Hearty Start

Elevator pitch

For as little as $3, Hearty Start allows you to sponsor breakfasts for homeless individuals around New York City. Donors log onto the site and choose how often they’d like to donate a sandwich — daily, weekly or monthly.

Hearty Start partners with local delis like Le Basket to make the sandwiches, which are delivered by Hearty Start employee Munoz Price, who once struggled with homelessness himself.

NYU connection

Two members of Hearty Start’s team, Konig Chen and Josh Gelinas, are current NYU sophomores. Chen studies hospitality and acts as the nonprofit’s Program Director for Distributions and Finance, while Gelinas is an economics major and fills the role of Program Director of Operations and Fundraising.

Hearty Start is also a semifinalist in NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge, in which it’s competing for a $200,000 prize.

Advice to college entrepreneurs

As a student himself, Gelinas encourages his NYU peers to go out and seek the real-world challenges by a startup.

“There’s no better way to gain a lot of experience — not just with business, but relating with people, putting yourself out there, selling things — than to do a new company,” Gelinas said.

In addition to the ventures sponsored by NYU like the Leslie eLab and the Entrepreneurs Challenge, Gelinas said that being in New York is a huge advantage for students who want to start a business. “I transferred from the University of Texas, and from what I’ve seen NYU is one of the best schools to be at to be an entrepreneur.”

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, March 7 print edition. Email Kendall Levison at [email protected].