Tom Schryver is a financial expert and entrepreneur focusing on venture capital (VC), private equity, and innovation. Professor Schryver specializes in financial modeling, investment management and analysis, startup strategy, startup management and governance, and technology transfer. He has substantial expertise with VC industry customs, processes, and practices, as well as executive-level experience in angel investing, structuring new companies, and technology businesses.
Professor Schryver has provided expert testimony in litigation regarding capital raising, the SaaS business model, and VC compensation disputes.
For over a decade, Professor Schryver has taught business strategy, entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurship, and venture capital at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He founded Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA) and serves as its executive director. In that role, he has founded business incubation and accelerator programs, launched two state-funded multimillion-dollar startup funding competitions, and serves as the director of the National Science Foundation–funded Interior Northeast I-Corps Hub (IN I-Corps Hub), a coalition of ten academic institutions that delivers training to tech innovators on new venture formation and development. He also serves as the David J. BenDaniel Faculty advisor for Big Red Ventures, the second-oldest M.B.A.-run venture fund, sits on startup company boards, and is a member of the limited partner advisory committee of an early-stage venture fund.
Prior to joining academia, Professor Schryver was an entrepreneur and angel investor who founded startups and held senior executive roles in high-growth firms. He has structured new companies and raised capital in the form of private VC, venture debt, and grants and loans from local, state, and federal agencies. He also has experience as an investment banker and institutional investor, including leading a private family foundation’s investment portfolio.
Professor Schryver is the board chair of the Business Incubator Association of New York State (BIANYS).