Entrepreneurship
UNC Startup Musical Empowerment hosts “Melodies” (4/18)
Undergraduate students Meredith Richard (BSBA ’15), Christina Cheng (BSBA ’15), and Natanya Montgomery (Pre-business) are all double majors in business and music who have found a way to combine their passions through a social venture called Musical Empowerment. These students are part of the Musical Empowerment Leadership Committee which has been planning the organization’s first annual benefit concert, “Melodies,” on Thursday, April 18th at the University United Methodist Church in downtown Chapel Hill. The concert will feature performers Joe Kwon and Paul Defiglia of the Avett Brothers and speaker Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser. Musical Empowerment is a student-run organization at UNC-Chapel Hill that pairs disadvantaged children from the local Chapel Hill-Carrboro area with UNC students who volunteer their time by Read More
Campus Y launches video-based Social Innovation Idea Competition
Calling all Social Innovators The Campus Y CUBE is launching an innovative video-based idea competition for all social entrepreneurs across campus this spring! Coined the UNC Social Innovation Idea Competition, applicants will have until Monday, April 15th to submit a 1-minute video which covers the problem you’re seeking to address, why you think your idea matters and what impact your social innovation could have. The best part? You could win $1,000 in seed money to pursue your idea, as well as significant exposure to the entrepreneurial community at UNC. Apply now Why it matters Our world today faces unprecedented challenges, from water shortages, to hunger to environmental degradation, alarming rates of youth unemployment, rising economic inequality, mass shootings, and human trafficking. Every day, social entrepreneurs are coming up with new ways to Read More
Ben Harrison (BSBA ’07) featured in Charlotte Observer for his startup ‘DealCloud’
Charlotte Observer Article | Written by: Caroline McMillan Rising star on Charlotte’s entrepreneurial scene gets help from powerful adviser Hugh McColl Hugh McColl Jr. has an eye for potential. The former chairman and CEO of Bank of America saw it in Charlotte, and he helped grow the budding city into a financial powerhouse. Now, his eye for potential is trained on Ben Harrison, the 27-year-old co-founder and CEO of Charlotte-based startup DealCloud, a web-based software platform that streamlines the buying and selling of companies. Harrison, is a former employee of McColl’s private equity firm, Falfurrias Capital Partners in Charlotte. “I’ve had a lot of very bright people work for me over the years,” McColl told the Observer. “But I was Read More
Venture Capital Tutorial for Startups
Written for Entrepreneurs Considering Presenting at VCIC: Know what VCs are looking for A lot of people have the misconception that venture capitalists are a mysterious bunch who invest in all kinds of startups. And that is a little bit true, but a more accurate truth is that they invest in a very specific kind of start-up: one that is poised for hyper-fast growth. You see, VCs “swing for the fence.” Your venture must have a very large potential for VCs to be able to fulfill their fiduciary duty to their limited partners (explained below). Gone are the days, if they ever existed, of maverick VCs who give a couple of guys in a garage a few hundred thousand dollars Read More
Nick Black (MBA ’13) on founding “Stop Soldier Suicide”
As a Kenan Institute Leadership Fellow, military veteran Nick Black (MBA ’13) is not only participating in a premier leadership development program but also putting that knowledge to work to help other members of the military. In 2011 Black co-founded Stop Soldier Suicide (SSS), a nonprofit veteran-led organization that works to raise awareness of solder suicide and connect military men, women and veterans to services to prevent it. “We formed Stop Soldier Suicide to curb the rate of suicides among active and veteran service members. Our mission is to prevent those who serve from taking their own lives by offering tailored services and support at the individual, family and community level throughout the United States to curb active and veteran Read More
Launch Chapel Hill: The Birth of an UNCubator
Author: Ted Zoller, CES Director and Chris Mumford, entrepreneur and UNC alum Here is a fairly common story: Talented UNC graduates leave Chapel Hill because they aren’t able to find the support and infrastructure to start up their new businesses. While they want to stay in Chapel Hill, the entrepreneurial ecosystem stops at the University’s borders. Sometimes, entrepreneurs will find a place in the growing entrepreneurial hotspots of Durham and Raleigh or find a home in another region. Among our success stories in RTP — think iContact, Bronto, Quintiles, SpectraForce and a host of successful entrepreneurial businesses started by UNC founders – we have demonstrated that UNC grads are entrepreneurial leaders. Perhaps more often, high-potential startups don’t get off the ground. Read More
Alum launches UNC Burn Reconstruction and Aesthetic Center
Scott Hultman (MD, FACS, MBA ’08) graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler with a ready-to-implement business plan that served as the foundation for the new UNC Burn Reconstruction and Aesthetic Center. The center, which opened in the fall of 2012, has created a space for UNC Health Care to conduct cutting-edge burn reconstruction research and develop new burn scar treatments that are giving patients life-changing results. Hultman, who has been a practicing plastic surgeon at UNC for 13 years, said that there was a strong interest in creating an aesthetic surgery center at the university as early as 2001. However, an original marketing analysis for the project predicted a whopping $20-million price tag that neither the UNC School of Medicine nor UNC Read More
Women 2.0 Conference- The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
This week, I had the opportunity to attend “Women 2.0- The Next Billion”, an incredible conference for women innovators hosted by the Women 2.0 organization. This year’s soiree was held at Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, a well-appointed iconic hotel that added to the grandeur and polish of the day. I shared this inspiring atmosphere with over 1,000 women in technology and entrepreneurship, gathered together in what felt like some sort of entrepreneurship “Twilight Zone”. If you’re familiar with the startup scene in really any market, female entrepreneurs are almost unilaterally underrepresented. Although there are 8.3M women-owned businesses in the U.S., only 8% of venture-backed companies are led by women. Furthermore, women only make up 11% of venture partners and Read More
Carolina Challenge hosts “Perfecting Your Pitch – A Judge’s Perspective
Author: HK Hallett (BSBA ’14 and VP of Program Development, Carolina Challenge) While 68 teams gear up for the 2013 Carolina Challenge this March, the attendees of Tuesday night’s “Pitch Panel” may have gotten a jump start in the competition. For the first time ever, the Carolina Challenge hosted a panel of five judges to share an insider’s perspective on what makes a winning team in UNC-Chapel Hill’s largest entrepreneurial contest. Ron Clabo (Founder, GiftOasis), Danvers Fleury (Chairman, Provop), Karl Murphy (Founder, Carolina Auto Spa), Karin Wiberg (Clear Sight Consulting) and last year’s 2nd place winner Scott Bissinger of Everyday Glucose offered their insights on the “Do’s and Donts” of pitch tactics, Q&A sessions, and networking with judges. What makes a successful Read More
A Day in the Life in the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
We tell people it’s a busy time of year, but I don’t think that’s a fair representation of what February is really like in the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. It’s our own little “February Madness.” I thought a Day in the Life of Carrie Harbinson might be a good glimpse into the window of some of the entrepreneurial activities at UNC. Monday/Tuesday, February 12/13, 2013 Carrie started the week by updating the uVCIC website to announce the winners of the inaugural national competition last Saturday, 2/9, at UNC. Congratulations Georgetown! And kudos to Chicago, Michigan, Virginia and UNC for taking part in the first national uVCIC tournament. Regrets to teams from MIT and NYU, who were booked but grounded by Read More