More than 300 alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members joined Celebration Ezra 2025 on April 10-11, to network, get inspired and honor the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year, John Bicket ’02.

The two-day conference, organized by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, also included the naming of winners of two business competitions and Demo Day for members of eLab, the student business accelerator.

“Celebration Ezra is a wonderful opportunity to showcase Cornell’s entrepreneurial mindset and energy,” said Zach Shulman ’87, J.D. ‘90, director of Entrepreneurship at Cornell.

President Michael I. Kotlikoff presented the Cornell 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year award to Bicket, co-founder and chief technology officer of both Meraki and Samsara.

Credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University

“One of the things that gets lost in a lot of the conversations we’re having now is the value for our economy and our quality of life of the innovation that comes from universities,” Kotlikoff said. “We don’t talk about what effect the university can have on transforming individuals’ lives in a way that creates entrepreneurs by nourishing and supporting the excellence and the talent of our students. And today we get to honor an alum who has co-founded not just one but two billion-dollar-plus companies.”

In the afternoon, Bicket described co-founding the two companies with partner Sanjit Biswas, whom Bicket met while in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002.

“We found that we had a lot of similar interests and complementary skills,” Bicket said. “Our first company, Meraki, started as a research project offering free Wi-Fi to graduate students during the day in exchange for the chance to run experiments on the network at night.”

After selling Meraki to Cisco, Bicket said he and Biswas debated whether to start something else.

“Some people say the entrepreneurial journey is like eating glass and it’s actually true. It’s really hard,” Bicket said. “But there was a moment when we felt like we had a little insight. We knew the world was going to change and we could see where it was going. Do we want to sit this one out or get back in?”

Thus was born Samsara, a company that offers an AI-powered platform to help physical operations organizations improve their safety, efficiency and sustainability by using data from sensors and connected devices.

In Sanskrit, samsara means “the process of rebirth,” Bicket said, so they chose it to signify the suffering they might go through, but also the joys of launching a successful company.

“If a company ends up working,” he said, “the benefits are very meaningful. We felt almost compelled to do it again.”

Celebration events kicked off April 10 with Demo Day, during which 13 student teams shared their companies’ updates in the Statler Hotel ballroom.

Credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University

“The number of teams that apply to be part of eLab is going up each year,” said Ken Rother, eLab managing director. “It’s a testament to the strength of the entrepreneurial community at Cornell.”

Teams included Hermit, a company that saves travelers rental car fees by connecting them to other travelers whose cars will be parked at their destination airport.

“You park your car for free, other people pay to use your car while you’re away and you rent another Hermit user’s car at your destination,” said Akhil Damani ’25, an information science major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Damon Hollenbeck ’25, a Milstein Scholar and computer science major in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), explained his idea for CRIT, an online platform that offers personalized feedback and expert critiques to aspiring artists.

“It’s hard for artists to get better when the only person who sees their art is themselves,” Hollenbeck said, adding that the platform would eventually include an online marketplace for artists to sell their works. “Art school isn’t a logical investment for most people and many communities just don’t offer these resources.”

Friday’s events also included the announcement of the 2025 Student Business of the Year, which went to SteamPact Foundation Inc.; and the winner of the David J. BenDaniel Venture Challenge, which went to TranscribeGlass.

SteamPact, which received a $5,000 award, is the brainchild of Catia Dombaxe, a doctoral student in engineering. The foundation offers hands-on education in science, technology, engineering and math to children in Angola, while also supporting women’s empowerment.

TranscribeGlass, which won a $25,000 award, was created by Yale student Madhav Lavakare and Cornell student Nirbhay Narang ’25, a computer science major in A&S. The company offers smart glasses for real-time subtitles of conversations.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for Entrepreneurship at Cornell.