Our Mission

Fueling the next generation of entrepreneurs

The Berkley Center exists to advance and strengthen entrepreneurship across NYU by helping founders and entrepreneurial leaders recognize opportunity, navigate complexity, and build ventures with the potential to endure. We approach entrepreneurship as a discipline: one built on testing assumptions, learning from the market, making smart decisions under uncertainty, and continually refining the venture as you learn.

Who We Serve

The full NYU community, including students, alumni, faculty and staff!

We work with NYU students, alumni, faculty, and researchers at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey—from exploring an idea or commercializing a breakthrough to building a startup, growing a venture, or acquiring a business. Through practical programs, experienced advisors, and connections to New York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, we help founders get further, faster.

What We Do

Startup Advising

Masterclasses & Bootcamps

Startup Accelerators

Venture Competitions

MBA Collaboration

Special Events & Programming

Our Team

Cynthia Franklin, director, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship

Cynthia Franklin

Executive Director

Paul Hardart

Academic Director

Shay Gaskins, Assistant Director, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship.

Shay Gaskins

Associate Director

Paul Foster

Assistant Director

Connect With Us

For general inquiries email entrepreneurship@stern.nyu.edu

Meet with an Advisor

Get one-on-one guidance from experienced founders, operators, investors, and subject-matter experts who can help you work through a specific challenge.

Volunteer

Bring your experience to NYU entrepreneurs as a mentor, advisor, speaker, coach, or judge and help founders make better decisions and build stronger ventures.

Partner with Us

Work with the Berkley Center to support NYU entrepreneurs through funding, expertise, services, and other resources that help ventures move forward.

Stay Connected

Get Berkley Center programs, events, founder news, and opportunities delivered to your inbox.

The legacy of William R. Berkley

The NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship joins the Stern and NYU communities in mourning the passing of William R. Berkley (BS ’66, NYU Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus), whose vision, generosity, and deep personal commitment to students helped shape the Center that bears his name.

Cynthia Franklin, director, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship

Cynthia Franklin

Executive Director

Cynthia oversees the development, execution, and growth of all Berkley Center initiatives. She also teaches Getting to Launch: The Startup Lab (MULT-UB 0301), a popular undergraduate course, and is capstone director for the Executive MBA DC program. In addition, Cynthia is the instructor for the nationally acclaimed Strategic Steps for Growth, a capacity-building program targeting growth-focused women and minority business owners. She has 16 years of experience starting, growing, and advising new ventures.

 

Cynthia holds an MBA from Stern and BBA in quantitative management, magna cum laude, from Baruch College. She chairs the NYU Federal Credit Union’s board of directors and serves on the board of Interise, a social impact organization that revitalizes economies in underserved communities by providing small business owners with entrepreneurial education and access to new networks and markets.

Paul Hardart, MBA

Academic Director

Professor Hardart oversees the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship’s strategic direction. He is also the director of the entertainment, media & technology program at NYU’s Stern School of Business and was the founding director of the Graduate Program in Media Management at The New School. He was previously an executive at Universal and Warner Brothers.

Shay Gaskins, Assistant Director, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship.

Shay Gaskins

Associate Director

Shayna Gaskins is Associate Director of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship at NYU Stern, where she builds the programs, partnerships, and communities that help ambitious ideas grow. She leads many of the Center’s entrepreneurial initiatives, including its flagship program, the NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge, bringing together founders, investors, mentors, alumni, faculty, and students to create meaningful entrepreneurial experiences.

 

Her work spans program design, partnership development, marketing strategy, operations, cross-functional leadership, and the execution required to bring ideas to life. With a background in communications and marketing, Shayna is drawn to the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and community building. Throughout her career, she has focused on turning complex ideas into scalable initiatives, expanding strategic partnerships, and creating experiences that help people connect, learn, and grow.

 

Shayna is currently pursuing her MBA at NYU Stern, with concentrations in Brand Management, Entertainment, Media & Technology, and Management. She is particularly interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship, brand strategy, sports, entertainment, and technology.

Paul Foster

Assistant Director

Paul Foster is Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship at NYU Stern, where he leads the Center’s marketing, communications, and creative strategy. His work spans brand development, digital and print design, content strategy, photography, social media, web development, and multimedia storytelling, helping connect the NYU community with the Center’s programs and share the stories of entrepreneurs building across a wide range of industries.

 

Paul began his career in film marketing and publicity, working with IFC Films and Fox Searchlight before moving into higher education as a Communications Associate at the University of New England. He later joined Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County, where his work continued to expand across marketing, communications, design, and photography. Since joining the Berkley Center in 2022, he has brought those experiences together to shape the Center’s voice and visual identity, grow its digital presence, and develop creative ways to showcase entrepreneurship across NYU.

 

With a background in marketing and a largely self-taught creative practice, Paul is particularly interested in the intersection of storytelling, design, technology, and human experience. He holds a BSBA in Marketing from Northeastern University and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Integrated Design & Media at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, where he is expanding his work with emerging technologies and new approaches to digital storytelling.

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See NYU's top startups face off
for $225K in seed funding

NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge

FINAL PITCH OFF

FRIDAY, MAY 1ST
1:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST

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Take your startup further, faster
in NYU's premier venture competition

NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge

2025-26 APPLICATION

Deadline:
Sunday, November 30th 11:59 PM EST

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Take your startup further, faster
in NYU's premier venture competition

NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge

KICK-OFF &
INFO SESSION

Thursday, October 9th
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST

Kick off the semester with the Berkley Center
& learn how we can help
take your NYU startup further, faster.

BERKLEY CENTER
INFO SESSION

THURSDAY, September 11TH
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Virtual

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See NYU's top startups face off
for $225K in seed funding

NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge

FINAL PITCH OFF

FRIDAY, MAY 2nd
1:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST

Days :
Hours :
Minutes :
Seconds


Take your startup further, faster
with NYU's Premier Venture Competition

NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge

APPLICATION CLOSING

DEADLINE: SUNDAY DECEMBER 1 @ 11:59 PM EST

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Hours :
Minutes :
Seconds


See NYU's top startups
of Face off for $225K In Seed funding

NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge

Final Pitch Off & Awards

Friday, April 26th