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

Weekly Update

Happy Monday my fellow blog readers! It may be a dreary start to the week, but the nice weather will return very soon. It is a quiet week ahead for entrepreneurship, but I have a few updates and announcements to make.

Last Thursday we had a great Student Networking meeting in the Garage with Derrick Minor, Raleigh's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager. Minor provided the group with insightful details about his daily networking tasks and tips that help him succeed at his job. He is passionate about the program we have started on campus at the Garage, and encouraged the students to keep up the great work! Sean Maroni (Garage Assistant, Ambassador President) has done an terrific job this semester organizing these meetings on Thursday nights, please continue to attend or stop by on April 11th for the next one. These meetings are a great opportunity to visit the Garage, meet new people, and expand your entrepreneurship network beyond your everyday school group or degree focus!

There was an announcement made prior to the beginning of the meeting by Brian Iezzi about the newly founded NC State Stewards Program. A new program that is affiliated with the University Sustainability Office. The applications for the program are open to all undergraduate and graduate students at NCSU and can be found at the link at the bottom of the message. If you are interested and want to hear more about the program, feel free to contact Brian at bciezzi@ncsu.edu. In addition, there will be a longer information session for interested applicants on Tuesday, March 26th at 8 PM in Poe 120. http://sustainability.ncsu.edu/nc-state-stewards

Have a great rest of your week! G

Student Network Meeting Tonight!

STUDENT NETWORK MEETING AT THE GARAGE *TONIGHT*

COME JOIN OUR STUDENT GROUP TO MEET DEREK MINOR 

[RALEIGH'S INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANAGER] 

THE MEETING IS AT 6PM IN THE GARAGE ON CENTENNIAL CAMPUS

March MaDnEsS!

Its that time of year again when March Madness sets in, but this March Madness season is not just for ACC basketball. ACC Entrepreneurship programs are also sponsoring a March Madness event. See more information below.

Startup Madness on Wed. March 27th at 4:30pm in the Hunt library's new event space!  

Imagine the feeling in the room when the best student entrepreneurs from all the ACC schools gather together during March Madness.  Come join others at the Hunt Library and witness students from 13 different universities who are executing on BIG ideas.   Which school has the best venture?  We shall see on March 27, 2013.  Final competitions start at 4:30pm.

Register for the Madness

What:  Startup Madness - ACC Tourney for Student Startups

When:  Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - Finals at 4:30 to 6:30 pm (Semi-finals 10am-12pm and 1-3pm)

Where:  Hunt Library at NC State University, 1070 Partners Way, Raleigh, NC 27695

Details:  Imagine the feeling in the room when the best student entrepreneurs from all the ACC schools gather together during March Madness.  Come join us at the Hunt Library and witness students from 13 different universities who are executing on BIG ideas.   Which school has the best venture?  We shall see on March 27, 2013.  

Register NOW:  Click here

Here are just a few of 20+ teams who are skipping classes, showers, and hot dates to prepare for Startup Madness.  Other confirmed teams include:

Tarian Orthotics (Tiger) - Shoulder stabilizer

Jobbertunity (Blue Devil) - Helping students organize job hunting

ERISTA (Seminole) - Women's clothing e-tailer  w/FIT technology

FinAddix (Seminole) - Fathead graphics for fishermen

Triboelectric Generator (Yellow Jacket) - New power from motion

UNvity (Yellow Jacket) - Hybrid water bottle

512 Technology (Terrapin) - Mobile app for transportation

Dreamcatchers (Irish) - Dreams to reality for Hospice patients

Frameri (Irish) - Customizable prescription eye wear

CE Agent (Panther) - Software to manage continuing education

Psyqic (Orange) - Social way to share predictions

PlantYourPhone (Tar Heel) - Recycle and monetize old phones

Coverplay Audio (Cavalier) - Ultrathin speaker for iPad

Favela Experience (Cavalier) - Adventure tourism in Brazil

DrinkUp (Hokie) - Mobile app for ordering drinks

Come celebrate these big thinkers who are doing more faster (as Brad Feld says).  

Share Madness  

#smad13    Facebook event    60 sec Video

Sponsored by NC State University, Poole College of Management

Questions?  Contact Scott Kelly at scott.kelly@startuphigh.com

Spring Forward

This is a special time of year when the seasons change. Old becomes new again, and we spring forward an hour in time to move along faster, although our day lasts longer. Spring means flowers in bloom; baseball in season; March Madness; cleaning and organizing; and new beginnings. To honor this seasons multitude of meanings, I've done some background research into a few interesting articles that may help those who need an extra push in order to spring forward with their entrepreneurial spirit!

4 Reasons Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Start Up

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Recharging Your Willpower and Other Tips This Week

10 Iconic Motivational Posters

4 Ways to Pull Ahead of Your Competitors in Business

Stay motivated and moving forward readers!

