As part of the ENGR 411 class, students and professors take an embedded study abroad trip to Korea! Travel to Seoul and visit universities such as Hanyang University – the MIT of Korea; Startups and accelerators such as the Seoul Startup Hub and Mobidoo. Enjoy and cook Korean cuisine, take a K-Pop dance class, visit numerous art and cultural exhibits, and more! This is just one of the many opportunities you could experience through our programs.

Check out this video for more information!

Clove and Spring Candles

Kelsey Lauer

In Kelsey’s experience, ENGR 310 pushed her “to explore the possibility of this venture in a way that seemed accessible. Our whole class was doing it together; even though we were pursuing different ideas, we all had the same goal and could help each other through challenges. It gave me the confidence to keep working towards my milestones, even when I experienced failures. I wouldn’t change how I started my business for anything, because it provided me with the necessary foundation to succeed long-term.”

BYB Clothing

Bubune Owusu

*INFORMATION*

Keely Upcycles

Keely Reese

Information…

DiamondBack

Ethan Wendle and Matt Chverchko

Hear from the DiamondBack co-founders as they share how a class project led to co-founding their business DiamondBack. We learn how they’ve overcome immense challenges to see their business succeed. 

Cassandra Sotos

In her life plan exercise in ENGR 310, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Cassandra Sotos wrote that she wanted to become a professional musician. After graduating with her IE degree she went to work for Accenture in NYC. After two years she realized that she was not following her life plan so she quit to focus on her music career. Realizing that NYC was not the place for this, she moved to Nashville. With a lot of hard work she has been successful with her music career with gigs such as touring with Arijit Singh, a leading pop star in India. She stressed the importance of multiple revenue streams to entrepreneurs. During the pandemic she bought and renovated several houses and now has rental income. While the EIR, she was in the process of buying a company making a device to extend the life of retro tube amplifiers. She consummated the purchase on her way back to Nashville and now owns AmpRX. 

Darell Alston

Founder and CEO of Bungee Obleceni, a luxury sneaker and apparel company. Darrell had a career in rap as a teenager and some struggles with law enforcement that sent him to prison. While in prison he became a barber and also realized that he had a skill for sketching sneakers. He put both to use once released.  Darrell got his life together first by becoming a barber and buying a barber shop. While running the shop he also started making prototypes of some of his sneaker designs using funds earned from the barber shop. First selling out of the barber shop, he now has his shoes in Foot Locker and just recently, Niemann Marcus. He conveyed to students the importance of following your dreams and making things happen. He talked about the challenges of growing a company through some failures and many successes. As many of our students are into apparel and have taken the first steps of starting apparel companies, they found his insights very helpful. He also talked about having multiple revenue streams, as he does with the sneaker company, the barber shop and a cable business he owns.

Nikhil Bharadwaj

Nikhil and his business partner took some of our entrepreneurship classes as they were inspired to develop products in the renewable energy field. They started a couple ventures while students, but really kicked into gear once they graduated. After a short stint working for energy companies, they started Xeal Energy. Xeal puts a module into electric vehicle chargers that handles the communications and payment processing for the charging services. One of the challenges of this market is that many times chargers are put in locations with mediocre cellular connections, such as parking garages. Xeal developed a blockchain technology to perform the payment process through the customer’s phone. They have raised over 50MM of venture capital funding. Nikhil discussed the challenges of building a VC funded company and how they identified the optimal target market, the large real estate firms that need to install charging options in their apartment and condominium complexes.