Introducing the 2024 NYBPC Finals Judges
The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) finals will be held on April 25, 2024, at ETEC on the University of Albany campus. This program supports the creation and development of innovative startups in Upstate NY. The NYBPC Finals connects students with business professionals, provides experiential learning opportunities through competition, connects entrepreneurs with resources at the Entrepreneurship Expo, and awards up to $100,000 in cash prizes to help seed new ventures.
In this competition, student entrepreneurs from across New York State compete to pitch their business ideas to expert judges who have extensive experience in entrepreneurship, business development, and finance.
The Grand Prize judges will oversee the competition finals and choose the grand prize winner. These judges have been selected for their expertise in entrepreneurship and commitment to promoting economic development in the region. Their time, experience, and insights are invaluable to this program and its competitors and we are grateful to them for their continued support of entrepreneurship and economic development in Upstate NY.
2024 NYBPC Grand Prize judges:
Elizabeth Lusskin - Empire State Development
Elizabeth Lusskin is the Executive Vice President for Small Business and Technology Development at Empire State Development, leading a division with 40+ staff and programs exceeding $1B, across five areas, focused on small business and innovation sectors: Capital Access, Entrepreneur Development, NYSTAR focused on technology and research commercialization, Life Science Initiative and Venture investments. Previously she was President of the LIC Partnership and Executive Director of the LIC Business Improvement District. She was Co-Chair of the NYC BID Association and a member of the Queens Tech Council, NYC Workforce Business Council, and Mayor Eric Adams and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Transition Committees, among other roles. She served as Co-Chair of the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan Steering Committee and Co-Chair of the Amazon Community Advisory Committee Project Plan Committee. Prior to LIC, she served as the Chief of Staff and VP of Strategic Initiatives at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU. She advised a range of clients through her former consulting practice. She previously was Deputy Commissioner of NYC SBS, General Counsel to the Downtown Alliance and Legislative Counsel in the NYS Office of Federal Affairs. She is a graduate of Yale University and NYU School of Law.
Lisa Coppola - The Coppola Firm
Lisa has more than three decades of experience as a litigator and counselor at law, serving clients across New York State. She founded and is a managing partner of The Coppola Firm, a woman-owned business that helps companies and organizations enforce their rights, helps injured people recover the money they deserve, and counsels businesses, organizations, and entrepreneurs as well as charter schools business on legal issues. In addition to running her law firm, Lisa chairs the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), which represents over 13 million women entrepreneurs.
Sonya Smith - New York Small Business Development Centers (NYSBDC)
Sonya is the State Director of the New York Small Business Development Centers (NYSBDC) hosted by SUNY. With over 10 years of experience, Smith is known for bringing together public/private partnerships and creating innovative programs to assist small businesses SBDC serves. She has risen in the ranks through SBDC and is the first woman and first African American appointed to lead New York’s SBDC network in its nearly 40-year history.
David Brown - Impellent Ventures
David is a Managing Partner at Impellent Ventures. In addition to Impellent Ventures, he is a Founding Managing Partner of NextGen Venture Partners. He served as Vice President of Innovation Leadership for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, where he drove economic vitality across Massachusetts by supporting entrepreneurs and innovators through business foundation, development, and expansion.
Vikram Agrawal - Levrx Technology, Inc
Vikram serves as President, CEO, & Co-Founder of Levrx. Vikram is responsible for the vision, product strategy, and business development in his role. Vikram’s previous experience in the business and information technology fields is critical to the success of Levrx.
Erica Choi - KeyBank
Erica is a commercial finance professional with 20-plus years of leadership, business, and banking experience across the public and private sectors. Skilled in Relationship Management, Strategic Planning, Leadership Development, Marketing Strategy, and Cross-functional Team Leadership, her career was built on the foundation of her leadership experiences as a US Army Officer.
The judges are looking for the following qualities and skills the competitors should strive to showcase:
Market Opportunity: Clear market need and a plan to take advantage of the need.
Competitive Advantage: The product or service is something unique that has a protectable competitive advantage in the proposed market.
Management Capability: The team has the skills and experience to develop this venture and address the associated risks.
Financial Understanding: The team has a solid understanding of the financial requirements of the venture
Roadmap/Growth Strategy: The team has engaged in short and long-term planning and has considered strategies for growth.
