Annabelle Lincoln ‘20 and Jaclyn Hingre ‘19, both Engineering and Computer Science students, embody what it means to be passionate entrepreneurs. They are driven, willing to soak up knowledge, and most importantly, are doers.

So when they found an opportunity to improve campus security and safety, they took on the huge challenge.

During the Invent@SU accelerator program at Syracuse University, Lincoln and Hingre teamed up to create Halo. Halo is a discrete and portable device that uses radio frequency waves to alert local police and campus public safety officers when there is an emergency situation, via a GPS pinned location. It is designed for students who need help on or near a college campus, and does not require a cellphone or internet service.

This idea, paired with the team’s dedication and problem solving abilities, earned them the $3,000 and second prize in the competition.

Lincoln and Hingre are both mechanical engineering majors with an aptitude for entrepreneurship. Both come to problems with innovative perspectives on how to turn a pain point into an opportunity, and facilitate change.  Hingre even has an idea book she’s had since high school.

When asked how they were able to come up with Halo as their idea for Invent@SU, Lincoln said, “You should feel safe on a college campus, and we’re trying to make it safer.”

Hingre added, “This is a very prevalent issue.  This is something no one should have to experience.”

By the end of the program, they were able to produce a prototype that worked, and got amazing feedback from judges and guest evaluators. As part of the program, they also filed a provisional patent.

The pair said that they knew they were onto something special when they consulted with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers on campus. “When we first started the conversation, the officer saw no flaws in the way we use cellphones to report and prevent emergencies. But by the end, he had been able to see the gaps, and where our product could benefit,” said Hingre.

Lincoln added, “He even asked how quickly we could get this to the market.”

But, it wasn’t easy. Hingre and Lincoln reflected on their experience and hard work it took to create and prototype Halo, and to turn it into a winning pitch.  From having to learn what a radio frequency signal even is, to celebrating in joy when the sensor first began picking up GPS coordinates, to crafting a compelling competition pitch, to finally hearing their team name announced at the Invent@SU award ceremon, they attest that dedication and persistence gets the job done.

Story by Kayla Simon, Blackstone LaunchPad Fellow, co-founder of In-Spire, and first prize winner of 2017 Invent@SU

When Angelica O’Hara decided to take part in the Invent@SU accelerator program at Syracuse University this past summer at the New York City campus, she had no idea that she would walk out with an award-winning invention.

A bioengineer in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, O’Hara knew she wanted to create an invention that would make an impact in the healthcare field and create change in her community. Always looking for a challenge, she and her co-inventor Ibnul Kayes Rafi ‘18, decided to hit the ground running.

The problem they chose to tackle? Using smart data for better patient management in emergency medical situations, especially in the critical interval between when patients receive initial triage and the point of actual treatment, when their conditions can quickly change.  A patient who was not deemed initially critical can rapidly change and demand more immediate treatment.  That knowledge may make the difference between life and death.

But emergency medical personnel may not know that, if they are working from initial triage info.  They don’t have real time access to post triage patient data.  From that challenge, came Prioritage.

Prioritage is a device that allows first responders to put armband units on multiple patients in order to measure vital signs and relay those indicators to a central onsite monitoring device. From there, the monitoring device, with smart algorithms, will sort patients from most critical to least critical during disaster situations, continually assessing their situation.

“Many times EMTs will have to make judgement calls, and then have no way to monitor a patient after initial triage,” says O’Hara.  “If  a patient’s condition becomes more serious over time, and it still categorized as less critical, it may be too long until that person receives essential treatment.”  Watching for signs such as plummeting blood pressure or cardiac distress in real time can make all the difference in patient outcomes.

The team knew that they had achieved something special when they were able to fix a bug in their prototype software, and make the device function as it they intended. Working on the code for days, when an LED finally lit up, it was enough to give the team hope that this was possible.  O’Hara even accidentally shorted out her laptop trying to debug the code.

But, the biggest a-ha moment for the team, was even before they learned they had won first place in the New York City campus competition.  They realized that they had developed something over the course of six weeks that were incredibly proud of, and had already intended on taking the next steps after the program ended.

However, hearing their name called as first place winner was something that made them realize how much potential this product had, and how much support existed for their concept.

When asked about her advice to next year’s Invent@SU class, O’Hara confidently says, “Don’t hold yourself back because you don’t think that you can do it.  Take that leap and aim for it. And even if you don’t win, just say, ‘I’m still here, I still did this, and I’m proud of this.’ You had this experience and opportunity.”

