Resources and Opportunities at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute

Speaker:

Azaden Hosseini, PhD
Venture Associate
NYU Entrepreneurial Institute 

Abstract:

The New York University Entrepreneurial Institute (NYU-EI) leads all university-wide initiatives to launch successful startups and commercialize technology created by NYU’s 60,000 students, faculty, and researchers. It traces its roots to the launch of the NYU Innovation Venture Fund in 2010.  NYU’s pre/seed-stage venture capital fund invests exclusively in startups founded by and/or commercializing technologies, innovations, and intellectual property developed by current NYU students, faculty, and researchers. The goal is to foster a university-wide startup ecosystem that encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration, accelerates innovation, and cultivates the next generation of startup leaders. A team of startup experts offers educational programming and events, industry-specific resources, and funding support to help inspire, educate, connect, and accelerate entrepreneurs from across NYU. The NYU-EI also houses the Mark and Debra Leslie Entrepreneurs Lab. In this 6,800 sqft space, entrepreneurs from across NYU can connect, collaborate, and explore how to turn ideas and inventions into startups. The Leslie eLab offers a vast array of resources available to the NYU community.

Dr. Hosseini Leads investments in life sciences and healthcare on behalf of the NYU Innovation Fund and provides startup coaching. She has worked in business development and operations for several venture-backed health and climate tech startups. Previously, she was Head of Business Development at the public-private accelerator Innouvo, where she built global innovation ecosystems, sourced deals for pharma companies, and helped scale over 30 pre-seed to Series A stage startups. Before that, Dr. Hosseini was a Senior Scientist at BioNTech (previously Neon Therapeutics). She completed her postdoctoral training at MIT and earned her PhD in Chemistry from Boston College.