Barrett Amos is a co-founder of NetBook. NetBook is being developed to serve as a link between a publisher and professor to create customized textbooks and e-texts.
During this interview, Amos discusses his participation in the Big Idea competition at Cornell University. In this competition, undergraduate students are invited to enter a new business idea into the competition, which is sponsored by Entrepreneurship@Cornell and Student Agencies Inc.
Barrett Amos is a 2008 graduate of Cornell University.
Ryan Morris is co-founder of VideoNote. VideoNote is a web-based tool which allows students to easily and comprehensively review lecture material. The company has a 360 approach where gathered information is shared with professors to inform them about which topics students find most difficult.
Ryan recieved an undergraduate degree in engineering and a Masters in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.
Joseph Duva is the founder and President of theserviceauction.com. His company is an auction website where homeowners and licensed contractors connect through a real-time online biding process. This process allows the homeowner to find the most qualified home improvement contractor for their specific needs, at a competitive price. Qualified contractors can find work in a hassle free way from the comfort of their own homes.
Joe Duva is currently a junior at Cornell University. He expected to graduate in 2009.
Jonathan Santomauro is the president of Global Procurement Strategies, Inc. GPS is a tactical outsourcing firm that creates partnerships with major corporations to increase the efficiency of their procurement divisions. It does this by outsourcing the location of, purchase of, documentation of, and delivery of the diverse products required for the functioning of a major company.
Santomauro is also the president of supplycabinet.com, a consumer office supplies and furniture company currently in development stages.
Jonathan Santomauro is currently a sophomore at Cornell University. He expects to graduate in 2010.
Constanza Ontaneda is the designer and co-founder of C.S.O.R.K. (which stands for her full name Constanza Smita Ontaneda Rehman Khedker). She is half (East) Indian and half Peruvian. Born in New Delhi, she attended schools in Peru, Brazil, Romania, Peru again and finally, Deerfield, MA in the United States, graduating in 2004.
Before joining the Fiber Science & Apparel Design undergraduate program at Cornell University she decided to spend a gap year in Peru, her late father's country, to get to know it better by doing community service, traveling and studying. One course in Lima, the Influence of Peruvian Ethnic Design on Contemporary Fashion under Professor Olga Zaferson, was particularly influential in guiding her creative and manufacturing strategies. Her burning passion for social service and fashion design brought her into contact with some incredibly talented weavers, seamstresses, knitters and silversmiths all over Peru, all of whom had had to sacrifice their art to make a bare bones daily living doing any jobs available, mostly for under $1 per hour.
Constanza returned to the US after her life-changing gap year experience determined to dedicate her life and privileged education to helping artists like herself, first in Peru and then anywhere else in the world as soon as she had the wherewithal to do so.
In Massachusetts, one of Constanza's best friends is also her step-father, Dennis Longto. Longto is a dedicated biologist and environmentalist who acknowledged and shared Constanza's dream and recognized her dynamic potential to achieve it. Thus C.S.O.R.K was born as a concrete enterprise with three very clear-cut goals: Follow fair trade practices employing local workers and artisans, Produce top quality merchandise at the best possible price, Never to harm any species in the making of their products.
The artists and artisans in Peru who help to manufacture the products sold by C.S.O.R.K do not work "for" Constanza, they work WITH her. They feel respected, recognized and are well compensated. In an atmosphere of equality, laughter, talent and hope they flesh out Constanza's ideas and designs, giving her the gift of their expert advice, experience and workmanship in exchange for the opportunity she has created for their art form.
Liz Thorpe is the Managing Director of Murray's Cheese Shop. Co-author of The Murray's Cheese Handbook and Murray's Wholesale Director, Liz has in recent years emerged as one of the cheese world's best. She left the corporate world in April of 2002 to join Murray's and hasn't looked back since.
Liz Thorpe graduated Yale University with a degree in art history and American studies.
Jonathan Treiber is the CEO of iBakeSale.com. iBakeSale.com was founded in 2007 to make community fundraising easy and rewarding. By doing online shopping through the website, consumers can fundraise for themselves by earning cash-back on credit card purchase or can fundraise for any community group or charity affiliated with the site.
Prior to his role at iBakeSale.com, Trieber worked at Citigroup in investment banking.
Jonathan Treiber is a graduate of Cornell University.
Lindsay Hyde is founder and executive director of Strong Women, Strong Girls, Inc. (SWSG), a Massachusetts not-for-profit organization which helps at-risk girls in grades 3-5 build positive self-esteem and skills.
Hyde was named one of Glamour Magazine's "Top Ten College Women" in 2003. She was also awarded the Seventeen Magazine National Youth Volunteerism Award.
Lindsay Hyde is a graduate of Harvard University.
Amy Arrigo works for Lincoln Financial Group in Philadelphia, PA.
She majored in Applied Economics and Management and graduated Cornell University in 2002.