But the work doesn’t stop at Invent@SU. O’Hara is continuing to develop her invention and business plan by working with the Blackstone LaunchPad, along with applying to different competitions around Syracuse University. She also enrolled in the upcoming NSF I-Corps course the next two weekends at the Blackstone LaunchPad.  The National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory, and accelerates projects that are ready to move toward commercialization. The I-Corps short course will help O’Hara gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs.

Even after rapidly prototyping, testing and iterating Prioritage, she has a collection of new ideas and innovations to work on.  “I have this list of notes that are just ideas. I knew that I should keep it going, knowing that I can definitely accomplish this at some point in my life”.

Story by Kayla Simon, Blackstone LaunchPad Fellow, co-founder of In-Spire, and first prize winner of 2017 Invent@SU.

When most people ride on the New York City subways, they are usually not thinking of their next big invention.

So, when Caleigh Casey ‘21 jumped on the train and began reading the newspaper on the way home like any other day, she wasn’t anticipating finding a solution to such a massive problem.

While on the subway that day, Casey read an article about the opioid epidemic in the United States, and was shocked to learn that it has only gotten worse over time. With that came a wave of research and a desire to help those who suffer from opioid overdoses.  Casey thought, “There aren’t many solutions to this problem. The government right now provides two solutions, both of which contain opioids. There has to be better options.”

Hopping off the subway, Casey and her Invent@SU partner Malkiel Asher ‘21, two College of Engineering and Computer Science students, were incredible excited to hit the ground running to design a potential solution.

The two worked together at the Invent@SU Accelerator program at the Fisher Center in New York City this summer, a 6-week immersive invention experience that teaches students to design, prototype, and pitch solutions to problems called “pain points.”

The pair ideated Emergi-CAN, a device that aids those suffering from opioid overdoses by making Narcan, an opioid antagonist used for the reversal of opioid overdose, more accessible.

It works like an AED, or an Automatic External Defibrillator, which is a lightweight, battery-operated, and portable device that can perform shocks to the heart for people having sudden cardiac arrest. The device was also created in order to simplify the process of others aiding in overdose by having the device read out clear and concise instructions.

Asher says, “When you open it, it tells you the instructions audibly and as simply as possible.”

Casey and Asher were able to develop their prototype and pitch skills throughout the Invent@SU program, working tirelessly to make sure that their invention was developing into the most helpful device possible for others.

Despite working so hard, the two noted that they completed each other as an invention team, which skills that matched perfectly, and allowed us to be on top our game. This combination of skills gave them the opportunity to tackle difficult challenges, which included a plethora of engineering problems, both mechanical and electrical, plus being able to clearly express their idea to judges during weekly feedback pitches.

But, none of this work came without reward. “The biggest a-ha moment was when we actually figured out what we were doing,” Asher said. “When we got the motor working, we realized that this might actually work.”

Next up for the team is working with the Blackstone LaunchPad on customer discovery and a commercialization roadmap.  They will also be competing to raise seed funds to help file a non-provisional patent application.

When asked about advice to next year’s Invent@SU class, the two were quick to say, “Don’t panic.” While six weeks may not feel like a long time, it had propelled these two SU students into the world of entrepreneurship, and they are excited about where the journey will lead.

Who knew a New York City subway ride would spark an idea for a potentially life-saving device?

Meet these two inventors and engineering students at the Blackstone LaunchPad, pitching in competitions, or around the College of Engineering and Computer Science.  Be sure to ask them more about Emergi-CAN, and their goal of saving lives.

Story by Kayla Simon, Blackstone LaunchPad Fellow, and co-founder of In-Spire, winner of the 2017 Invent@SU NYC program.

Jacob deHahn, an energetic and bubbly New England native with a never-ending Netflix queue, is determined to make the world a more accessible place. Through his freshman year project, Jake designed a wooden phone case stimulating hand holding to assist a friend with epilepsy get through seizures. With the phone case, he realized that industrial and interaction design in the School of Design in VPA was the right path, along with minoring in entrepreneurship.

A few years ago, Jake’s first entrepreneurial venture started with Jake’s Patches, a business selling hand sewn, word-based patches via Etsy, street fairs, and pop-up shops. His main goal was to utilize in-class lessons in real life situations. Through several successful moments and a few inevitable hurdles, Jake’s Patches was a perfect opportunity to discover what he loved to do: connect with customers and create beautiful products. Now Jake is focused on his fifth year project and believes working at the LaunchPad, along with being a TA for two summer courses for design and entrepreneurship, will curate inspiration for his thesis.

