Iona College Launches Start-Up Incubator

Iona College held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday for GaelVentures, a start-up incubator space at the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. The ceremony, which was held during the College’s Homecoming & Family Weekend, also included Iona’s first ideaHackathon event, a contest where students pitched entrepreneurial ideas to win prizes.

GaelVentures was created to support student programming at Iona College and to serve the New Rochelle and greater Westchester area as a resource for its local entrepreneurship and business ecosystem. The first event will be the Westchester Tech Meetup on Tuesday, October 24, at 6 p.m., where local entrepreneurs and Iona students can present their business ideas to like-minded innovators.

“At the Hynes Institute, it is our goal to create a community of student entrepreneurs and innovators by providing entrepreneurial learning opportunities for all students across the Iona College community,” said Christoph Winkler, Ph.D., endowed professor and founding Hynes Institute program director. “Building an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship program of that nature is something very unique and reflective of Jim and Anne Marie Hynes’ groundbreaking vision.” 

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Deputy Westchester County Executive Kevin Plunkett presented a proclamation on behalf of County Executive Rob Astorino in support of GaelVentures.