TIA Summer Accelerator

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The TIA Summer Accelerator provides a launchpad for students and recent alumni to build their ventures.

Participating teams receive $10,000 in non-dilutive grant funding, along with workspace, room, and board on campus, with the option of choosing a fully in-person or hybrid format for the field work portion of the Accelerator. Teams grow their ventures with a group of like-minded entrepreneurs at similar stages, guided by Colgate’s entrepreneur in residence, sharing best practices while benefiting from access to our expansive network of mentors. The program culminates with a three-day capstone in New York City, including pitches and networking with alumni.

The deadline to apply for the 2025 TIA Summer Accelerator has passed. To connect with us and learn about other programs, reach out to Reece Wilson, entrepreneur in residence.

The TIA Summer Accelerator is made possible entirely by gifts from alumni, family, and friends. Thank you to the generous contributors who have supported Colgate summer accelerator programs since 2013 with their gifts to Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Thought Into Action, and the Entrepreneurship in New York Fund. To contribute, make a gift to Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

RUBY founders Riley Decker ’23 and Emily Untermeyer ’23 discuss the importance of getting out and talking to customers directly, one of the tasks undertaken during the Field Work portion of the Accelerator.

Program and Application Details

The TIA Summer Accelerator will run from June 2 to July 26, 2025. Teams selected for the program will receive a $10,000 non-dilutive grant and workspace, room, and board in Hamilton for the duration of the accelerator, along with hands-on mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs, unrivaled connections from the Colgate network, and additional startup resources from the Colgate community.

The program offers two formats—in person and hybrid—and consists of three portions:

  • Kickoff Bootcamp: June 2–13 in Hamilton, N.Y. (required in-person for all)
  • Field Work: June 14–July 20 in Hamilton, N.Y. (in-person or virtual)
  • Capstone Week: July 21–26, culminating with event in New York City (required in-person for all)

Please note that participants choosing the hybrid format are responsible for their own travel costs to/from Hamilton; travel to New York City from Hamilton will be provided for participants.

The TIA Summer Accelerator is open to for-profit and nonprofit ventures, and campus initiatives with at least one Colgate student or recent alumna/us (class of 2015–2024) on the founding team. At least one member of the founding team is expected to reside in Hamilton, N.Y., for the bootcamp portion of the program as well as attend in-person the Capstone Week at the conclusion of the program. 

Ideal candidates will have completed prototyping and have initial traction with their venture. During the selection process, ventures will be judged by a panel of Colgate alumni entrepreneurs on criteria that include quality of idea, size of problem, team, demonstrated ability to execute, stage of development, and market viability of venture.

TIA Summer Accelerator grants can be disbursed either directly to U.S. citizens, students who have U.S. work authorization, or to business entities. International students are directed to reach out to the Office of International Student Services (OISS) before applying to the program.

Please note that the $10,000 award will be made in installments over the course of the summer and may be taxable; we recommend consulting a tax professional.

Interested applicants should apply via the online application. The deadline to submit applications is February 16 at 11:59 p.m. Review judges will evaluate all applications and develop a shortlist of finalists. These teams will be invited to a 20-minute Zoom interview. Decisions will be conveyed to teams by early- to mid-March.

Participating teams will be formally announced at the TIA Entrepreneur Showcase during Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend on Saturday, April 5.

 

For questions, schedule a time to meet with Reece Wilson, entrepreneur in residence.

You can also view these video resources:

56
teams to date; 12 cohorts
65%
of ventures still operating or acquired since the program’s inception
$697K
seed-granted capital awarded

The Summer Accelerator was an amazing opportunity for us to focus on our project full-time, providing us with the mentorship and resources to allow us to better understand the issue of food waste and the most effective ways of approaching it.

Harshitha Talasila ’26, co-founder, SoilSoul
Three Summer Accelerator Teams Featured on Forbes 30 Under 30

Campus Reel, Chicory, and Fair Harbor—all past TIA Summer Accelerator participants—were featured on the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Read the story

Teams by Cohort

2024

Nameless

Alejandro Martinez-Oletta ’18, Sami T. Ahmed ’18, Austin Hatch ’18

Dynamic network of brand and event communities all over the world, redefining the concepts of connection, shared memories, and digital value creation.
Newsreel

Jake Gómez ’21

Interactive news app designed to help you understand and remember the news.
PLNT

Porter Comstock ’26

Modernizing and digitizing the nursery plant industry.
SoilSoul

Harshitha Talasila ’26 and Marie York ’26

Campus venture reducing the impact of food waste on campus.

