Rev Demo Day offers showcase for budding entrepreneurs

Eric Berg '19, a member of Team X-Board, talks to an attendee about his team's idea for a powered skateboard on which the skater can perform tricks during the second annual Rev Hardware Accelerator Demo Day, Aug. Team Flex-It member Jason Guss, a third-year Ph.D. student, pitches his team's invention for helping to prevent and correct carpal tunnel syndrome as teammate Trusha Parekh demonstrates the device at Demo Day. Rev: Ithaca Startup Works is a place where people with little more than an idea for a new product can go for the tools they need to tackle the world of entrepreneurship. Aligning Rev with Cornell, one of New York state's premier research universities, is a natural partnership, says Tom Schryver, visiting lecturer of entrepreneurship at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and executive director of Cornell's Center for Regional Economic Advancement. 'I think from Cornell's perspective, what happens on campus is stronger if we have a strong startup community in town,' Schryver said. 'And the community is stronger if Cornell - as well as Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College - participates in that startup environment.' Eight new entrepreneurial teams, fresh off a rigorous 12-week training and mentoring program at Rev's East State Street facility, were showcased on campus during the second annual Rev Hardware Accelerator Demo Day, Aug. 11 in the Biotechnology Building. Approximately 170 people attended the event, giving the public a chance to see the fruits of the teams?