NYU will host the second annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival on March 1 and 2, bringing together successful startup founders and renowned venture capital investors from NYU’s thriving entrepreneurial community of students, faculty, and alumni.

NYU Spotlights Innovation at the Second Annual Entrepreneurs Festival

Jack Dorsey, Alexandre Douzet, Rachel Sterne Haot, Herb Kelleher, Dan Porter and Fred Wilson Featured Speakers

The event will enable startup founders, investors, and prospective entrepreneurs from the New York community to share their experiences, exchange valuable insights, and provide advice on creating new ventures.

“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, Executive Director of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute. “The second annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival will spotlight NYU’s role as an entrepreneurial university, from nurturing prospective startups to driving innovation and new business creation.”

This year’s Festival will feature more than 50 entrepreneur panelists, speakers and exhibitors—all NYU alumni, faculty, students and trustees—including:

*Jack Dorsey, co-founder & CEO of Square, and co-founder & Chairman of Twitter

*Alexandre Douzet, co-founder & CEO of TheLadders

*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

*Dan Porter, general manager of Zynga New York and former CEO of OMGPOP

*Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures (and NYU Trustee)

The Festival demonstrates the depth of the NYU startup community and the University’s commitment to expanding access to resources, including entrepreneurial education, funding, and incubators. The event will build on the enthusiasm and momentum generated at the first Entrepreneurs Festival in 2011, which attracted more than 500 attendees and featured remarks by Dennis Crowley, co-founder & CEO of FourSquare. The 2012 Festival was originally scheduled for last November, but was rescheduled for March because of Hurricane Sandy.

The Entrepreneurs Festival draws on NYU’s rich history of entrepreneurship, beginning in 1831 when Samuel F.B. Morse, a professor at the university, perfected his invention of the telegraph. Since then, NYU students, faculty, and alumni have built such innovative companies as Arista Records, Audible.com, Bloomberg LP, Etsy, Fairchild Semiconductor, Foursquare, Pinterest, Southwest Airlines, Sugen, and Symbol Technologies. These groundbreaking companies have helped NYU build a name as an entrepreneurial university—a hub of talent, technology and innovation.

The NYU Entrepreneurs Festival is supported by leading companies in the NYC startup economy, including: Audible.com, EisnerAmper, SorinRand, Wiggin and Dana, Flybridge Capital Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Medidata Solutions, New York Angels, Polaris Partners, PR Newswire, RRE Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Sherwood Partners, Softbank Capital, FirstMark Capital, TheLadders, NYC Seed, Rho Ventures, The OutCast Agency, and ZipMark.

Festival details:

*When: Friday, March 1, 10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., and Saturday, March 2, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

*Where: Tisch Hall, 40 West Fourth Street, New York City (at Greene St.)

*Subways: N, R (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place); A, B, C, D, E, F & M (W. 4th St.).

For more details on the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival, go to http://nyuentrepreneur.org/festival/, or contact Allison Weinger at ajw8@nyu.edu or 212.998.2406.

Coverage of the Festival is encouraged. Reporters interested in attending should also contact Ms. Weinger.

Tickets to the Festival are sold-out at this time. Tickets purchased for the Festival’s original date in November before the event was canceled will be honored.

The Festival is a joint effort of the student leaders of the NYU Entrepreneurs Network, the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, 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 Entrepreneurial Institute
The NYU Entrepreneurial Institute empowers entrepreneurs from idea to impact. Founded in 2012, the Institute offers educational programming, events, resources, and funding, via the NYU Innovation Venture Fund, to inspire, educate, connect, and accelerate entrepreneurs across NYU.

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.

Press Contact

Phil Lentz
Phil Lentz
(212) 998-6833