The Stern Venture Fellows (SVF) Summer Accelerator is in full swing! Founders are laying important groundwork for what’s to come. Throughout the summer, fellows are encouraged to set clear, measurable goals that help track their progress. Many of those goals have been shaped by insights from SVF’s workshop series, which offers founders structured opportunities to apply what they’re learning directly to their ventures. As they move through the program, fellows are setting key milestones to guide their work and consistently measure their progress.
Last week, the cohort beat the heat with a day of virtual workshops to help them rethink their approach to leadership and streamline their branding. The week also provided a chance for the cohort to expand their networks and connect with others from NYU’s vibrant entrepreneurial community at the Summer Accelerator Happy Hour. Members of the SVF cohort were joined by the members of the Leslie eLab‘s Sumer Launchpad and the Tandon Future Lab‘s Catalyst program.
Virtual Sessions, Real Growth
In a virtual session led by TikTok Brand Strategist Connor Brownell, founders learned how to shape the branding and messaging for their ventures. Drawing on his extensive experience, including his work with NASA, Connor provided frameworks for refining brand identity and storytelling. He closed out his workshop with a conversation with each Fellow and shared his feedback on their current messaging. The session provided founders with new tools to think critically about how they communicate their ventures to various audiences.
The Berkley Center’s own Associate Director, Steph Shyu, continued the day with a virtual session on leadership. Continuing on Connor’s theme of differentiated messaging, Steph illustrated how founders can apply the same critical frameworks to communication with their teams. She broke down processes and skills needed to track individual founder metrics, team alignment, and providing feedback.
Summer Accelerator Mixer
Later in the week, Berkley Center brought together NYU’s summer startup cohorts at a Summer Accelerator Happy Hour. The Happy Hour was a chance for the three different cohorts of founders to trade notes, talk through startup hurdles, and build a supportive community of peers. While the event was structured around networking activities, such as Founder Bingo and “Ask me about my ___” conversation starters, the evening most served the founders by strengthening startup ties within the NYU entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The event also provided an opportunity to feature samples from some of the startups. SVF Startups OOSO Sparkling Tea and High Ground provided beverages while the LOOPiNi team shared their game-changing pizzas. The evening also included games, but what it offered most was a chance for conversation and a chance for founders to learn about each other’s ventures and strengthen the sense of belonging within the NYU startup ecosystem.
Tips & takeaways
- Know the purpose behind your branding: Brand positioning statements need to showcase what makes you distinctive, differentiated, elevated, and long lasting
- Have a cohesive metrics system: Founders should tie their individual founder success metrics to that of their company and have them be driven by their company's values
- Know how you confront stress: Being a founder often means operating at a heightened level of stress; bring awareness to your default mode of leadership in moments of stress.
