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The NYU Entrepreneurial Institute launched its 2025 Summer Launchpad (SLP) on June 10, welcoming a cohort of 11 innovative teams to embark on a journey to refine their business models, gain traction, and position 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 challenged the founders to rework their mission statements to be clearer and more memorable. Teams also discussed ways to define the company's values in a concise, actionable way, as they continue to shape future decision-making and day-to-day operations.
Workshop: Competition
Kunal Mehta (Stern ‘11), partner at Isos Capital, led a workshop on understanding and building defensibility in startups. The session addressed ways to differentiate virality from network effects and analyzed platform dependency risks.
Workshop: Translating Customer Needs into Product
Product leader and author Giff Constable, who has led product at companies including Meetup, walked the founders through frameworks for discovering user pain points and translating results into product decisions. Teams worked on exercises that help them tie customer problems to features and avoid traps such as building on assumptions rather than evidence.
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.
The alumni shared their own pivots and challenges throughout the program, advising founders to make the most of mentorship and the SLP community while focusing on self-care.
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 with.”
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!
