Stay up to date on upcoming events, deadlines, news, and more by signing up for our newsletters!

Nine weeks. Ten fearless teams. And a mentor roster that has collectively built unicorns, taken companies public, and shipped products used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. While our Summer Launchpad founders are pressure-testing business models through relentless customer discovery and iteration, these entrepreneurs and investors are volunteering their time and their candor, to push every team further than they could go alone.

Investor Mentors

1. Pankaj Jain (Stern '95):  Managing Partner, Saka Ventures; former Partner at 500 Startups with 60+ investments across India, South Asia, and the US; ex-JP Morgan and LTCM.
2. Mirit Lugassi:  Investor, Laconia Capital; former fintech operator turned VC; co-built SeedImpact connecting mission-driven angels with underrepresented founders.
3. KJ Singh: Founder, Leo Ventures; spent 12 years at Techstars backing 200+ founders whose companies have raised $1B+ in follow-on capital.
4. Amy Ho (Courant, Stern '20): Emerging Tech & Partnerships, PepsiCo; managed two Greenhouse accelerator cohorts delivering $600K in grants to food & beverage startups; board member, Naturally New York.
5. Neil Harounian (Stern): Co-Founder & GP, Maximum Frequency Ventures; a decade bridging traditional investment banking with early-stage blockchain and digital assets.
6. Brandon Osian (Stern '27): Investor, Alumni Ventures ($1.4B AUM); co-hosted the Venture Pill podcast with 150+ episodes; mentors veterans transitioning into entrepreneurship.
7. Thomson Nguyen (Courant): Co-Founder, Saga Ventures; 2× exited founder who previously founded Framed Data (acq. Square) and led data science at Square Capital.
8. Ash Cleary (Stern '21): Principal, LDV Capital; invests in visual tech and AI from pre-product to seed across North America, Europe, and Israel.
9. Jaspreet Singh: Operating Partner, Collaborative Fund; leads firm-wide AI stack strategy and portfolio support; board roles across multiple portfolio companies.
10. Adam Sah: Founder, Zero Capital; 10 exits, 3 IPOs, 25 patents, early engineering lead at Google, one in three of his portfolio companies has become a unicorn.
11. Skylar Dorosin: Principal, Newark Venture Partners; seed-stage investor in fintech, industrial, and healthcare; ex-BetterUp, Justworks, and Level.
12. Jeremy Kagan: Managing Partner, Textbook Ventures; teaches Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Columbia, Cornell, and NYU Stern; two-time published author.
13. Nihir Patel (CAS '11): Founder, Kurbside Partners; practicing anesthesiologist and healthcare innovator who helped launch Elementa Labs at Mount Sinai.
14. Craig Wilson (Stern): Venture Partner, Collaborative Fund; former Executive Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at NYU Tandon; co-founder of The Crop Project.
15. Kunal Mehta (Stern '11): Managing Partner, Isos Capital; focused on media and entertainment; ex-Hearst Ventures and published author on notable VCs and founders.
16. Aya Somai: Investor, NEA ($25B+ AUM); focused on early-stage infrastructure and AI/ML; ex-J.P. Morgan M&A.
17. Michael Bank (Stern '24): Entrepreneur pipeline lead, Fidelity Labs; drives startup ideation and founder advising at one of finance's most storied institutions.
18. Navi Singh: Investment Partner, Taisu Ventures; ex-Sinai Capital Partners and Antler; bridges university research and commercial applications.
19. Joe West: Founder, Launch AI; tech executive with experience across Cover Whale, Radian Capital, and Wunderkind.
20. Kabir Kochhar (Stern '06): Managing Partner, Audacity Venture Capital; backs companies across India and the US reshaping the global media landscape.
21. Andy Bilinsky: Partner, Interplay VC; serial founder and company builder turned investor.
22. Zoe van den Bol (Stern '21): Investor, Alpha Partners; generalist with deals in supply chain and AI infrastructure; ex-Rosecliff.

