Startup Cornell

Episode 55: Dan Cane '98, our Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year, tackles education and healthcare

Our April podcast features a chat with Dan Cane ’98, this year’s Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year and the co-founder of Blackboard Inc. and Modernizing Medicine. Cane will be honored on campus April 9-10 at the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Celebration Erza conference. Modernizing Medicine, founded in 2010, is a medical technology company that offers specialty-specific electronic health records, practice management software and patient engagement solutions. Blackboard (initially named CourseInfo) was started by Cane and friends as Cornell undergraduates as a tool for faculty to share course notes, readings and other information.

Episode 54: A 1972 trip to Guatemala ended with a life-long commitment to water projects there

Bruce Clemens ’72 left Cornell after graduation with a one-way ticket to Guatemala and a desire to “cure poverty,” a mindset he says wasn’t unusual among classmates of that time. Fast forward 54 years and the non-profit that Clemens helped to found there, Aqua del Pueblo, has completed more than 500 water, sanitation and community development projects in the country, covering 1,000 towns and benefitting 500,000 people. Clemens tells his story as the guest for the March Startup Cornell podcast,

Episode 53: SWYM founders want you to dive in to find a date for Valentine’s Day

Our February podcast features a chat with Terrence Liverpool ’02 and Jeffrey Chery, founders of SWYM, a dating app that allows users to meet and match with people at events such as concerts, music festivals, conferences or sporting events, or even everyday locations such as supermarkets, gyms, parks or bookstores. The duo founded the company right before the pandemic, which was a tricky time for this idea, but had a launch party in November 2025 and have connected with organizers of key events in New York City, who are using their platform. They say meeting in real life at events, with the use of technology, helps people connect with others who have similar interests.

Episode 52: MathGPT founders say site boosts students’ skills, confidence

With more than 10 million users, Nour Gajial ’26 and Yanni Kouloumbis ’26 have found a pain point among high school and college students and answered it with their startup MathGPT. The founders are featured on the January episode of the Startup Cornell podcast. The duo founded the company in 2023 to help students struggling with math understand how to approach problems step-by-step using AI-powered learning tools and video explanations. Now, the platform has expanded beyond math to include a number of STEM-related topics.

Episode 51: Hauwa Otori ’08 spreads the stories of under-resourced entrepreneurs

Our new episode features Hauwa Otori ‘08, creator of the Founders International Network and host of the Building Black podcast, which shares stories about the experiences of under-resourced entrepreneurs from around the globe. Otori has a degree in communications from Cornell and a law degree from American University. She is also an independent producer for Fast Company, KCRW and Marketplace and her writing has appeared in Elle and Forbes.