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 Please visit the Syracuse Student Sandbox website at:  www.SyracuseStudentSandbox.com!

Syracuse Student Sandbox

The Syracuse Student Sandbox is a unique business incubator that gives aspiring student entrepreneurs the resources to make their visions a reality. The objective of the Sandbox is to accelerate the process of ideation, development and deployment through mentoring and coaching. The twelve week experiential based program has an end-goal of producing revenue generating entities or investment ready firms.

Culminating in “Demo Day”, the program provides coaching, mentoring, educational programming, physical space, access to subject matter experts and investors. A full time entrepreneur in residence guides teams through the program and serves as a coach and conduit to the community. Each team has up to five assigned mentors who are entrepreneurs, professors, technologists, subject matter experts, attorneys and accountants.

Unlike other incubators, the Sandbox does not currently claim ownership to any part of the student companies: Students participating in the program maintain 100% equity in their companies. Some participating schools have established investment funding mechanisms for student ventures. The Sandbox continues to seek additional sources of support in form of sponsorship, in-kind contributions or direct investment.

The program is currently open to students from the sponsored Kauffman Foundation Enitiative s chools: Syracuse University; Cayuga Community College; Le Moyne College; Morrisville State College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and Onondaga Community College. Students from these schools are sourced from course work and outreach on the member campuses. The EIR spends time on each of the campuses consulting with potential companies on business planning and team development. The Sandbox is working to expand membership to other schools such as University of Rochester, RIT, Cornell, SUNY Oswego, and Clarkson.

Housed at and supported by The Tech Garden, a Centerstate CEO organization, the newly redone Sandbox is a 4000 square foot collaborative facility complete with conference area, ‘hangout’ space and a ton of whiteboards.

The Sandbox was established in 2009 as a follow on to course work at Syracuse University.  In 2009 the Sandbox hosted just 5 companies.  In 2010 this number has ballooned to 12 in-house companies, and an additional 3 teams are being mentored at a distance.  The entrepreneurial community has also grown with over 40 mentors involved with the student teams (compared to 4 in 2009).  The Sandbox has several successful graduates in its short history and is looking to expand the program and further develop an entrepreneurial eco-system. 

“Sandbox” Companies

Brewing History

• Brewing History is a brewery dedicated to brewing old time recipes and new innovative recipes, connecting CNY with its historical brewery roots.  Their company will help the local economy by using tools and ingredients from local Central New York businesses. Beer from their brewery will be distributed throughout New York State, promoting Syracuse, New York as a leader in beer making, as it once was. 

Campus Mosaic

Campus Mosaic Inc. is a dual venture between two intertwined bustling businesses popular among the college crowd.

• Cuse my Campus serves as a central hub for uncensored satirical news, articles, pictures and videos for the campus.
• Squeeze My Tees is a niche apparel business focusing on comedic t-shirts and creative student generated designs.

Capesquared

• Capesquared it a web services company that generates its primary revenue through web design.  However, Capesquared LLC is the company that allows them to entertain every idea they've never pursued. 

DreamFetcher

• DreamFetcher is a connection service for job seekers and employers.  DreamFetcher allows job seeking professionals to create an e-portfolio and input information about their ideal job.  Employers are able to input characteristics about their ideal new employee.  This information is used to connect the best-matching job seekers and employers. 

graFighters

• graFighters is the first online game for your hand drawn characters.  Draw anything you want in your notebook, take a picture of it, and watch it batter the drawings of your friends online.

Higher Limits

• Higher Limits is a clothing company based on the interpretation of two individuals brought up and influenced by the urban/graffiti scene.  It is called Higher Limits because it reflects their desire as two inner-city individuals to ride to higher limits. They are influenced by an eclectic array of sub-cultures and movements such as anime, pop art, etc.

JamLynx

• Manticore Music presents JamLynx, an experience for musicians by musicians.  JamLynx is similar to rockband except that you use real instruments to play real songs.  A social network allows you to find others with the same musical interests and play their songs, compete against them, or collaborate with them to make new songs for the game. 

Patchwork

• Patchwork collective is a community based collective that offers innovative design and development solutions to reestablish vibrant living conditions.  They specialize in redesigning reclaimed building components, using them to patch and revitalize decaying structures or creating new ones.   

Re-Circle

• Re-circle is a waste upcycling service that repurposes used cooking grease and oil from local restaurants by making it into handcrafted, scented soap.  We provide waste removal services to all participating restaurants.  They make profit by selling soap.  The soap lines made have the ability to create brand recognition and continued advertising for the restaurants involved.

Safe Sip

•   Safe Sip Technologies develops discrete date rape prevention products that test for various date rape drugs. SafeSip products will provide users with protection and comfort in knowing they are safe with every sip taken.

Skill Addiction

• Skill Addiction is a skill gaming website that provides the platform for players to connect and compete in tournaments for cash and prizes.  The business was launched in April 2009, and has experienced rapid growth since.  Skill Addiction has awarded over $75,000 in cash and prizes to date. 

The Front

• The Front aspires to be a non-for-profit organization that establishes The Storefront for Syracuse, a small-scale realizable network of storefront spaces aimed at transforming the abandoned face of Syracuse. The Front capitalizes on the political dimensions of architecture by developing a series of vacant storefront into a catalytic force in the urban revitalization of Syracuse. Operating on a single space at a time, The Storefront for Syracuse will become a transient think-tank and repository for trans-disciplinary student work and professional engagement.