Jake admits he has a secret weapon to accomplish what he craves to do: his hearing loss. Born profoundly deaf, Jake proclaims that his disability, despite the daily struggles, gives him the ability to see things that need to be fixed and ways to improve quality of life for all people. Currently a unilateral cochlear implant user, Jake proudly shares his personal story at conferences around the nation, building a platform to show how having a disability shouldn’t stop anyone from defying stigmas and dreaming big.

He gushes over the opportunity he never imagined was possible: studying abroad in Florence, Italy during the spring semester of 2018. An inexperienced traveler (he’s never been outside of the US before!) with no knowledge of Italian language, Jake was eager to live in a country with different food and culture. The experience challenged him to conquer his fears and confront obstacles that often included his disability. Regardless, Jake’s relentless advocacy for himself paired with his drive to grow as a learner further created who he is as an individual.

Through the study abroad experience, he discovered what accessibility (or lack of) was for people around the world trekking through five different countries in over 20 cities. With his design skills and creative storytelling, Jake is determined to make his fifth year thesis project centered around universal accessibility through a product or service.

Ultimately, Jake aspires to be the person his eight-year-old self would’ve wanted to be: someone who helped others when they’re sad, built really cool, unique things, and ate ice cream every night before bed. He’s sure his eight-year-old self would be pretty proud of the person he is today – although probably disappointed he hasn’t opened an ice cream shop so he could eat ice cream all day long.

Overall, as a designer, entrepreneur, and storyteller, Jake foresees a future filled with international travels, new adventures, and side-pain laughter. Go follow him on Instagram (or whatever the cool kids use these days) and check out his portfolio!

Most students take at least a couple of days off after graduation, but Ibnul Rafi ’18 won’t be one of them.

Instead, Ibnul, a Blackstone LaunchPad participant, will immediately launch into Invent@SU in New York City, where he will work with other SU students and alumni to build a prototype of a device to solve a social problem.

As of right now, Ibnul says he wants to use his biochemistry degree to build a device that will improve the healthcare system in Bangladesh, where he was born.

“This is a great way for me to start my entrepreneurial life as I will be going through the process of pitching ideas and working with others,” he said. “Given that I want to become a doctor in the future, starting something that focuses on healthcare will greatly add to my experiences.”

Invest@SU is a program that helps students from Syracuse University to work on ideating, iterating and building a prototype that could potentially solve an existing problem in society or in a particular community.

Through the program, Ibnul hopes to find a way to make healthcare more accessible to communities in Bangladesh, particularly because hospitals and clinics are severely understaffed and underfunded.

During his junior year, Ibnul studied abroad in London, where he volunteered at Doctors of the World UK, a humanitarian movement clinic that provides healthcare to refugees and destitute migrants. During his time there, Ibnul remembers one particular interaction he had with a patient who had come in for treatment.

The patient had lived in the country for over ten years but was afraid to share his personal and medical information with the clinic because of his legal status. Ibnul recognized his fear as he moved to the United States when he was 14 and had to adjust to a foreign culture on his own.

Ibnul asked the nurse if he could speak with the patient, and in his broken Hindi, talked to the patient about what was going on.

“In our five-minute conversation, he shared what I sensed he hadn’t told anyone before– the pain of not being able to go home and spend time with the people from his culture. I held his hand and reassured him that his problem would be over soon and that he would get the help he needed from the clinic,” Ibnul said. “With this interaction, the patient became more comfortable and was willing to share his medical history. The smile on his face gave me a sense of satisfaction which I will never forget.”

Ibnul says he hopes to start something that will give disadvantaged communities, not just in Bangladesh, but around the world, better access to medicine and healthcare. He hopes he can help more people like the man he met during his time abroad.

“Everything starts with an idea. It doesn’t matter whether an idea leads to a start-up to eventually become a company or an organization. What matters is our willingness to make a change and make life easier for people,” Ibnul said. “Because I’ve spent the last four years studying pure science, this internship will give me a better understanding into the world of entrepreneurship so I can make my own impact on the world.”

Story and photo by Blackstone LaunchPad Global Media Fellow Saniya More ’19

Victoria Lawson, or as she’s known by the baristas at Starbucks, “VPositivity,” is a light of her own.  She is a third year Industrial and Interaction Design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, from Norwalk, California.

Victoria is a designer, creative, and a major boss woman. She works in the LaunchPad as a graphic designer, and you can find her designs on the digital kiosks and in buildings all around campus.

