Spring 2018 AFRL Commercialization Academy DEMO DAY

Celebrate four months of accomplishment with the five startups of the Spring 2018 AFRL Commercialization Academy cohort! The hard work and dedication by each startup will culminate with a pitch competition and networking at Demo Day, Thursday, May 31, 2018, at Griffiss Institute, Rome, NY! Please join us and help advance the entrepreneurial fabric here in New York State by helping to drive innovators toward success!

Griffiss Institute and Wasabi Ventures would like to invite you to join the five startups of the Spring 2018 Commercialization Academy cohort as they pitch a panel of judges, and live audience, on the companies they have built around Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) technology. A judges' vote and an audience vote will be held, with two cash prizes of $15,000 and $5,000, respectively, to be given to the winners of the two best pitches of the day.

That means each startup will have the opportunity to win much-needed seed money!

The five startups are: AudioStaq (Baltimore, MD), Go Figure (Utica, NY), idoolocal (Clinton, NY), Off the Cuff (Baltimore, MD), Pulse (Hanover, NH). Over the last four months, these entrepreneurs have received an abundance of tools and resources, including a startup educational platform that has taught each of them the logistics of building a startup.

The event is FREE to attend. There will be delicious, free food from Delta Lake Inn, and a Copper City Brewing Co. cash bar! And you get to vote! RSVP today.

2018 Spring Demo Day Agenda:

Emcee: Michele Pesula Kuegler, Program Director at Wasabi Ventures

5:00 pm: Get to Know the Startups & Network
Talk to the teams at their booths, mingle, grab a bite of food (Delta Lake Inn) & a cold beverage from the cash bar (Copper City Brewing Co.)

6:00 pm: Welcome & Opening Remarks
William Wolf, President, Griffiss Institute
Jacqueline M. Izzo, Mayor, Rome, NY
Anthony J. Picente, Jr., Oneida County Executive
William “Bill” Harrison, Director, Small Business, AFRL

6:15 pm: Program Overview
Michele Pesula Kuegler, Program Director at Wasabi Ventures

6:20 pm: Academy Pitches
idoolocal
Go Figure
AudioStaq
Off the Cuff
Pulse

6:55 pm: Alumni Presentations
Good People Energy Technologies
Intake

7:05 pm: A Word from Our Supporters

7:10 pm: Thank You
Dan Fayette, Principal Engineer, Griffiss Institute

7:20 pm: Closing, Awards & Reception

* Agenda subject to change

About the AFRL Commercialization Academy

The AFRL Commercialization Academy is a Griffiss Institute entrepreneurial education program sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI). The program is designed to develop entrepreneurial leaders through the commercialization of federal intellectual property (IP). Each IP technology and entrepreneur goes through an intense vetting process. Each entrepreneur selected embarks on a six-month acceleration process to build a piece of IP into a sustainable startup.

Griffiss Institute has partnered with Wasabi Ventures, a successful venture capital firm, to run the academy since 2015.

As part of the Wasabi Ventures Tech Transfer Accelerator (WVT2), Wasabi Ventures works with research labs around the world to foster partnerships that combine lab intellectual property (IP), Wasabi Ventures-trained startup founders, and intense Wasabi Ventures Academy training to produce growth-oriented startups.