Expand Your PACK: Entrepreneurial Resources at NC State

NC State is a hotbed for entrepreneurship

In an Association of University Technology Managers survey, NC State was ranked, among universities without medical schools:

• #2 for Licenses and Options Executed
• #5 for Invention Disclosure
• #5 for Startups Launched

Additionally, the university achieved the following during the 2017 fiscal year:

• NC State secured $4.4 million in total licensing revenue
• NC State entrepreneurs filed 241 patents

Graduate students and postdocs are well prepared for entrepreneurial work. You spend much of your day dealing with strategic planning and troubleshooting as you seek to produce new knowledge.

Entrepreneurship Resources at NC State

NC State offers a large variety of Entrepreneurship resources current trainees and alumni can utilize to learn more about the process of discovering the marketability of your ideas and potentially starting a company around them.

Entrepreneurship Clinic Programs

The NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic (E-Clinic) at HQ Raleigh focuses on connecting startups and established companies’ projects with trainees interested in assisting them in some component of the execution of their venture (from market research to competitive intelligence). In the process, trainees learn about entrepreneurship first-hand via real-world application of the critical thinking skills they have been building in the classroom and lab.

The Clinic hosts 4-week sprints where interested entrepreneurs from the innovation community are paired with students, coming from 24 different majors on campus, who assist them in determining the solutions for their challenges.
Students (including graduate students) can get involved with the E Clinic by submitting an application here.

The E Clinic also runs a Mentoring Network which facilitates mentor/student networking events for startup founders to interact with NC State trainees interested in pursuing a startup path of their own or joining a high-growth venture. Through these events, trainees are then allowed to select a set of mentors that will work best for their entrepreneurial learning and development. Building these relationships helps to expand the networks available to graduate students and postdocs outside their academic mentors.

Andrews Launch Accelerator

This program was funded by a $1 million gift from Chip Andrews, NC State alumnus and former chairman and CEO of FMI Corporation and his wife, Lyn, in 2016. The Accelerator is a great resource for current NC State students or recent alumni (including graduate students) where support is provided to help launch promising ventures in the form of $5,000 to $50,000 grants.

The Accelerator also involves a 14-week summer program where NC State startup founders get to develop their concepts and build their companies with help and resources from the E Clinic and its partners.

Meetings vary between dedicated team meetings, where subject matter experts decompose critical startup lessons, to one-on-one development sessions. In addition to the regular modules guided by local experts and the Accelerator team, each team will receive one-on-one guidance from Executives in Residence (EIRs). These EIRs are proven entrepreneurs who will be assigned to each team based on the specific focus and stage of their startup.

The modules end with Demo Day where companies get to pitch to the top investors in the Triangle.

Read more about recent Accelerator participants here.

Accelerator Qualifications:

Any startup group with an NC State team member qualifies for funding and participation. At least one team member must be an undergraduate student (junior/senior), graduate student, or recent alumni (~5 years or less) from any NC State program.

• Applications open: January 29, 2020
• Application deadline: March 26, 11:59 PM
• Frequently Asked Questions 

For more information, please email the Program Manager, Gabe Gonzalez: gegonzal@ncsu.edu

Other Resources

• Continued Entrepreneurial Support
  • Start Here Mondays at the Entrepreneurship Garage
  • 3-5 PM every Monday
• Support through the Wolfpack Investor Network (WIN)
  • WIN actively engages and matches NC State alumni network expertise with portfolio companies to support growth and success.
• Lulu eGames – NC State’s annual startup competition