Victoria likes long walks on the beach, music, rollercoasters, and vintage clothing. She’s an RA on top of her job at the LaunchPad, and is the most positive person you’ll meet. She loves to listen to people and help them with their problems, which is probably why she is such a great designer. She has an ability to listen to others and create beautiful designs based on what people articulate to her.

Working with student entrepreneurs in the LaunchPad, she was inspired to start her own cross disciplinary freelance design business called Weird and Woke Design. Victoria’s venture helps campus entrepreneurs with ideation, concept design, rapid prototyping, and overall graphic design and visual identity.  She originally got the idea after helping so many student startups through her job at the LaunchPad. She eventually turned that into what she calls her “side hustle”, and began charging for her services.

After taking an Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises class with Linda Hartsock, the Executive Director of the LaunchPad, she was offered a job. At the end of the semester she had told Linda that her slides needed a graphic design overhaul.  Linda loved the honest feedback, and offered her a graphic design role at the LaunchPad.  From there, Victoria blossomed as a designer, and created many of the brand identity campaigns for the LaunchPad, and launched outreach programs with “out of the box” thinking.  She also provided design assistance to startups like Bonfire in a Bin, Blood Sweat and Beers, and Necessity Apparel, among others.

A native of Los Angeles, Victoris took a spring break trip with the university to Silicon Valley. It reinforced her dream of eventually moving there after graduation in 2020. She hopes to get a job utilizing her creative skills set in philanthropy, and then eventually start her own full time business doing service design.

In the meantime you can find Victoria in Paris this summer (you can help her get there by clicking here!) immersing herself in the abundant amount of art and beauty that can be found there.

Or this fall, come by and check her out in the LaunchPad, and enjoy out some of her recent designs.  Just keep an eye out for the Toon Squad jersey!

Photo and story by Blackstone Global Media Fellow Audrey Miller ’20

When Nikita Kuckian decided to fly thousands of miles away from Mumbai to New York, she was uncertain of what industry she wanted to be and what she wanted to do professionally. But she knew she wanted to eventually go back to India, equipped with experience and skills to make a real difference in her country.

Nikita currently serves as the vice president of the Entrepreneurship Club at Syracuse University. Besides organizing the Entrepalooza event, she helps other students grow their businesses.

The sophomore started off as an economics major but after a summer internship, realized it wasn’t her calling. She decided to dual major in finance and entrepreneurship instead. Nikita says it was a difficult decision to make because she was scared to stray away from one path and take another.

“Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you should pursue it, especially if you know you’re not going to enjoy it for the rest of your life,” Nikita said. “That’s what so many people do– they end up doing what others expect of them and regret it later on.”

But the new path she has chosen hasn’t been easy. Nikita has social anxiety and at times, has difficulty having meaningful interactions with others.

“The industry I am in now is all about forming connections with people. That’s why I’m trying to get out of my shell,” Nikita said.

Nikita says weekly social events at the Whitman School as well as her involvement in the LaunchPad have pushed her to become a better communicator. She credits the LauncPpad for its welcoming, yet go-getter ambience.

This summer, Nikita is interning at Nykaa, a fast-growing Indian cosmetics company that was started by a female entrepreneur. The company’s leadership is one of the main things that drew Nikita in.

“Even today, it’s not super common in India to be a woman and lead an entire company,” Nikita said.

While she is interning at Nykaa, Nikita is looking to rotate between different departments and learn what she can from everyone. She hopes to return to Syracuse with more experience so she can start her own venture.

In the future, Nikita wants to return home and do more to improve the social conditions in her country. But before doing that, she says she wants to work for more start-ups and learn from others.

“When I go back to India, I have to start from a position of power because that’s what works there. You need to come from that stance to make a real impact,” Nikita said.

Story and photo by Blackstone LaunchPad Global Media Fellow Saniya More ’19

An entrepreneur is someone who finds an opportunity in the market and creates a solution for it through innovation, passion and design. Not many people stop to think about organizing the paint they use in their homes, but Michael Leffler G’17 sure did. He noticed that lots of people around him, including himself, tended to misplace or forget the color of paints they used in their home. When it came time to repaint rooms in the house, it was always a challenge to remember the color and location of the paint they used. This almost always leads to going through the trouble of trying to color-match and buy new paint, a hassle that Michael believes he can solve for good.

