F E A T U R E
Big Investments in Student Entrepreneurs
By Ashley Festa • Illustration by Sam Island
New York Tech’s new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy supports the success of student entrepreneurs.
Although the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy at New York Institute of Technology is brand-new, students have been finding—and forging—their own way as entrepreneurs all along.
“We have approximately 1,800 alumni who have become entrepreneurs. Our students are doing this organically because our academic programs equip students with the skills needed to be successful entrepreneurs,” says Francesca Fiore, Ed.D., vice president for strategic initiatives and accreditation. “With our intentional and explicit focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, we will help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset to think creatively, identify gaps in the market, and build solutions to address them. They are in positions to be drivers of economic growth within their community.”
The academy brings together a new course and curriculum in the Startup Tech Central space, networking activities and events, and a $5 million venture fund, positioning New York Tech as a university that offers comprehensive support for entrepreneurship.
“Some universities have an entrepreneurship degree; some have a hub for students; a few have a venture fund. But we are putting it all together,” says Jerry Balentine, D.O., president of New York Tech. “It is starting on our Long Island campus, but soon we will have a hub on all our campuses, including in Vancouver and Arkansas. Combining all these elements makes New York Tech unique, and it is linked to what we have always stood for: making sure every student who graduates from New York Tech can get a job or start their own company.”
Tom Van Laan (M.B.A. ’84), a successful entrepreneur who is on the New York Tech Board of Trustees and co-chair of the committee that helped develop the academy, notes that very few universities have all the components needed for students to build businesses from scratch. “We have the new Biomedical Research, Innovation, and Imaging Center (BRIIC) that’s developing IP [intellectual property] and patents, we have a business school to help build the business case, we have an engineering school to help refine concepts into a product, we have the NESTS class to help turn the product into a company, and we have the venture fund to help get these companies off the ground. I’m excited to see where this will go.”
Tom Van Laan helped develop the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER APPOLDT
The Necessary Eleven Steps to Tech Startup class, known as NESTS, enrolled its first cohort of 15 students from the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences in fall 2024. NESTS was such a success that in the spring, students from across the university were welcome to apply, says Peter Goldsmith, M.B.A., director of Startup Tech Central.
“Startup Tech Central will be a place for current and former NESTS students and alumni entrepreneurs,” Goldsmith says. “There will be a board of mentors who will be helping and guiding our students as well as entrepreneurs-in-residence.” Goldsmith says the space will have “whatever the students need” to start their companies—including, most importantly, the structure and resources needed to succeed.
He is also brainstorming events and activities, such as “founder speed dating” to match business partners who might want to work together, as well as a monthly soda-and-snacks happy hour event for networking. Other possibilities include startup competitions open to all schools within the university and potentially a student entrepreneurship club or other student-led activities.
“Not all of these things are happening on day one, of course,” Goldsmith says. “These are just some of the things that are possible, and more ideas will come.”
Transforming Ideas Into Businesses
New York Tech also stands out from other universities because of its $5 million venture fund dedicated to supporting the entrepreneurial ambitions of students, faculty, and alumni. “This bold commitment reflects our belief in innovation and our determination to empower the next generation of changemakers,” says Babak D. Beheshti, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences, which currently offers a minor in technology entrepreneurship.
“Twice a year, students will pitch their startup idea to an investment advisory board to explain what they’re about and how much money they need,” says Van Laan, who will join the academy’s board of mentors. “If we like the idea, we’ll dig further, validate their business ideas and target market, investigate the competition, and make a recommendation about how much we should invest in each of these companies. It will be like [the television show] Shark Tank. We’re not in it for ourselves; although, of course, we do want to make successful investments. Our main goal is to support the students and the school.”
The academy, Van Laan says, is the product of a receptive and dynamic university administration, plus what was already happening on campus. “The administration said yes to every idea our committee brought to them,” Van Laan says. “We felt we had to move forward because of the startup activity that was already occurring organically right in front of our eyes. The committee wanted to do whatever we could to help fuel this.”
Indeed, students were already leading the way. Ryan Ahmed (B.S. ’25) and Pari Patel (B.S. ’24), the co-founders of Niura, a company that makes earbuds to monitor brain activity, saw the need for New York Tech to become a startup-friendly community. They collaborated with Goldsmith to develop a new course on how to start a startup, which became the NESTS class. Goldsmith invited them to be co-instructors of NESTS, and they helped spark the interest of other students who wanted to create startups. So far, about 25 to 30 startups have come out of the NESTS class.
“What is most exciting is that this movement began with our students,” Beheshti says.
Students Get Their Business Ideas off the Ground
Among the students who have created a business is Alisha Karim, a computer science major who is currently working in a web services position through a co-op experiential education opportunity at Northwell Health, New York state’s largest healthcare system. She and her co-founder, Nicholas Stewart, created VitaPath, a post-visit healthcare platform built to keep recently discharged patients safe and prevent readmissions, which cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $52 billion each year. Karim’s work at Northwell and two years as a pharmacy technician gave her firsthand insight into the challenges patients face with medications and follow-up care.