2023

Cha’Gate

Vivian Jiang ’26, Bill Luo ’26

Bringing bubble tea and other Asian drinks to Colgate’s campus.
Everlasting Technology

Macdonald Chirara ’25, Honorine Kwizera ’24, Harshitha Talasila ’26

Social enterprise that creates green communities by providing innovative renewable energy solutions and introducing technologies that positively impact a cleaner environment.
Geeckon

Chris Cherniakov ’24

Short video social platform for creators to express and monetize their opinions through wagers, polls, and predictions.
Rude Strength

Riley Decker ’23, Emily Untermeyer ’23

Functional strength apparel with innovative materials inspired by gym culture that meets the unique needs of female strength athletes.
Super G

Webster Lehmann ’22

Outdoor provisions brand that provides organic, ready-to-eat cereals to fuel your next adventure.

2022

DMD Trucking

Keshaun Dancy ’23

DMD Trucking, LLC is involved in the interstate transportation of goods, with traveling routes that will make our business the fastest and most efficient in the trucking industry.
DOWNKORE

James Chaplin ’20

DOWNKORE is a platform supporting the global dance community.

2021

Designs by Madison Taylor

Madison Bailey ’18, Joseph Brozek ’17, Morgan Bailey

Designs by Madison Taylor is a fashion startup creating vintage-inspired interchangeable chain sunglasses which we call SUNLOOPS™.
First Impressions Nails

Kadian Dixon ’18

Press on nail business and lifestyle/pop culture blog/podcast.
Hawaa Organics

Sally Ngoje ’19

A vegan beauty and wellness brand inspired by Ancient African beauty rituals.
ShotQuality

Simon Gerzberg ’22, Yasoob Khalid ’21, Kunal Thadini

Quantifying the quality of shots to optimize decision-making for coaches and teams.
Virtual Babysitters Club

Kyle Reilly ’16

Virtual Babysitters Club provides purpose-driven work for talented, out-of-work performing artists, and helps working-from-home parents facilitate engaging interactions for their kids while creating a little space to breathe. 

2020

CLOVO

Monica Dimas ’19, Megan Martis ’20

CLOVO is a clothing brand that values comfort, durability, and sustainability. CLOVO’s first product is the EverTight, which has everything you ever wanted in a pair of tights: no sag, no itch, all-day comfort, style, and sustainability.
Far Owl Studios

Kai Davis ’23, Grace Merelda

Far Owl Studios designs and creates video games that take time-tested best practices from the gaming industry and puts their own fresh take on them. Our international team is composed of diverse creators from Egypt, England, Russia, and other countries around the world.
Stalgia

Eric Fishbin ’20, Jeremy Harwin ’20, Tristan Niskanen ’20, Spencer Spitz ’21

Stalgia is the scrapbook of the future, helping travelers capture memories of their travels in visceral detail so they can call on them at any point in the future; to enjoy and share with friends.
Stamp

Steven Dampf ’22

Stamp is a marketing company that makes it easier for businesses to engage with young people and increase their social favorability by sponsoring donations in exchange for a customer interaction.

2019

AdZilly

Matthew Winters ’19, Matthew Abt

Adzilly is a shared economy advertising platform that allows any business to post pictures of their space and unlock advertising revenue from empty walls.
NaSo

Uyi Omorogbe ’19

NaSo creates minimalist African inspired clothing and invests in the future of Africa. We accent our designs with beautiful African prints, creating looks that are subtle but extremely cool.
Peel and Heal

Haley Del Plato ’14

Peel & Heal Studio is a design firm, specializing in hand-drawn stickers for customers who contribute daily to their journals and planners. We help our customers honor and document their health and wellness journeys with our beautiful and unique planner supplies.
Valet Seller

Maya Dunne ’21, Kevin Dunne, Andrew Michaud

Valet Seller helps small to medium-sized companies sell products online. We provide fulfillment, listing creation, marketing, continuous optimization, and multi-channel integration among many other services.

2018

Deco Slides

Chase Jackson ’13 and Sam Jackson

Deco Slides is an online retailer and manufacturer of unique slide sandals with swappable straps. 
Dunne Marketing

Sheila Dunne ’20, Luke Goodwin, Tyler Jones

Dunne Marketing provides social media management and social media marketing solutions for businesses to increase brand awareness and drive sales, saving both time and money.
ISO Film

Brandon Doby ’18 and Lauren Sanderson ’18

ISO Film is a creative content house that specializes in full service film and video production. ISO walks the line between art and commerce by bringing a high level of artistry to business projects, which distinguishes our product and makes our customers stand out in the corporate world.
Profillic

Gaurav Ragtah ’13, Himanshu Ragtah

Profillic is an AI-powered knowledge discovery platform for data science R&D that connects scientists with research, industry developments, peer reviews, projects, and more relevant to their work and interests.
YourYard

Dean Koman ’17, Nathan Weinrauch, Zach Flyer

YourYard provides on-demand access to fun lawn and beach games like spike, kadima, and wiffle ball, through a network of phone-activated lockers.  

