Venture & Innovation Center (VIC) at St. John’s University

St. John's University Startup Incubator Program

The Startup Incubator Program takes student founders on a year-long journey in entrepreneurship—beginning with Johnny’s Innovation Challenge in the fall, advancing through the James & Eileen Christmas Business Plan Competition in the spring, and culminating in the Venture & Innovation Center's Startup BootCamp each summer. While each event stands on its own, together they create a powerful progression of learning and experience.

However, participation in these three components of the Program is not a requirement in order for students to gain access to a wide range of support from across the campus.  Students can pitch their business ideas in the VIC, join VIC events, enter external competitions like the NY Business Plan Competition, and tap into other parts of St. John’s innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem. Only the most engaged and persistent earn a place in the summer BootCamp—the entrepreneurship capstone experience of the academic year.

The VIC Startup BootCamp

The Venture & Innovation Center’s Startup BootCamp is an intensive eight-week summer program designed to transform student ideas into viable ventures. Guided by mentors, industry experts, and faculty, participants refine business models, validate customer needs, and develop prototypes while gaining hands-on entrepreneurial skills. Through workshops, guest speakers, and pitch sessions, students build resilience, creativity, and leadership. The bootcamp emphasizes problem definition, value proposition design, and market readiness, culminating in a final pitch event. Serving as the capstone of the academic year, it empowers committed student founders to accelerate their entrepreneurial journey within a supportive innovation ecosystem.

If you want to learn more about this program, please reach out to the Director of the Venture & Innovation Center at [email protected]

Innovate. Create. Empower.

In a world where entrepreneurship is the driving force behind progress and prosperity, St. John’s University is committed to nurturing the next generation of innovators. Our new Venture and Innovation Center (VIC) is at the forefront of this mission, providing students, faculty, and administration with the resources, support, and inspiration that they need to turn their groundbreaking ideas into reality.

The VIC provides an ecosystem of resources for aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs. It offers a range of services and
programs, such as:

• Commercialization Strategies
• Intellectual Property Strategies
• Events
• Mentoring
• Investment

Entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business; it's about developing a mindset that embraces creativity, resilience, and
the ability to solve complex problems. Entrepreneurs foster economic growth, create jobs, and address social challenges. St.
John’s University's role in honing these pioneers has never been more crucial.

The VIC is the embodiment of this crucial educational responsibility, and we invite you to be an indispensable part of it.

Our Venture and Innovation Center (VIC) is a transformative initiative that provides:

• Students with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to pursue entrepreneurial careers
• Support faculty and student researchers in commercializing their groundbreaking innovations
• Vibrant ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation within and beyond the university

Collaboration

As a university, we offer impressive resources that serve our students and faculty and enable us to offer a wide variety of cutting-edge programs. The ecosystem of resources and programs spread across the Schools and Colleges includes the James and Eileen Christmas Business Plan Competition and Pitch Event, Johnny's Innovation Challenge, the Library’s Patent & Trademark Center (PTRC), European Innovation Academy (EIA), Design Factory, Executive-in-Residence Program, and a Television, Film, and Radio Center.

However, despite our best efforts, our collegiate organizational structure can make it programmatically difficult for us to share these resources between Schools and Colleges and across the campus and to raise awareness about their existence, especially amongst new students and faculty. The VIC is designed to address this deficiency and more.

Among other things, the VIC acts as an information hub that connects stakeholders from across the Schools and Colleges to discuss their business ideas, collaborate, and become better informed about the full scope of resources available on campus.

The VIC is also a catalyst to foster deeper connections with the wider community that includes local government, businesses, and alumni.

Entrepreneurial Culture

Within the VIC, we provide a range of support that helps budding entrepreneurs with their foundational business skills (e.g., customer segmentation and acquisition, communications and networking, sales and marketing, problem-solving, and strategic thinking).

We hold a range of events and have introduced incentives to encourage entrepreneurship. Speaker events have succeeded in raising awareness and encouraging our stakeholders to make use of the center. We sponsor student research awards and hold multidisciplinary programs involving students from different colleges. We support students in attending international programs such as the European Innovation Academy in Porto, Portugal.

Finally, stakeholders can drop into the VIC during certain times of the day, where they can ask for advice, share their business ideas, and be connected to the right resources.

Idea & Venture Support

The VIC's core support is the identification, management, and commercialization of research-based innovations. The VIC manages the St. John`s University innovation portfolio and provides expert services related to innovation management, including business development, intellectual property rights, start-ups, and marketing.

The VIC’s support helps to elevate the readiness level of the concepts incubated and to derisk the commercialization process. The main innovation management programs are:

- Discovery: Provides support for concept development, feasibility assessment, intellectual property assessment and protection, business opportunity analyses, prototyping, and experimental validation.
- Proof-of-Concept: Provides more substantial project funding to validate the innovation via proof of concept, piloting, and demonstration, and to validate the commercial strategy. This program may facilitate the interaction with industry and investors and the building of networks.

The VIC seeks funding and active contributions from interested parties who want to support this unprecedented opportunity at St. John`s University.

VIC Team

James M. Kinsley
Director
[email protected]

Matyas Kolsofszki
Technology Transfer Manager
[email protected]