The faculty and staff at the Derby Entrepreneurship Center would like to wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy holiday season. Thank you for your continued support for entrepreneurship at Tufts.
Montle Prize Winners Announced!
The Paul and Elizabeth Montle Prize for Entrepreneurial Achievement commends outstanding undergraduate Tufts students who demonstrate entrepreneurial achievement. Warm congratulations to Julia Giatrelis, Joao Medeiros, and Madison Page for your entrepreneurial achievements!
DEC was honored to host successful real estate entrepreneur and renowned philanthropist, Bill Cummings A58, H06, J97P, M97P,last month to a full house (in person and on Zoom) in a fireside chat and reception.
Bill is the founder of Cummings Properties. In 1986, Bill and Joyce Cummings established Cummings Foundation, which has grown to be one of the three largest private foundations in New England. Professor Usha Pasi, experienced nonprofit leader, moderated the fireside chat with Bill where he shared his experience and words of wisdom on entrepreneurship.
Following the fireside chat was an intimate reception where Bill chatted with students and alumni and signed copies of his book, "Starting Small and Making it Big."
DU Speaker Series: Sustainable Leadership in Real Estate and Private Equity
The Tufts University Chapter of Delta Epsilon welcomed back alumni Rebecca Bendetson, Dan Doherty, and Brian Kavoogian in a dynamic panel on sustainable leadership in real estate and private equity. The panel was moderated by Professor of the Practice Jack Derby and Tufts alumni David Radlo.
The panelists had an extraordinarily interactive and engaging conversation to a full house. At the end, the DU Brothers presented the panelists with awards for their contributions to the community. Rebecca and Jack respectively received an Honorary Sister and Honorary Brother award.
Wrapping up an action-packed semester!
Our Fall semester wrapped up on Monday, December 11! There were many pictures from our 25 entrepreneurship course sections, but none captured the mood better than the joy shown by the ENT100 Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking cohort.
Our instructor, Luke Fraser (Chair of the Boston Chapter of the Tufts Entrepreneurial Network), reflected: "From Day 1, the students were bold, expressive, and willing to dive in. This kept classroom energy high and really pushed me to design the right level of challenge." Congrats to everyone for a successful semester!
#TuftsGivingTuesday: Thank you, Jumbos!
We broke a record this year!
Another year of #TuftsGivingTuesday (TGT) came to a record-breaking finish! We closed out the campaign with 96 online gifts, breaking last year's record of 84 gifts.
Many thanks to Ola Holmstrom, Josh and Emily Kapelman, and Marilyn and John Salzman for the challenge gifts, and to everyone who participated in this day of giving. Our Entrepreneurial Initiative Fund is now seed-funded for the full year.
If you missed TGT, you can still give on line to help us build entrepreneurial leaders. Thank you for your generosity!
Huge congrats to Prosal, cofounded by Nick Lopez, Alfredo Ramirez (Fletcher MALD22) and Nyle Malik, for closing a $1.18M seed round! Prosal makes it easier for businesses to find and win RFP's. To date, Prosal has helped agencies win over $20 million in RFPs.
Prosal won 3rd place in the General Track of the 2021 Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition, and was a Tufts Venture Accelerator 2022 team.
Idicula Matthew started Hera Health Solutions, a pharmaceutical device company specializing in the development of long-acting treatments through proprietary bioerodible drug delivery implants, in 2018 based on his undergraduate research at Georgia Tech.
Lura Health Awarded $200k NSF Grant For Fueling Innovation And Discovery
Congrats to Daniel Weinstein and Noah Hill, cofounders of Lura Health for winning the $200k Technology Enhancement for Commercial Partnerships (TECP) award by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This recognition is a testament to their commitment to advancing innovative healthcare solutions.
Boston University's Innovate@BU hosted the Cross University Student Innovators (CUSI) mixer on December 7th.CUSI is a multi-school collaboration between MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Babson, Boston University, UMass Lowell and many more. Over 120 students networked over pizza and many participated in the Pitch to Match event, where people with ideas connected with people looking for teams to join. Great energy!
Upcoming Events at a Glance
Tufts Entrepreneurial Network - Holiday Party! - Dec 13
TEN Chapter is having its end of year social on 12/13 at the new Lamplighter Brewery location at Cambridge Crossing. Spread some holiday cheer with fellow alumni interested in entrepreneurship, startups, venture capital, social impact, innovation, and technology over food and drinks. Any alumnus interested or curious about these spaces and entrepreneurial thinking is welcome to join. Elaine Chen, Director of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center and Professor of the Practice, will be there to give us an update as to what’s going on at the Center.
Applications for Venture Lane Accelerator due January 18
Venture Lane Studio actively invests in early-stage B2B Tech companies, concentrating on the key to startup success: traction and scalability. We guide B2B software startups in achieving growth, creating repeatable sales processes, and laying foundations for scale. In our tailored 3-month program, each cohort sees 3-6 early-stage companies transform into growth-stage ventures. Plus, each cohort company gets an investment of up to $100k. Cohort 5 kicks off in March 2024.
Jumbo Tech + Innovation San Francisco Mixer - Jan 29
Join the Tufts Entrepreneurial Network (TEN) and the Derby Entrepreneurship Center (DEC) in San Francisco for an evening of networking and celebrating the Tufts Entrepreneurship spirit! Over appetizers like char siu pork “crunch buns, tofu mushroom lettuce cups, and cocktails, connect with Elaine Chen, Cummings Family Professor of the Practice and Director of DEC, and recent alum from DEC programs. We’ll gather at Chinatown’s China Live, which was voted “Restaurant of the Year” by Eater San Francisco.
.jpg?upscale=true&width=480&upscale=true&name=TGT%202023%20Derby%20(12%20of%2013).jpg)
