Provided

The logo for Let's Epicure, a startup company incubated at Cornell Tech.

Changing people’s eating habits is no small task. Yet as a member of the inaugural MBA class at Cornell Tech, it was exactly the kind of challenge my classmates Rachel Wang, MBA ’15, and Miwa Takaki, MBA ’15, and I were looking to tackle.

Let’s Epicure, a startup company incubated at Cornell Tech and supported by a $40,000 Cornell Tech Startup Award, was launched with the mission of leveraging technology to make it easier for consumers to eat healthily.

On Oct. 6, Let’s Epicure won the third place award of $10,000 in the “Innovate for the Underserved Business Challenge” at the Health 2.0 Fall Conference in Santa Clara, California.

Sponsored by the Aetna Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Health IT Collaborative, the business challenge was designed to identify innovative approaches to increasing health equity and addressing chronic health issues in underserved populations.

To the three of us, the months leading up to the October award were a whirlwind. In addition to incorporating the business (with the help of Imri Eisner, J.D. ’05, at Lowenstein Sandler) the Let’s Epicure team built out a mobile prototype that rates the healthfulness of purchases from major grocery and delivery companies.

In building the company, we leveraged the curriculum of the Cornell Tech MBA. Johnson faculty members including Robert Bloomfield, Chris Marquis, Jason Hogg, MBA ’02, and Steve Gal ’88 created the space for us to refine our business model and bounce ideas off of other members of the inaugural class.

“Cornell Tech attracts a different caliber of people,” my co-founder Rachel Wang explained. “All of us wanted an experience, not just a diploma. We wanted it to be meaningful. We wanted to be pushed, and we wanted to shake things up. I think Cornell Tech provided the canvas for us to do so.”

Being part of Cornell Tech itself was an advantage as well. Whether it was collaborating with computer science professor Deborah Estrin; gleaning great feedback during startup studio from David Tisch (managing partner at BoxGroup), Irving Fain (co-founder and former CEO of CloudTwist) and Brian Schechter (co-founder and co-CEO of HowAboutWe); or participating in regular h:Tech seminars with guests like angel investor Esther Dyson, launching a business at Cornell Tech provided unparalleled access to the talent of the city at large.

“Drawing people and cultures from all over the world, New York City’s vibrant tech community was the perfect setting for helping to make our ideas a reality,” Miwa Takaki pointed out.

None of this, of course, would have been possible without the tireless efforts of the people who make Cornell Tech work. Tamika Morales, Devaneke Crumpler ’12, Christine Sneva, Jenna Abbott and J McLaughlin who ran the show on the third floor of the Google building, as well as professors Risa Mish ’85, J.D. ’88, Ya-Ru Chen and entrepreneur in residence Shuli Shwartz, truly taught us what it means to lead by example. It was inspiring be supported by a broad network of accomplished female role models.

More valuable than a financial prize is the valuable lesson that people make all of the difference. They certainly did for us.

This Cornell Perspectives piece was written by Claire Lambrecht ’06, MBA ’15, a member of the inaugural MBA class at Cornell Tech. In 2015, Let’s Epicure was one of five companies to receive a Cornell Tech Startup Award, which are supported by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation.