Venture Holiday Market Draws Large Crowd to SOM
Members of the Yale community shopped local, spread joy, and supported student founders this holiday season.
On December 4th, the Program on Entrepreneurship, in conjunction with Startup & Entrepreneurship Club, hosted the 2024 Venture Holiday Market in the Snyder Forum at the Yale School of Management. Twelve vendors from the Yale and New Haven communities put their products on display for shoppers to browse and purchase just in time for the holidays. More than 200 people were in attendance to decompress, sip some hot chocolate, and support small businesses with big talent.
Included in the vendor lineup were a number of SOM-founded ventures. Ben Ringel ‘25 captivated shoppers’ taste buds with “Pita Stix,” dippable pita in stick form that comes in an array of punchy flavors. Jane Xiang ‘25, founder of Tian Hai, showcased her upcycled jewelry brand while Patrick Wei ‘25 added some sparkle with his sustainable, lab-grown diamonds from Le Bezel.
Other SOM-represented ventures included Calmware (Sam Sweig ‘25), a line of aesthetic everyday objects for anxiety management, ShinnKuu (Nicola Yu ‘25), a vacuum sealer designed to preserve bottles of wine for up to 60 days, and Sanriya (Ramya Srinivasan ‘26), a jewelry brand showcasing the talents of women artisans through carefully-selected Indian fabrics.
Shoppers were treated to light refreshments while they perused, as well as a hot chocolate bar and a holiday-themed playlist curated by SOM students. The SOM Internship Fund provided gift wrapping services on premises. Attendees came from across the Yale community, including students, faculty, and staff from SOM, Yale College, and other innovation centers on campus.
Special thanks to Sam Sweig and Jane Xiang for organizing the event, along with Startup & Entrepreneurship Club and Tsai CITY for their support of student founders.
