Three women entrepreneurs detailed their experiences working for startups and clean energy ventures at a Global Entrepreneurship Week forum Wednesday night near downtown Syracuse.

The event was hosted by Syracuse University’s Blackstone LaunchPad at the Syracuse Center of Excellence.

Amanda Chou is a public relations and political science dual major studying at SU. She’s also the chief marketing officer for Thrive Projects, Inc. — a startup run by SU students and alumni that focuses on community sustainability.

As chief marketing officer, Chou is in charge of the company’s social media accounts and maintaining its brand identity. She’s the only woman team leader at Thrive Projects.

Chou said being a woman entrepreneur is difficult. It was a big challenge to show how marketing is not a softer side of business, she said.

She worked Thrive Project’s table at a Clinton Global Initiative University event, which she said showed her she can do things by herself.

Thrive Project engineers have created the Solar Powered Auxiliary Relief Kiosk system to help bring sustainable energy to parts of Nepal. The SPARK system could help promote public safety in Nepal, Chou said.

“The SPARK system, at the end of the day, will turn on the light in the dark,” Chou said.

The company, Chou said, works with communities in Nepal but also partners with nonprofits such as InterFaith Works in Syracuse to help marginalized communities, including recently settled immigrants. Thrive Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

“We work to bridge the gap because we believe that SU students are a huge resource here in the Syracuse community, and we have to tap into that,” she said.

Karen Livingston, an adjunct professor of sustainable enterprise at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, also spoke during the forum. She teaches students to incorporate sustainable systems into their business ventures.

“I accidentally became an entrepreneur … I fell into entrepreneurship,” Livingston said.

Livingston started her career as a certified public accountant, expecting a linear path to success: going to school, getting a job and climbing the corporate ladder, she said. As a CPA, Livingston said she took few risks. But as an entrepreneur, she learned to take bigger risks, Livingston said.

She initially became interested in entrepreneurship ventures when she was trying to get solar panels installed at her home. The first company she hired went bankrupt before installation, she said, and the second company installed the panels improperly.

Livingston said she cared about sustainability and believed in solar energy as a viable source of power, so she decided to create a better way to install solar energy.

Entrepreneurship came naturally to her, she said.

“I started thinking about things like, ‘Oh, I was that kid where those in my grade school wanted to play house, and I came up with something called mergers and acquisitions,’” Livingston said.

Amy Casper, CEO of Ephesus Lighting, a Syracuse-based solid-state lighting company, also spoke Wednesday.

Ephesus Lighting is used by many sports arenas. The company’s products were used in the 2015 Super Bowl game.

Casper has worked for Motorola, Lockheed Martin and WaferTech/TSMC in the past.

She said an entrepreneur must always create a new path, looking for untapped markets. There was no sports lighting industry before Ephesus, she said.

“You can change the market with a great idea. We did,” Casper said.

Published on November 15, 2017 at 11:15 pm

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001