At FORGE, we love to celebrate when a member of our community gets a win! In this week’s newsletter, we wanted to share more of SNT’s story as it provides insight into the complex journey on which entrepreneurs embark, and imparts valuable takeaways for other founders, particularly those involved in faculty-led ventures.

FORGE is a proud sponsor and supporter of IdeaFunding and we can't wait to see all the teams compete on April 15th. Over 80 companies applied to this year's pitch competition, and through numerous down-rounds Startup Tucson has narrowed the field down to the top companies. We were especially excited to see that four FORGE teams were selected as semi-finalists!

We are thrilled to announce the teams selected to participate in our W21 Advanced Entrepreneur Program! Our intention is to support female founders by creating a program that both pushes their businesses forward and makes space for conversations that address the reality of sexism in the startup community.

If you’ve been following us on social media, you know that a graduate of FORGE’s startup acceleration programs, Stackhouse, was recently selected for the Techstars Anywhere Accelerator Class of 2021. They were one of only 10 startups chosen from hundreds of applications for this highly competitive program, and we couldn’t be prouder.

(Originally published on Tucson.com) Three startup companies have joined the fast-growing University of Arizona Center for Innovation, in what is hoped will become a new pipeline of startups to the business incubator from the UA’s new entrepreneurial hub, Arizona FORGE.

We, along with the College of Engineering, are excited to announce the winners of the Engineer Your World Challenge! The Challenge, sponsored by the College of Engineering tasked student teams with developing solutions to remote learning challenges through use of technology and 3D models. 

In this week’s newsletter, we’ll introduce you to the TIMESTEP program and share the story one of their interns who worked alongside ELE Optics, a FORGE Ahead resident startup.

In case you missed it, we declared 2021 the Year of the Entrepreneur! Want to know what that means to us? Check out the recap from last week where we created a whirlwind sharing what lies ahead at FORGE.

In this month's issue of Straight from the Hearth, FORGE intern Linnea discusses how Sweden developing an entrepreneurial mindset in youths by allowing them to run a business venture in high school, as well as the benefits it brings.

Join us in taking a look back at this wild year, filled with plans, pivots, and perseverance. From in-person pitches in the beginning of the year to virtual cohorts and student challenges later, it has certainly been a special year.