Entrepreneur Mentors

1. Jeff Levick (CAS '93): CEO, We Are Rosie; former Spotify CRO who scaled the platform from 1M to 40M+ subscribers; original member of Google's advertising team; Executive Director at NYU Entrepreneurial Institute.
2. Karen Gordon (Tisch ITP): Founder, WE Design Think; has coached 200+ teams across NSF I-Corps, Techstars, NYU, and Northwestern on customer discovery and commercialization.
3. Rob Weitzner (Steinhardt Faculty): Founder, Love & Money Ventures; builds at the intersection of music, tech, and entrepreneurship.
4. Drew Silverstein: Co-Founder, Amper Music (acq. Shutterstock); 4× founder with 23 patents; turned Shutterstock's music division into its fastest-growing business.
5. Laura Rocha (Wagner '20): Founder, Dathic; ex-UN, Colombian government, and NYC Mayor's Office; uses data and technology to help CPG companies grow.
6. Austin Hunt (Tandon '18): CTO & Co-Founder, Stepwise; ex-Raytheon radar engineer and founder of NYU's Motorsports team.
7. Jackie Kroeger-Donovan (Steinhardt '10, Stern '20): CS & AM leader, Loop AI; 10+ years scaling SaaS and edtech from early stage through acquisition; started her career as a restaurant owner in NYC.
8. Dan Kantor (Tisch ITP '05): Founder, Dankcolabs; two-time exited founder (Exfm, Streampad) with deep roots in AI, audio, and media product.
9. Oscar Adelman (Stern '17): Founder & CEO, Remi; ex-Sinai Ventures VC turned founder making custom night guards affordable.
10. Christopher Vinckier: Sr. Director, Home Audio Devices, Dolby; 20+ years across Apple, Amazon, and Cisco building streaming media products.
11. Jo Schneier: Founder & CEO, Circle; built and sold two edtech companies; TEDMed speaker tackling health outcomes for older adults.
12. Yasser Ansari (Tisch ITP '10): Founder, Polymer; builds products tackling environmental education, end-of-life care, and analytics; collaborates with Google and Pinterest.
13. Dana Mauriello (Stern Faculty): Serial entrepreneur; former Etsy exec, Sidewalk Labs advisor, and NYU Stern entrepreneurship instructor.
14. Takayuki Kihara: Director, NEC X; bridges NEC's global enterprise capabilities with AI-native startups; focused on the emerging agent economy and autonomous systems.
15. Gabe Warshaw (Tisch ITP '23): Founder & CEO, Baton; NYU eLab alum who raised $4.2M to build the connection layer for music's creative economy.
16. Jessica Meyer: Founder, Scalepoint Advisors; finance and strategy leader who builds teams that tell stories with data : self-described "strategic therapist."
17. Adrian Grant (Stern '05): Founder, ILT Academy; engineer-entrepreneur with ventures backed by Comcast, Samsung & Dreamit; music AI tinkerer with 49K followers.
18. Khurram Gore (SPS '02, CAS '03): Head of Emerging Tech & Partnerships Legal, Verizon; 25+ years across engineering, law, and enterprise; ex-Lockheed Martin; also a 15+ year veteran of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Inflation Team (now Captain).
19. Nobu Nakaguchi (Tisch ITP '10): UX and product design leader, Zola; a decade building intuitive digital and mobile experiences.
20. Julia Schulhof: 15-year digital media and product leader; recently built a mental health app from zero to one.
21. Andrew Haines: CEO, Monark Markets; Wall Street & Technology Gold Book honoree; career spent eliminating intermediaries and giving investors direct market access.

Special Thanks.

The Summer Launchpad would not be possible without the dedication and support of the broader NYU entrepreneurship community. We would like to extend a special thank you to Darren Yee, Rebecca Silver, Frank Rimalovski, Jen Curtis, Jonas Günther, Keith Mauppa, and Azade Hosseini for their leadership, guidance, and commitment to empowering the next generation of founders.

Whether through coaching teams, building programs, creating opportunities for students, or strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem at NYU, each has played an important role in helping Summer Launchpad founders push their ideas further. Their behind-the-scenes work, mentorship, and belief in student entrepreneurs continue to make the Leslie eLab a place where ambitious founders can learn, experiment, and build.

Thank you for investing your time, expertise, and energy into this community.

Every mentor on this list chose to be here. And, we can’t thank them enough for taking time to mentor our teams. That's the Leslie Entrepreneurial Institute difference,  a community where experienced founders and investors show up, get in the room, and invest their time in the next generation. If you want to be part of what we're building, come find us at the Leslie eLab.