Michael, a huge sports fan from Melville, NY, is a down-to-earth visionary. He stays true to his passions, including a sleepaway camp he used to attend and worked his way up to counselor and eventually group manager. By whole-heartedly supporting a constantly disappointing New York Jets football team, it is clear Michael sticks to his beliefs and uses his experiences to grow into a better leader, student, and person. He hopes to one day own and run one of the beloved sleepaway camps he has always been a part of, and becoming an entrepreneur through The Paint Crate might be the first step towards that goal.

The Paint Crate, in its current state, is a working design for a storage  unit that keeps house paint inventory organized, clean, and easy to find. The Paint Crate is targeted at homeowners who paint their homes and tend to forget where the paint went, what color it is exactly (is that frost white or snow white?), and need a convenient way to keep  paint safe and organized. By using a unique design, Michael is building the Paint Crate to have individual components that are easily stored and interchangeably marked in the crate, using included labels to mark them by color, location, and other variables.

Once Michael found that no product like his existed, he quickly seized the opportunity by connecting with experts in the field and gathering feedback to achieve an ideal design for his target market. As an accounting major as an undergraduate and graduate student at Syracuse University, he is no stranger to the intricacies of the pricing and process of product development. The Paint Crate actually came directly out of his Syracuse experience, as his Capstone project required him to develop a product and business plan to present to a panel of faculty and outside experts.

Michael says as his team neared the final days of research for the project, his mom reached out and introduced the idea of garage organization, as she had noticed most people tend to misplace paint cans after storing them. After taking a look himself, Michael found this problem was very common and saw an opportunity to create a product meant to tackle the issue of organization and paint-negligence. Michael understood the gravity of his product and, with the support of Whitman faculty members and a motivating Shark Tank episode, decided to continue on with The Paint Crate even after the Capstone project completed. He competed in campus business plan competitions and continued to work on his design and business model.

Michael says his three keys to starting the company have been communication, networking, and organization. Communicating with mentors and experts has been a huge aspect of Michael’s success to date. “You want as much advice as you possibly can from people who have the experience and that you respect.”

With this attitude, he expanded his network into industries he had never experienced before. By constantly communicating with his connections, introducing himself to new people, and organizing the notes and feedback he receives efficiently, Michael has been doing everything necessary to gather market information and effectively use it to build his product.

What’s next for Michael? As The Paint Crate continues to grow, he sees no ceiling for his company. His goals include pitching for Shark Tank type investments and growth opportunities from expanding the product line to entering mainstream hardware stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot. He believes that eventually his company can be acquired by a major paint supply company, and perhaps he can use that money to fund his dream sleepaway camp. The future looks bright for Michael, and he will continue to use his experiences and connections to build toward his dream, and hopefully once The Paint Crate takes off, the everyday homeowner will never misplace their paint again.

Story and photo by Blackstone Global Media Fellow David J. Fox ’19

Justin Lee is taking the entrepreneurial space at Syracuse University to another level. In many ways, Lee is a triple threat of an entrepreneur: he is a multilingual industrial designer, a well-known connector of fellow international students and a lover of creating new and exciting experiences for his fellow entrepreneurs.

After arriving in the United States from Korea in the seventh grade, Lee found himself adjusting very slowly to his new homogenous community of De Moines, Iowa. After moving to Chicago, Illinois for high school, Lee knew that his much improved English would probably be single most important asset towards his success in college. Combined with his creative genius touch, Lee enrolled in Syracuse University’s Industrial and Interaction Design program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, with a minor in ceramics.

Like many international students, Lee arrived on campus and was immediately drawn to students who shared the same cultural identity he does. This is an issue that many international students face, unable to break out of particular comfort zones inside their cultural circles. In their four years away from their home country, many of these students struggle to fully embrace not only the culture on campus but also American culture as a whole, because they are unable to cross over language barriers. More often than not, these international students are even more unable to create their own businesses because of this obvious but many times unspoken barrier.

Lee describes being an international student in the entrepreneurial space as an honor and a challenge. Before joining the Blackstone LaunchPad community, Lee and fellow Korean students started Candle, a network of Korean student entrepreneurs who set out to break the common rules of Korean society. They came together and realized that they were becoming more and more attached to Korean culture, and not growing within the American culture that surrounded them. They wanted to build a community of like-minded Korean students and begin ideating solutions to the problem of international students becoming too comfortable with only fellow international students.

