TAMID at Queens College is going to host their second annual TAMID Tank in the Goldstein Theatre on May 11 at 6:00 p.m.
This event, featuring Kevin Harrington of ABC’s hit show Shark Tank, gives three New York based student-run startups the opportunity to pitch their companies to the “sharks” for a shot at $100,000 in investment capital.
The TAMID Group is a student-led program at top universities that connects business-minded students with the Israeli economy.
“The Israeli economy is an anomaly, it’s a tiny country with a huge amount of innovation and there is a lot to learn from it,” Shlomo Klahr, project manager of the QC chapter, said.
TAMID is currently at 29 college campuses across the country and offers students professional development through education, hands-on investing, consulting for Israeli startups and a summer fellowship opportunity in Tel Aviv.
The QC chapter was launched in the fall of 2015 after almost a year of organizing.
TAMID’s QC chapter is involved in consulting for two Israel based startups. They are currently doing market research and competitive analysis for a sharing economy app. These apps allow for peer-to-peer based sharing of goods and services.
The relationship between these Israeli startups and U.S college students is mutually beneficial.
“These companies want to target U.S college-aged kids and it is useful for them to hear our take on things and they really take our opinions into consideration. It’s really a win-win for everyone,” Klahr said.
The event was the brainchild of students who felt that the startup culture is being lost and that college students with big business ideas no longer have the ability make their dreams a reality.
“The startup world has become very corporate. You need a fancy degree and years of experience and it no longer becomes about your idea or vision. A lot of the startups that we were talking to were having trouble finding funding and people didn’t respect them because they were students,” Klahr said.
Although the event is being held at QC and has been heavily advertised on campus, the majority of applications to participate have been from other colleges. This is exactly what the event seeks to address.
“Going into startups as a career doesn’t seem to be an option around here. The start-up world is such a legitimate choice in today’s economy and it surprised me, getting to college, so many people have the talent and skills to succeed in the start-up world and it’s just not an option,” Klahr said.
The companies that will be featured at the event all have evaluations between half a million and five million dollars and they all are passed the “ideation” phase, meaning all of them are currently doing business in some form.
This event has given student-run companies from across New York State the forum that they need to get the recognition and funding to participate in today’s competitive economy.
Tickets to this event are $5.00 and can be purchased at www.kupferbergcenter.org.
