Garage Member's Start-Up Competes in the Cherokee-McDonough Challenge Finals

by Moaad Benkaraache, EI Marketing Assistant

Last week, I had an opportunity to attend the finale of the Cherokee-McDonough Challenge, an accelerator targeted at environmental business ventures. I had the privilege of listening to a few well-established speakers such as Tom Darden, the founder and CEO of Cherokee Investment Partners, and William McDonough, a globally recognized leader in sustainable development.

The main reason I attended the finale, however, was because one of the finalists of the Cherokee-McDonough Challenge was fellow WolfPack and Entrepreneurship Initiative member: Brian Iezzi. As a founder of Platinix, a company specialized in developing catalysts for hydrogen generation, Iezzi got to showcase his start-up to potential investors and the public. 



Brian Iezzi

Although Iezzi spent most of the past few months working on his start-up with the Cherokee-McDonough Challenge, he credits the Entrepreneurship Initiative with providing many necessary resources that Platinix needed during its infancy. Even though Iezzi's venture is now incorporated and investor-ready, Brian assured me that he would still be working in the Garage periodically. So you might run into Brian Iezzi at the Garage, and if you do, I'm sure he will take time out of his busy day to tell you more about Platinix.

E-Games Monday!

NC State Entrepreneurs Lecture Series and

The Lulu eGames

Celebrating student entrepreneurship and innovation at NC State!

Join us for the Spring 2013 Entrepreneurs Lecture Series on Monday, April 29. Thushan Amarasiriwardena, Co-Founder of Launchpad Toys, will give the keynote address, followed by The Lulu eGames awards ceremony.

Prior to the lecture, Lulu eGames semifinalists will display their contest entries, and entrepreneurship partners and event sponsors will display informational booths. To learn more about The Lulu eGames and Entrepreneurs Lecture Series, please visit our website at http://ei.ncsu.edu. 

VIDEO POST

'Entourage' Star Adrian Grenier Starts Music Incubator

http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/226167

The link provides some additional information, it seems like a neat idea!

Making a Comeback

My dearest blog readers, I know it has been awhile since I have posted to the blog, but the NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative has been super busy lately. Our students and staff have had a successful start to spring 2013. Our latest accomplishment was coordinating the ACC Clean Energy Challenge which happened last week, and the NC State team even made it to the Final Four round! I hope each of your starts to the spring have been equally as exciting. I have an exciting week of blog posts ahead, so keep reading and please feel free to add your input.

Celebrations All Around!

We have a great deal of exciting entrepreneurial news to share with our NC State Entrepreneurship Community.

Congratulations are in order for both Heather Troutman and Mark Delgado, for the successful Meredith College TEDx lectures. I will be publishing a post shortly with links to their videos! Both Heather and Mark were excited about speaking at the local event; they both shared stories about their individual entrepreneurial experiences.

This past Wednesday at the Hunt Library NC State will be hosted "Start-Up Madness", an ACC student competition. Imagine the feeling in the room when the best student entrepreneurs from all the ACC schools gather together during March Madness.  Fans were able to witness students from 13 different universities who are executing on BIG ideas, pitch them in multiple rounds. We are proud to say our very own Mark Delgado, CEO and Found of Koyr, placed second in the competition! Congratulations to Mark!

Videos: Meredith College TEDx Event

Just recently two of our very own Entrepreneurship Initiative students were given the opportunity to speak at a TEDx event at Meredith College. Environmental Studies student, Heather Troutman and Nuclear Engineering student Mark Delgado were selected by the Meredith College community to speak to staff and students at their first TEDx campus event.

We are proud to present their talks via YouTube video's right here on our Entrepreneurship Initiative Student Blog.

Heather Troutman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81V4HUlm9dA

Mark Delgado: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAchxh8u2zc

Entrepreneurship: An NC State Student Story

Ph.D. student Vindhya Kunduru

I was checking out our school's homepage this week and ran across an inspiring entrepreneurial student story that is occurring right here on State's campus.

Here is the link for the article: http://www.ncsu.edu/features/2013/03/unexpected-entrepreneur/. Finding this article has inspired my blog post ideas to continue to spotlight student success stories either from the Garage or around campus. Please let me know if you have anyone you would like to "Spotlight", just email me I would be happy to help pass on the good news. (ghtrembl@ncsu.edu)

Previous "Spotlight" posts to refer to:

- Soutenu Tights

- Guest Blogger: Ibrahim Zafar

- Headbands of Hope