Values
The nine-week accelerator kicked off with an interactive workshop, led by Dasha Rettew (Gallatin ‘14), co-founder & president of Reservoir Advisors Inc., who invited the founders to pitch and reshape their mission statements to be bolder, clearer and more memorable. Teams also explored strategies for defining company core values, focusing on keeping them concise, distinctive and practical as they continue to guide decision-making and day-to-day operations.
Workshop: Competition
Kunal Mehta (Stern ‘11), partner at Isos Capital, led a session on understanding and building defensibility in startups, with an emphasis on network effects. Participants discussed distinguishing virality from network effects, explored types such as direct, data, and provider network effects, and analyzed platform dependency risks. Through case studies, teams examined strategies to strengthen competitive positioning, including leveraging data moats, switching costs, and real-life operational differentiation. The workshop also encouraged startups to connect customer discovery insights to product development for stronger competitive advantages.
Workshop: Translating Customer Needs into Product
Drawing on his experience leading product at companies like Meetup, product leader and author Giff Constable guided the founders through practical frameworks for identifying user pain points and converting insights into actionable product decisions. Participants practiced mapping customer problems to features, defining hypotheses to test, and avoiding common pitfalls like building based on assumptions instead of evidence. The interactive session equipped teams with tools to stay focused on real user needs while building and iterating MVPs.
Alumni Panel: Making the Most Out of SLP
Meet four alumni from the 2024 Summer Launchpad who returned on June 11 to share their journeys with this year's cohort:
- Julia Maksimova (Stern ‘25): Founder of Mova, a platform that solves the temporary housing needs for the modern nomad.
- Dror Margalit (Tisch ITP ‘24): Co-Founder of Context, a fully AI-generated learning platform that empathizes with learners’ needs and goals to improve their learning experience at scale.
- Henry Armistead (SPS ‘24): Founder of Hedge, a robo-advisor for sports gambling.
- Ansh Jhaveri (CAS ‘24): Co-Founder of Intoit, a nightlife app designed to match users to their ideal nights out, on demand.
Drawing from their own pivots and challenges during the program, the alumni emphasized the importance of listening to customers, questioning assumptions and staying open to feedback — all without losing sight of their passion for the business. They encouraged founders to take full advantage of mentorship and the SLP community while prioritizing self-care, rest and effective time management throughout the journey.
Check out some key quotes from the panel:
Julia Maksimova: “Once you realize who [your] segment is, just niche in, and really understand your metrics.”
Ansh Jhaveri: “Within three weeks of Summer Launchpad, we had completely scrapped the original project that we've been working on for a year-plus. We were able to build something that we were significantly prouder of, happier of.”
Dror Margalit: “You gotta keep testing and keep doing stuff. It's okay to challenge your assumptions.”
Henry Armistead: “I think my biggest advice would be to focus on your product and focus on your customer.”
Darren Yee (moderator): “It’s important to understand that it is a business. It is a passion, and people can really see that you're passionate about it.”
Stay tuned for more highlights as the summer unfolds!