Sustainable Business Model: The team understands and can communicate its core business model. They are most likely to develop a sustainable venture.
The program begins with regional competitions in late March and early April across New York State which are organized locally. Regional winners move on to the statewide finals including three rounds. The first round is online and asynchronous. Judges review student submissions through the week of April 10 and meet on Zoom on April 17 to choose the teams that will move forward to the next round. Rounds two and three of the competition take place live and in-person in the Capital Region. Judges need to be in person for the day on April 25.
The judges listed below will oversee the competition finals. Their time, experience, and insights are invaluable to this competition and we are grateful to them for their continued support of entrepreneurship and economic development in Upstate NY.
In addition to the Grand Prize judges, over 50 others will judge the first and second-round finals at the state-wide level, and more than 100 will judge regional competitions. We thank them for dedicating their time, knowledge, and support to the NYBPC. Round one and round two judges are:
Round 1 Judges:
Varun Shah - Software Engineering Manager at Amazon
Satish Kunchakuri - Technical Program Manager at Google Research at Google LLC
Mitesh Mangaonkar - Lead Data Engineer at Airbnb
Scott Gillespie - Founder at Jigsaw Group
Aditya Nambiar - Co-Founder at Fennel AI
Deepak Singh - Product Manager at Teladoc Health
Edward Greer - Corporate Technology Scout at Dow Chemical
Bill Newman - Founder and Private Wealth Advisor at Atrium Financial Group,
Jack McGowan - Director at Insyte Consulting/WNY Venture Association/Buffalo Angels
Olivia Goldstein - GP at StartFast Ventures
Mark Cox - CIO, Partner at New Energy Fund II
Roy Weissman - Assistant Professor of the Practice at St. John's University
Ana-Cristina Nicolescu - Professor at West University of Timisoara, Romania, former Fulbright Scholar University of Rochester, NY
Anh-Dai Lu - Educator/Independent Consultant
Alok Shankar - Engineering Manager at Oracle
Aishwarya Acharya - Senior Financial Analyst at Synthekine
Jungsoo Ahn - Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University
Vaibhav Khunger - Senior Product Manager at Amazon
Awais Sher Bajwa - Head of Data & AI Investment Banking at Bank of America
Justin Negard - Publisher, Creative Director at Connect to Northern Westchester Magazine
Greg Shoemaker - Consultant at ARCA
Riyya Hari Lyer - Software Engineer at Brooks Automation LLC
Gia Miller - Co-owner at Sonder Publishing
Amandeep Midha - Senior Software Engineer at Hybrid Greentech Energy Storage Intelligence
Olushola Ashiru - Partner and PM at New Energy Fund II
Aryyama Kumar Jana - Software Development Engineer at Amazon
Ann (Anchisa) Pongmanavuth - Senior Analyst / Investor at Maverick Capital
Round 2 Judges:
Jonathan Cohen - Managing Director at G-Squared Partners
Kate Baker - Director at Small Business Development Center
Dhairya Pujara - CEO at Ycenter
Stuart Angert - Chairman and CEO at Independent Health Foundation & RSA
Claus Kinder - Principal at TechCXO
Matthew Pelkey - Managing Partner at Colligan Law LLP
Don Smith - President at American Consulting Group, LLC
Patty Rechberger - Innovation Fund Manager at FuzeHub
Mark Sperry - CEO at Sperry Energy
John Cococcia - Managing Partner at Arista Strategy Group
Richard Honen - Partner; Venture Capital Team Leader at Phillips Lytle LLP
April Ulrich - Partner; Venture Capital Team Leader at NBT Bank
Anthony DeBonis - President at Troy Web Consulting
Peter Rothberg - Partner at Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLP
Clayton Besch - Former Director at New York Ventures
Jason Bartz - Founder & Head of Growth at Good Neighbor Fund
Amber Adams - COO at Siena Development
Jaideep Singh Chavan - Director of Engineering at UnitX Labs
Tiphaine Martin - Assistant Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Shobhit Mittal - Finance & Business Operations Leader at Dell
Jay Katz - Senior Investment Manager at Launch NY
Shelby Schneider - Deputy Director at New York State Economic Development Council
Elena Garuc - Executive Director at FuzeHub
Christine E.B. Howard - E.B. Howard Consulting
Kelsey Thomas - Senior Manager at Withum