Entrepreneurship has no singular path, no roadmap, no easy answers. Founders succeed with unique ventures and solutions that make real impact. But it’s the founders themselves who have to lock in to win. As Joshua Ackerman ’27 and Yoav Reshef ’27 put it: before you have the financial equity, it’s all about sweat equity.New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC). The winning team, Lucent EMS Solutions, was founded by School of Management students Ackerman and Reshef, who turned a problem they experienced firsthand as emergency medical responders into a startup.Harpur's Ferry Student Volunteer Ambulance Service. Their real-world experience led to Lucent EMS Solutions, a venture aimed at modernizing how emergency medical services document patient care in the field. Their idea was inspired by the challenges EMS professionals face every day, and their proposed solutions to those issues earned them the grand prize at the NYBPC — including a $25,000 check to build out their venture.
From Ambulance Calls to Entrepreneurship
The idea for Lucent grew directly out of the students’ work at Harpur’s Ferry, a nonprofit, student-run ambulance service that provides free, advanced life support emergency medical services to the Binghamton campus and the surrounding community.
Ackerman and Reshef have worked as EMTs since high school, and they quickly noticed a recurring challenge once they began responding to calls on campus.
“One constant in EMS, wherever you are, is documentation and paperwork,” Reshef said. “After every 911 call, we’re spending anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour typing out reports.”
Those patient care reports are critical records that document everything that happens during a call, from vital signs and assessments to the narrative account of patient treatment. The documentation can later be used by hospitals, insurance companies, or even court cases as needed.
But completing those reports can take significant time, potentially delaying emergency care, so the faster and more accurately they’re completed, the faster ambulances can get back on the road serving the community.
After long overnight shifts responding to multiple calls, recalling every detail of earlier incidents can become difficult, a problem that affects efficiency and accuracy across EMS agencies.
“It’s 3 in the morning, you’re several calls deep, and you still have hours of documentation ahead of you,” Reshef said. “We realized this wasn’t just our problem — it’s something people across EMS talk about all the time.”
Bringing Lucent to Life
Lucent aims to streamline this process by developing software that helps EMS providers complete documentation faster and more accurately.
Because the idea came from their experiences in the field, the founders believe their approach resonated with competition judges.
“This wasn’t a hypothetical problem or a class project,” Reshef said. “It was something we deal with every day.”
The path from idea to competition-winning startup happened where many great ideas are formed … at the gym.
Ackerman recalled the moment the concept began to take shape: “Yoav started texting me one night about an idea while he was at the gym. We still look back at those messages sometimes to see how far we’ve come.”
From there, the pair began refining the concept and preparing to compete in the NYBPC, which trains and showcases student entrepreneurs across the state.
The competition includes multiple stages, beginning with regional presentations and culminating in a statewide final featuring top student ventures.
After advancing through early rounds, the team traveled to Rochester for the final pitch.
“It was a very busy weekend,” Ackerman said with a laugh. “We were updating slides, rehearsing and preparing … and I had an exam the day before.”
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CEOs of Locking In
Ackerman and Reshef say their success is also rooted in a strong partnership.
Binghamton: An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Guidance from Joey Tsai, Osterhout associate professor of entrepreneurship in Binghamton University’s School of Management , helped the students shape their early idea into a compelling business pitch. Ackerman and Reshef connected with Tsai after hearing him encourage students to reach out if they had entrepreneurial ideas.BuzzHive , as well as Associate Dean Linda Reynolds, who played an important role in supporting Lucent. That kind of collective mentorship in action is exactly what Tsai hopes to build in Binghamton’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Lucent Looks Ahead
With the $25,000 grand prize in hand, the founders plan to accelerate development of their technology and continue building their team.
The majority of the prize will go toward software development. Ackerman and Yoav are building a team at Binghamton to help develop the software, working with students in the School of Management with programming experience.
