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Skidmore College

Start Me Up

September 16, 2016

Student entrepreneurs will present their business plans to potential investors and others on Oct. 6 as part of Startup Tech Valley, a partnership among Skidmore’s management and business department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce. The pitch event will be held at the Saratoga Convention Center at 5:30pm.  

Among the pitchers will be Skidmore student businesses Adirondack Flannel and AuxNation.

Adirondack Flannel founders Jamie Benjamin and Leif Catania, both seniors, are hoping to follow in the footsteps of Vineyard Vines co-founder Shep Murray ‘93 -- but with their own twist.

Adirondack Flannel  
Adirondack Flannel founders Jamie Benjamin and Leif Catania.

AuxNation, founded by Skidmore sophomores Zack Jones, Noam Kahn, and Dhruv Singh, is a mobile app that unites DJs and their audiences through the crowdsourcing of song requests. Unlike apps for making requests in real-time, AuxNation will be the first that allows for crowdsourcing before a show. 

AuxNation 
AuxNation founders with alumnus Kenneth A. Freirich. 

Cathy Hill, Skidmore’s Harder Professor of Business Administration and an organizer of the event, hopes to widen opportunities for students. “When they go to this event, there will be tons of different types of students there,” she says. “That commingling of expertise is what’s going to turn this region into a real powerhouse of entrepreneurship.”

Learn more about entrepreneurship opportunities at Skidmore College.

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