WeDesign is one of the first ideas to come into fruition from the Candle network. Lee and his team recognized that as aspiring professional designers, there was a giant roadblock after graduation. Many design students find themselves either joining a company in order to build on design skills, or creating their own experience and struggling to engage customers. WeDesign is a future oriented design business idea that provides a market place that is beneficial to both designers and consumers. WeDesign elevates the 3D experience, by developing a catalog of designs and optimizing the experience of 3D printing.

However, while they were expanding into different international student groups, Lee realized that he needed more resources here on campus to support his endeavor. He quickly set up meetings in the Blackstone LaunchPad after his entrepreneurship course and started expanding his network.

Soon, Candle grew into Pan-Global Entrepreneurs Association (PanGEA), a collaborative effort that now consists of student entrepreneurs coming from France, China, America, India and Korea. PanGEA is hoping to expand nationalities soon. Through working with the LaunchPad, PanGEA is now well connected throughout campus, with the Law School, VPA, the Office of External Affairs and the Maxwell School. The organization is now building a fund hoping to start running business plan competitions catered towards international students here in Syracuse University.

“Language barriers keep international students from being able to achieve success in competitions that domestic students are also competing within,” Lee explains. “We hope that we are creating an opportunity that is more welcoming for international students. Ultimately, we want to be more inviting because there are so many international students here who are entrepreneurs but need a better platform to explore their ideas.”

There are entrepreneurs and innovators from 47 countries currently participating in the LaunchPad.  If you are interested in joining PanGEA or WeDesign, please stop by the LaunchPad or contact Lee directly at dlee51@syr.edu.

Story by Amanda Chou ‘18, Blackstone LaunchPad Global Media Fellow.

Photo by LaunchPad staff.

Jay Williams ’19, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, is a junior at Syracuse University pursuing a double degree in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management majoring in Finance and Economics. He is a seasoned young business professional who is multifaceted in a range of different business processes, and determined to focus his skills on startup and emerging technologies.

At a young age, Williams had a huge interest in the finance realm and a burning desire to learn how the economy functioned. This led to taking it upon himself to take courses in high school dealing with economics and browsing the web to answer his questions. His tenacity drove him to be offered an internship on Wall Street in his junior year of high school for one of the big insurance giants – AIG. At the time, Williams was 16 years old, entering his first job ever on Wall Street, and interning in the Corporate Tax sector where he worked on audits, stress testing and analyzed quarterly changes.

Williams’ drive and capacity to learn and excel, soon led him to an offer for another internship  at Morgan Stanley in Corporate Finance & Financial Planning. His determination to continue learning led to an opportunity to intern at Bloomberg LP during his senior year summer.

That career track is an incredible accomplishment for an 18 year old.  Williams feels that his experiences, especially at a young age, allowed him to solidify his passion for finance, and enabled him to apply himself to the fullest in the university setting.

In college, Williams started to direct his attention to startup and emerging technologies, where he saw a tremendous growth potential. Entering college with three amazing internships, a plethora of knowledge and skills, he redirected his focus towards learning all he could about startups.

He talked to different entrepreneurs and kicked around around ideas. This led to Williams interning at a venture capital firm in Singapore over his freshmen and sophomore years, where he learned about seed fundraising.  He met early-stage tech founders and worked with them to rapidly scale their companies by providing direct access to an international network of the most relevant mentors and partners in their industry. He says that out of all the experiences he has had up to his junior year, he enjoys working with startup and venture capital the most. He adds that he enjoys seeing the fruition from idea to concept to company as the epitome of entrepreneurship.

Over the past few years, Williams has acquired a variety of different experiences and expanded his network of connections to enable himself to apply himself on his own ventures. At the end of his freshman year, he had joined as a business liaison and consultant for Beeback, which is a mobile application that allows small businesses to interact with their customers and revamp reward programs to increase customer retention. Williams’s role within the company is varied, as the company had just released its beta version which is currently available on the Apple App Store. Williams enjoys using his expertise and knowledge that he has learned to evolve the company and the technological climate. He is currently working on several different startup projects with his peers as well as former colleagues, however, Beeback is his main focus as of now.

Williams emphasizes that students should to be proactive in any and every life experience, as each experience fosters characteristics and grit which can be applicable to attain one’s passion. For him, he had realized at a young age he had an affinity with creation and teamwork. He believes, without his experiences in high school and college, he would not be where he is today without the essential skills he had learned along the way. His determination to learn has positioned himself for opportunities that he has encountered as passion propelled his perpetual hunger to satisfy his hunger of creating something new and innovative.

Story by Jason Chen ’20, College of Arts and Sciences, Economic

Photo courtesy of Jay Williams