Alisha Karim created VitaPath, a post-visit healthcare platform. PHOTO: LAURA BARISONZI
To stand out from competitors, the two students designed VitaPath to be patient first rather than provider first. VitaPath integrates with electronic health record systems, translates provider notes into personalized post-care recommendations, and facilitates communication between patients and providers. VitaPath won first place in the fall 2024 NESTS FlyOff competition, an event where students present their startups to a panel of judges at the culmination of the semester.
“New York Tech gave me the structure and ecosystem to turn my idea into a tangible product,” says Karim, whose goal is to make VitaPath the go-to digital companion for discharged patients, bridging the gap between hospital and home and redefining recovery. “I learned how to validate and refine ideas, and I gained exposure to the entrepreneurial world, pitching at events and presenting to industry leaders. New York Tech also provided resources and one-on-one mentorship. I can still go to Peter, Ryan, or Pari if I have a question. They will suggest, ‘Have you looked at it this way?’ or ‘Have you thought of this?’”
Another NESTS alumnus, Alexander Miller, won second place at the spring 2025 FlyOff event with his startup, Sustainable Buildings Group. The fifth-year architecture student created the company to help building owners and property managers reduce their carbon emissions, optimize energy performance, and comply with sustainability regulations.
Pictured from left: Ryan Ahmed, Pari Patel, Alexander Miller, Dean Babak Beheshti, and Peter Goldsmith. Miller won second place at the spring 2025 FlyOff event for his startup, Sustainable Buildings Group.
“Around the country, building performance standards have been introduced, but real estate hasn’t been able to keep up. Noncompliance could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines each year,” Miller says. “My company guides building owners and property managers through understanding their energy use and decarbonization. We’ll come up with a plan, execute energy conservation measures, and continue to monitor the building’s code compliance.”
Miller hopes to soon begin working with New York Tech’s Department of Energy Management and other departments to fill his team.
“As an architecture student, I’ve taken environmental systems classes where I have learned strategies to make buildings more energy efficient,” Miller says. “A lecture on New York City standards got my mind going. I took the NESTS class, and everything started rolling from there. I was hesitant because I’m still a student, but that class was the push I needed to take the steps to start a business.”
Gunn Aggarwal’s company idea, LiveliHood, won third place in the first FlyOff event in 2024.
Gunn Aggarwal, a junior computer science major, was in the first cohort of the NESTS class in fall 2024. Her company idea, LiveliHood, won third place in the first FlyOff event. The company connects out-of-town renters with locals who can tour apartments and help avoid scams.
“For example, you’re moving from Boston to New York, but you don’t want to rent an apartment based only on photos,” Aggarwal says. “What if a local person tours the apartment and records videos for you? It will help you make sure you’re going to live in a good place before you sign a lease. It’s a freelancing job, like Uber. Anyone can do it for anybody.”
Aggarwal will conduct detailed background checks to verify both potential renters and locals, and currently she is building her website to attract potential customers. She says the invaluable mentorship of Ahmed and Patel has helped her develop her business idea and also spread the word.
“The first day of class, we started working on our startups. I talked with Ryan and Pari about all the problems with real estate in New York,” Aggarwal says. “Later, I was struggling to build traction for my business, and they suggested I post about it on [the social media site] Reddit. Within 24 hours, I had almost 600 upvotes, and 200 people had shared my post. I was able to confirm that there’s a product market fit for my startup. There are people who need my service, so this is a valid business idea.”
A Bright Future for Entrepreneurs at New York Tech
To round out the academic opportunities for budding entrepreneurs at New York Tech, an entrepreneurship major through the School of Management is expected to launch next year.
“Our entrepreneurship major will be the connective hub where business meets medicine, architecture, engineering, computer science, health sciences, natural sciences, arts, and humanities,” says Jaishankar Ganesh, Ph.D., dean of the School of Management. “It fuses essential business foundations with cross-disciplinary collaboration, giving students a platform to prototype, test, and pitch transformative ideas alongside peers from every corner of the university.”
Additionally, a class for freshmen and sophomore students to prepare them to take the leap into the realm of startups during their junior and senior years is set for the spring semester. The Debra A. Vogel Student Advancement Scholarship is also available to students with an entrepreneurial mindset.
“New York Tech gave me the structure and ecosystem to turn my idea into a tangible product.” – Alisha Karim
Van Laan views all the components New York Tech is bringing together as the springboard to a greater economic impact in the area.
“If New York Tech becomes known as a hub for startups and entrepreneurship, students will want to come from other parts of the country, and alumni will want to stay,” Van Laan says. “Our goal is to build the local Long Island economy around entrepreneurship. We want to make New York Tech a magnet for the best and the brightest and for locals who want to stay at home.”
“We’re taking a holistic approach to innovation and entrepreneurship on campus,” Fiore says. “Other schools may start a center or a new degree program, but it’s separate from the life and breath of the university. At New York Tech, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy is embedded in the ethos of our university. It’s part of who we are.”
New York Institute of Technology Magazine © 2025 All Rights Reserved