Stony Brook’s Office for Research and Innovation (OR&I) held its inaugural Wolf Den, an evening where investors, researchers, startup founders and business leaders came together to exchange ideas, foster collaboration and strengthen connections that drive technology development and economic growth across Long Island.
Sponsored by the OR&I in partnership with Accelerate Long Island, the November 13 event was held at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT), with plans for the next event in early 2026.
“We designed the Wolf Den as an opportunity to observe, listen and learn what the Long Island innovation community needs to thrive,” said Stony Brook University Chief Innovation Officer Michael Kinch. “Events like this show us where collaboration is strongest and where we can remove friction for founders. Such insights will shape how we continue to cultivate a vibrant, resilient innovation ecosystem.”
Attendees learned about Stony Brook’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, heard company pitches from emerging startups and engaged in meaningful networking with innovators, investors and partners.
“Our mission is to help companies start, scale, become pitch-ready and investable through mentorship and support programs,” said Jim Acquaviva, strategic innovation director in OR&I. “By connecting academia and industry, we facilitate knowledge-sharing, spark new ideas and catalyze collaborations that will help elevate our startups to new heights. Establishing connections between the many resources across Stony Brook University and Long Island will accelerate the commercialization of technology in multiple markets.”
“I’ve spent 20 years studying how entrepreneurs create, acquire, manage and transfer financial resilience,” said Richard Chan, a professor in the College of Business, who also moderated the panel discussion. “When I first came to Stony Brook 12 years ago, I was the only faculty member who did entrepreneurship research. Fast-forward 12 years and it’s wonderful that we now have a dedicated Office for Research and Innovation that has hired some wonderful and talented people to help spearhead innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Chan mentioned Stony Brook courses in entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy management, and special learning opportunities for students to actually work hands-on with entrepreneurs to solve real-life problems.
“I’ve seen first-hand how AI will impact our communities, and I’ve had the opportunity to observe how AI has rapidly transitioned from an emerging technology to being the fundamental DNA of startups,” said Chan. “Many of our students have not only utilized large language models to build up innovative solutions, several of them have used this opportunity to create startups themselves. And that brings us to today’s key question we want to address: how will AI tools be incorporated as a core, fundamental component of the next generation, and how will founders build competitive advantage when everyone has access to the same powerful AI tools?”
Industry panelists included: Bryan Huang ’18 College of Business, founder of LANDED, a trans-Pacific accelerator helping startups from Asia grow in the U.S.; Ryan Hu, founder of Qlo, an AI actuarial platform transforming how insurers quote and underwrite risk; Jac Hsieh, CEO and co-founder of NunoX, a fashion procurement platform reinventing how brands and manufacturers manage sourcing, production and supply chain collaboration; and Mouli Narayanan, founder and CEO of ZeBlok Computational, headquartered at Stony Brook Research and Development Park, which focuses on democratizing AI and enabling every business to create AI-inspired digital assets to deliver impactful products and services to their customers.
The panel discussed AI’s impact on testing a business concept and developing minimal viable product (MVP) via vibe coding, which uses AI to generate code from natural language prompts, speeding up development. Developers describe the desired outcome and AI creates the code, resulting in rapid prototyping and faster development cycles.
“AI is good for ideations and also good for quickly building a prototype to validate the market,” said Hsieh. “So for me, this is a quick solution to find out whether the market exists.”
Hu emphasized that while AI may speed up a process, users must initially understand the problem that needs solving. “Using AI for live coding can only lower the barrier to building something really cool, but the real quality is in how you understand the problem,” he said. “If you do, you can leverage the AI capability to do the work and make it efficient.”
“There are about 65,000 AI startups today,” said Narayanan. “There are extreme supernova AIs at the moment. But in the end I think it comes down to the fundamentals of how to create a business and run a business.”
The panel also explored AI’s use in creating a unique value proposition.
“I think for a lot of startups, especially when they’re meeting investors for the first time, it’s sometimes hard to articulate what you are solving,” said Huang. “Especially if it’s something so highly technical that it’s difficult for people who are outside of that area to understand. But it goes back to solving people’s problems. That’s why startups exist.”
“The traditional challenges for starting a company remain,” said Narayanan. “It’s about staying in the game. What you start with will never be the same. Don’t overthink it, but get it right. Those traditional parts of a startup all still apply.”
“AI is just a tool just like the internet is a tool,” said Hsieh. “AI is a great tool for startups to quickly validate the market and generate some new scenarios or new business models that haven’t been explored yet. So I think that’s a very good opportunity for a lot of startups to build their new business.”
“The connections we make tonight will undoubtedly strengthen our community, fostering a sense of camaraderie among us as we all strive to make meaningful impact on society by challenging ourselves to think bigger, push boundaries and explore how we can work together to create groundbreaking innovations that drive economic growth and shape the world around us,” said Acquaviva. “We know the founder’s journey can be challenging, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. The Wolf Den is a golden opportunity for us to come together to share experiences and learn from one another as we navigate the path to success.”
— Robert Emproto
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