JCT's LevTech Entrepreneurship Center held its opening event at the end of November. LevTech aims to expand opportunities for religious men and women by providing them with the tools to develop their entrepreneurial skills and enable them to open their own businesses or to be entrepreneurial within larger companies. LevTech consists of a pre-accelerator (LevTech LAB), internal and external hackathon (technology marathons) preparation and participation, as well as activities for encouraging creative thinking. Hackathons, campus-wide special lectures and creative thinking workshops are open to all JCT students.
LevTech LAB is a semester-long program consisting of 3-hour weekly classes providing those with innovative ideas with the opportunities and resources to develop their ventures. After screening dozens of projects from students as well as graduates of JCT's business and engineering departments, 30 students and graduates were accepted into the LevTech LAB pre-accelerator program. Subjects covered include: market research, product differentiation, business models, legal and regulatory aspects of starting a business, fundraising, negotiations and networking, marketing, and product-market fit, as well as presentations and an elevator pitch. In addition to the classes, students will be mentored by entrepreneurs in the field as well as technical mentors.
JCT worked with JCT’s Student Union to invite the Mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Nir Barkat, to the LevTech opening event in order to share his experience as an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. During the event, Mayor Barkat shared his personal story and discussed how his entrepreneurial background has guided his activities and vision as Mayor of Jerusalem. The entrepreneurship program is made possible through the support of charitable donors and foundations including the Jewish Women's Fund of Atlanta.
