NYU’s thriving entrepreneurial community—including successful student, faculty and alumni startup founders and venture capital investors—will gather this weekend (Nov. 2-3) to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship at the second annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival.

Jack Dorsey, Alexander Douzet, Rachel Sterne Haot, Herb Kelleher and Fred Wilson Featured

NYU’s thriving entrepreneurial community—including successful student, faculty and alumni startup founders and venture capital investors—will gather this weekend (Nov. 2-3) to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship at the second annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival.

The Festival will enable startup founders, investors, and up-and-coming student entrepreneurs to share their experiences and exchange valuable insights, offer support, and provide advice on creating new ventures. The Festival demonstrates the depth of the NYU entrepreneurial community by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs, mentors and investors and improving access to entrepreneurial education, funding, incubators and other resources.

The Festival will feature more than 50 entrepreneur panelists, speakers, and exhibitors—all NYU alumni, faculty and students—including:

• Jack Dorsey, co-founder & CEO of Square, and co-founder & Chairman of Twitter
• Alexander Douzet, co-founder & COO of The Ladders
• Rachel Sterne Haot, founder & former CEO of Ground Report, and Chief Digital Officer of the City of New York
• Herb Kelleher, co-founder, Chairman Emeritus, and former CEO of Southwest Airlines
• Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures (and NYU Trustee)

The 2012 Entrepreneurs Festival will build on the tremendous enthusiasm and momentum generated at last year’s Entrepreneurs Festival. The 2011 Festival, which attracted more than 500 attendees, featured remarks by Dennis Crowley, co-founder & CEO of FourSquare and more than 45 NYU entrepreneurs, demonstrating the strong support from New York City’s startup community for NYU’s entrepreneurship program.

“The growth of entrepreneurship initiatives at NYU has galvanized the startup community in New York City, creating an increasingly tight knit ecosystem that feeds off of each other's talent, support and resources,” said Frank Rimalovski, Managing Director of the NYU Innovation Venture Fund. “The second annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival will demonstrate that NYU is a leader in nurturing entrepreneurs and turning the University’s ideas and intellectual property into success stories that drive innovation, new business creation, and job growth.”

This year’s Entrepreneurs Festival would not be possible without the generous support and sponsorship of leading companies in the NYC startup economy that are proud of their relationship with NYU. They include: Audible.com, EisnerAmper, SorinRand, Wiggin and Dana, Canaan Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, Insight Venture Partners, New York Angels, RRE Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Sherwood Partners, Softbank Capital, FirstMark Capital, IQ4, TheLadders, NYC Seed, Rho Ventures, and ZipMark.

The Entrepreneurs Festival is another example of how NYU is becoming an entrepreneurial university—a hub of talent, technology and innovation. NYU has been a home for prolific entrepreneurs since 1831 when one of our first professors, Samuel F. B. Morse, perfected his invention of the telegraph at the university. Since then, NYU students, faculty and alums have built such innovative companies as Arista Records, Audible.com, Bloomberg LP, Etsy, Fairchild Semiconductor, Foursquare, Pinterest, Southwest Airlines, Sugen, and Symbol Technologies, among many others.

Coverage of the Festival is encouraged.

Festival details:
• When: Friday, November 2, 1:00-6:30 p.m., and Saturday, November 3, 9:30am-6:00 p.m.
• Where: NYU Stern, Tisch Hall, 40 West Fourth Street, New York City

For press registration, please contact Allison Weinger at ajw8@nyu.edu or 212. 998.2406 by Thursday, November 1.

For more details on the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival, go to http://nyuentrepreneur.org/festival/.

The Festival is a joint effort of the student leaders of the NYU Entrepreneurs Network, the NYU Innovation Venture Fund, and the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, collectively bringing together more than ten of NYU’s eighteen schools, colleges and institutes.

About the NYU Innovation Venture Fund
A $20 million seed stage venture capital fund created in 2010 to invest in startups founded by, and/or commercializing technologies developed by NYU students, faculty and researchers.

About the NYU Entrepreneurs Network
A multi‐disciplinary collaborative of 22 entrepreneurship, technology and innovation related graduate and undergraduate student organizations representing 10 schools across NYU.

About the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Provides NYU students with real‐world, hands‐on startup experiences through co‐curricular programs that complement the rigorous instruction received in the classroom.

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