Warm Weather Welcome

Happy Monday! I know this is one of the toughest Monday's of the semester to get back into class mode and I wish you all the best of luck. I hope everyone had a great spring break, it seems as though the EI Students had a great trip to and from Silicon Valley. If you missed last weeks postings I made sure to update what the group did each day along with pictures from the adventure. At least we can be welcomed back from spring break with warmer weather and the spring forward time change. Here is the weekly post schedule to look forward too:

Tuesday's post will be dedicated to Springing Forward, where and when does this occur in entrepreneurship?

Wednesday is all about March Madness!

Thursday there is a Student Network Meeting in the Garage at 6pm with Derrick Minor, Raleigh's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager!

Have a great start to your week and keep checking in for new blog posts, we appreciate all the dedicated readers!

Home Sweet Home

Today is the final travel day back home for our Silicon Valley spring break group. We wish them all safe and happy travels back home today! We cannot wait to hear their stories and see more pictures. Welcome back Valley Venturers!

Day Four: Venture City

Tuesday was another active venturing day for our student group in and around Palo Alto. The first stop of the day was a tour of the Flextronics manufacturing facility, where the group got to "dress the part" in blue lab coats for the entire visit. The group was very impressed with the facility tour and the meeting itself, there is a great picture below. After Flextronics the group ventured to the big Apple Inc. to meet with Alumnus Tony Blevins and Alumnus Jeff Williams. The group met in a conference room for an introduction/question and answer session. They were then escorted to the campus cafeteria for lunch with the Alumni. After lunch the group visited Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers, a venture capital firm to meet with Randy Komisar. Komisar has worked with entrepreneurs creating businesses with leading-edge technologies, he was a founding director of TiVo as well as multiple other companies. He is also a current entrepreneurship lecturer at Stanford University, where the group traveled on day one of their trip. The last official tour of the day was at NEST, the company that created the learning thermostat. This may sound silly at first until you visit the office and experience the creative environment in which the device was created. With its bright blue walls and open space office area it most certainly gave off a "Silicon start-up vibe." The group ended their day at the Dutch Goose, a well known local bar & grill for their farewell dinner. Enjoy the group pictures of the day below.

Day Three: Palo Alto

It was another successful start in Silicon Valley this morning as our group became "locals" throughout area visits today. They began the day at IDEO, an award-winning global design firm helping organizations to innovate and grow. The group met with Alumna Judy Lee for the visit and we are grateful she was able to spend time with the group, as pictured below. Matt Ocko of Data Collective, a company that helps invest in entrepreneurs building "Big Data" companies. He hales from Yale University and met the students for lunch in Palo Alto for a great group discussion. Next stop was Vantage Point Capital, one of two venture capital firms the group will meet along their venture. The group then ventured to Echelon to meet with Alumnus, Varun Nagaraj, to discuss the company's path to developing the world's most proven, open standard, multi-application energy networking platform. Echelon even greeted the group by welcoming them on their digital company sign outside the office! Later in the evening the group dined with Chris Crump from the class of '78 at NC State, he is now a successful Management consultant/Angel investor/ Entrepreneur in the Valley.

It was a busy "venture through the valley" for our group today, but the pictures below tell the best story of all.

Day Two: San Francisco

Sunday was a day by the bay in San Francisco. The groups first stop after a fun charter bus ride into the city was Liveramp a professional "offline" marketing company. Their next stop was Launchpad Toys in an artsy district; Launchpad makes application games for Children designed around learning. These games can be played on an I-pad, which was the number one asked for gift this Christmas! Next stop was the online presentation genius known as Prezi. Prezi has revolutionized the idea of computer generated presentations, and a fellow Alumni Kelly Hook showed the group around the office! The group got a chance to explore the city on their own for a few hours before dinner at Delancey Street, which is the name of the country's leading self-help organization for former convicts or substance abusers. The group truly enjoyed the inspirational stories shared at the restaurant and were able to dine with the entrepreneurs they met throughout the day. See pictures from their day by day below!

Day One: Touchdown in the Valley

The group has safely made it to Silicon Valley and has shared some photos!
One from their hotel lunch and the Stanford University tour.

The E.I Twitter

The Entrepreneurship Initiative is an active account on Twitter, updating students with schedule updates, tag lines from events, and pictures from events. Please continue to follow or join the Twitter group @ncsuei. We want to stay in touch with our students and alumni so tweet us anytime!

Venture to the Valley

Our E.I Student/Faculty group "Ventures to the Valley" today starting bright and early, departing from the RDU Airport for a direct flight into San Francisco. It will be a long day of traveling backwards in time, but upon arrival they hit the ground running. Their first stop is lunch at the hotel followed by an exciting tour of the Stanford University campus. Later in the evening they will enjoy a new restaurant for dinner! After dinner they will return to the hotel in Silicon Valley for a much needed nights rest! We wish you all safe travels and exciting moments. Please feel free to follow the group on twitter @ncsuei for other trip information and updates. I will be blogging about their daily adventures in full post-card fashion with group pictures and funny tag lines.