2017

BetterMynd

Cody Semrau ’14

BetterMynd is improving the mental health of America’s 21 million college students. BetterMynd gives students access to a network of certified mental health counselors and allows them to engage in teletherapy sessions.
CampusReel

Rob Carroll ’15, Nick Freud ’15

CampusReel democratizes the college campus visit. We mitigate financial, temporal and logistical restraints that prevent prospective students from visiting campuses through a platform rich with video content from colleges across the country. 
Gipper

Matthew Glick ’19, Jack Zamore ’20

Gipper is a sports highlight app and service that harnesses a love for athletics to improve engagement and further advancement at high schools and colleges.
Loophole

Patrick Crowe ’18, Steven Stillwell

Loophole makes a rubber ring phone accessory that prevents you from dropping your phone while also improving how you use your phone. 
Room2Learn

Grace O'Shea ’11, Jane Zhang

Room2Learn is a social platform and design consultancy that provides custom and affordable design solutions for K-12 schools, designing delightful spaces for learning.

2016

Alz You Need

Leda Rosenthal ’18

Alz You Need is a connective communication app for families with a loved-one battling Alzheimer's or dementia that allows everyone to stay in the loop using our unique remote reminders.
Amber's Natural Goods, LLC

Amber Codiroli ’10

Amber’s Natural Goods is an all-natural peanut and nut butter products start up located in Hamilton, N.Y. All our products are made fresh in small batches with no high fructose corn syrup, palm oil, or anything weird.
Flour & Salt Bakery

Britty (Buonocore) O’Connor ’12, MA’13

Flour & Salt Bakery is a niche bakery in Hamilton, NY.
Halligan.io

Adam Pratt ’18, Alex Montgomery ’11

Halligan.io is a mobile apparatus check software for firefighters.
Trippie

Ryan Diew ’17, Samantha Braver

Trippie is an interactive mapping service for airports.

2015

Echo App

Adam Buys ’17, Zy Mazza

A mobile app that algorithmically ranked public events in a user's local area.
Fair Harbor Clothing

Jake Danehy ’16, Caroline Danehy ’19

Fair Harbor Clothing is a clothing company that makes men's swim shorts out of recycled plastic bottles.
Indify

Keshav Garg ’15, Connor Lawrence, Matthew Pavia

Indify is a music data platform that uses an algorithm to predict the next big music stars.
Life Vision Academy/CYF USA

Amanda Brown ’15

Life Vision Academy is a progressive boarding school, life-saving home, and creative launch pad that is transforming Nepal's marginalized youth into confident leaders.
PLT4M (Platform Athletics)

Alex Relph ’09, Sam Breslin ’09

PLT4M is an online training platform built for high school athletics and physical education.
Reign (Brainstorm Technologies)

Alex Drakos ’16, Dave Myers ’14

Reign is a company using the latest brain technology to unlock athletes' potential.

2014

Hamilton United Gift Shop (HUGS)

Max Stein ’17

An interactive website where users can order and customize gift packages made up of goods from the Hamilton area.
Late Date

Katie Rydell ’14

Best place to find the perfect date to your next event.
Prettier Please

Olivia Cranin ’17

Beauty on demand, bringing the user experience of Uber and personalization of Rent the Runway to beauty services.
Sapling Advisory

Josh Lasker ’14, Daniel Swiecki ’14

eHarmony for financial advisors and prospective clients.
Vern Clothing

Viktor Mak ’15, Matthew Kordonowy

Handmade fair trade accessories

2013

Chicory

Yuni Sameshima ’13, Joey Petracca ’13

Chicory creates distributed digital grocery experiences to reach grocery shoppers online.
Good Nature Brewing

Carrie Blackmore ’08

NY's first Farm Brewery
Swig

Harry Raymond ’11

Swig is smart retail built for mobile messaging.
GateSwap

Rob Carroll ’15, Gabe Zetter ’15

Buy, sell and trade goods and services on college campuses
ProtoExchange

Jimmy Placa ’07, Jon Placa

Cloud-based manufacturing
The Real Abroad

Jack Henley '13

Tripadvisor for college students