Entrepreneurship
Resources
Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship promotes innovation and entrepreneurial learning across the RIT community by leveraging RIT’s strengths in multidisciplinary and experiential learning.
Read More about the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
MAGIC Center
The MAGIC Center is a university wide, multi- and cross-disciplinary center in which faculty, staff, and student researchers, artists, and practitioners come together to create, contextualize, and apply new knowledge in a multitude of related fields and disciplines as appropriate not only to STEM, or the arts and humanities, but their intersection.
Venture Creations - Business Incubator
RIT Venture Creations is a technology business incubator that provides a range of services to seed/mid-seed stage startups to help them advance their businesses.
Center for Urban Entrepreneurship
The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship is helping to reshape the regional economy and build wealth within the urban community by being the central resource for urban entrepreneurial programs and research.
RIT Venture Fund
RIT Venture Fund provides investment capital and guidance to entrepreneurial ventures with a strong connection to the RIT community.
The Construct
The Construct, RIT’s makerspace, is designed to serve the needs of innovative students seeking to create new products, inventions and applications. If you’ve got an idea, this is the place to make it real.
Programs and Competitions
Saunders Summer Startup
Saunders Summer Startup is a 10-week initiative over the summer aimed at assisting entrepreneurs develop their business concepts to a point where they are ready to begin seeking angel investment.
Tiger Tank
The Tiger Tank competition gives students the opportunity to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges with a chance to win cash prizes. Submissions describe an early-stage product or service with foreseeable commercial impact.
IdeaLab
IdeaLab is a program designed to link problems and challenges with technical and creative problem solvers at RIT. Student teams with multidisciplinary expertise solve unique problems faced by organizations or institutions such as Al Sigl Community of Agencies, Rochester Regional Health and others. The students spend one weekend designing innovative solutions for specific problems identified by the participating organizations.
Next Big Idea (NTID)
The Next Big Idea is an annual innovation competition at NTID sponsored by ZVRS. Teams of deaf and hard-of-hearing students work together to create a product, business, service, or type of technology that solves a problem or eliminates an existing challenge.
MAGIC Maker Program
The MAGIC Maker Program is designed to help fund students to work in multidisciplinary teams on projects and experiences that lead to startup products and commercial activities in digital media.
RIT Business Model Competition
Students are asked to submit business plans for a potential new business and are judged on the written presentation of the idea, ability for the team to succeed, market potential, feasibility, and general knowledge of subject.
Conferences
RIT Venture Capital Forum
This three-day workshop in the Silicon Valley will provide students with a robust understanding of venture capitalists and the process of early-stage fundraising and investing. Guest speakers, panel discussions, and company visits will provide students with a complete overview of the important relationship between entrepreneurs seeking funding and the venture capitalists that provide investment capital.
RIT Entrepreneurs Conference
RIT’s Entrepreneurs Conference is an inspirational hub and day of learning on how to start a business. The annual event is for anyone who believes that creativity and bold thinking are vital to success.
Minor in Entrepreneurship
A minor in entrepreneurship provides the necessary learning, experiences, and skills to start and operate new ventures and organizations. Students from any discipline can select a minor in entrepreneurship through RIT’s Saunders College of Business and tailor their education to follow their career goals.
Latest News
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November 20, 2024
![Five black men stand in a semicircle in a small garden in Kenya.]()
RIT professor helps to tackle energy access in rural Africa
Williams’ collaborative work tackles the subject of energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, the United Nations established Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
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November 11, 2024
![RIT launches Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation appears in white text on a black background with yellow and orange arrows pointing from the upper right to lower left.]()
New Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation captures the startup spirit on campus
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, in partnership with students, faculty, staff, alumni, industrial partners, and investors, will catalyze the development of successful ventures, and will strategically consolidate several existing departments and centers supporting the university entrepreneurial community, and beyond.
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November 8, 2024
![Valerie Horn wears a blue suit jacket and leans against a railing in an outdoor area surrounded by tall buildings.]()
Passion for prioritizing accessibility inspires alumna
Valerie Horn believes accessibility should be at the forefront of entrepreneurs’ minds when developing their businesses. This belief pushed her to co-found Zestability, a consultation firm that advocates for prioritizing accessibility and inclusive business practices.
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October 28, 2024
![A headshot of Erika Ayers Badan is shown next to her name.]()
Erika Ayers Badan shares secrets of her success in upcoming Gasser Lecture
Ayers Badan will share insights and experiences that have shaped her executive career during the 11th annual Gasser Lecture Series at Saunders College of Business on Friday, Nov. 8. Her speech, titled “Nobody Cares About Your Career,” is also the title of her first book, published in June.
