Six Graduates Thrive as Entrepreneurs with Miller Fellowship Support

Anyone who worked on a business during their studies is confronted with a harsh reality after graduation: valuable resources available at NC State are suddenly gone, and often the young company does not yet generate enough money to live on.

This is where the Miller Fellowship comes in. It allows newly minted entrepreneurs to drive their business forward even after graduation so they do not have to sideline their ventures. 

The Miller Fellowship runs from June to November every year. Fellows receive a $1000 monthly stipend, mentorship and continued access to resources like the Albright Entrepreneurship Garage at no cost.  

As this year’s Miller Fellowship draws to a close, the fellows reflect on how it has helped them advance their venture.

Jake Berlin

Jake Berlin founded two unique companies. Undeveloped is a lifestyle brand that includes clothing, comics and video games. Meanwhile, his venture The Portal HQ serves as a multi-faceted creative space that supports artists and innovators with its art gallery, makers lab, photography studio, tattoo studio and event space.

Berlin said the Miller Fellowship allowed him to make a lot of tangible progress. “October was a crazy busy month full of incredible live events that we were fortunate enough to run,” Berlin said. The Portal HQ hosted five concerts and a fashion show. 

One of those concerts was a benefit show for Hurricane Helene victims in Western North Carolina that raised over $3,000. 

 In addition to this, The Portal HQ got their two in-house tattoo artists permitted into the creative space. He continued, “On top of the busy events, we also booked for future events into March of next year,” Berlin said.

Berlin said finding a good-work balance has become a big issue in his day to day life. 

“The Fellowship group has helped me through these issues, even giving me advice on how to communicate with my girlfriend during these busy months and how to properly communicate my time restraints,” Berlin said. 

The last few months of working on his business and meeting with the outstanding and inspiring Millers Fellows team have been the most special months of Berlin’s life. 

I have met and gotten to work with so many incredibly talented and creative people and I can’t wait to continue this journey with all the new friends I have made so far. — Jake Berlin

Nick Broza

Nick Broza co-founded PointHalo, a startup aimed at reducing costs and increasing the accessibility of tools used to create high-accuracy 3D models with consumer drones. 

Broza said the Miller Fellowship helped him to drive the startup forward. “We have scaled our software products and are even looking at hiring a part-time employee to maintain them,” Broza said.

The company is working on the development of its hardware product and currently offers software that allows customers to create aerial models and let their drones fly autonomously.

For Broza, the Miller Fellowship has been invaluable in providing advice and resources in situations and areas where those can be hard to find. “The Miller Fellowship has directly helped me by giving me a space to discuss my goals, ideas, and issues with peers who are also building their own ventures,” Broza said.

Paula León

Paula León founded Blean, a company offering a device that improves the cleaning experience for menstrual cups and discs in public settings. 

Participating in the Miller Fellowship allowed León to further understand the needs of her audience and improve the design of her product. While part of the Miller Fellowship, León was also awarded a $10,000 NC IDEA MICRO grant to help her validate and advance her idea. “This is a huge step forward as we work on creating better menstrual care solutions,” León said. 

León has joined the FastTraCs Institute with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Design Engineer for medical devices. This opportunity combines two of her greatest passions: innovation in medical devices and advancing FemTech.

León values the collaborative mindset of the fellowship’s cohort. “It has been great to share my milestones and receive support and feedback from the cohort,” León said, “I believe this group is very down for collaborating with each other and I love that.”

Parker Sexton

Parker Sexton started his user interface venture ProtoControl as a senior design project. The Miller Fellowship helped him to access faster hardware and make his venture more user-friendly. 

Sexton said he could thoroughly test the components of his user interface design. “They now provide reliable, crisp and seamless integration with any device,” Sexton said. 

Sexton said the Miller Fellowship has been a vital grounding tool to keep him focused and set goals for himself as he works on his company and himself.

ProtoControl has entered phase 2 of its design and development, significantly improving the design. Sexton said the team has crafted a timeline for future features and is excited to debut protocontrol 2.0. 

“Personally, I am working full time as an embedded software engineer at BETA technologies, building the future in electric aviation,” Sexton said.

Sexton said he loves collaborating with his fellows. “Across disciplines, the ability to sit down with other entrepreneurs and get feedback has influenced a number of my design decisions,” Section said, “Each of our ventures is very different, and yet many of the struggles we encounter remain similar.”

Jada Wyatt

Jada Wyatt is a social arts entrepreneur with a focus on empowering artists to reach financial sustainability. Her business, Beyond Arts Support Services, does this by leveraging the support of an interdisciplinary team and balancing costs through a subsidiary revenue stream. 

The Miller Fellowship helped Wyatt to refine her business model and take on new opportunities such as conducting a residency-based client project and interviewing artists and leaders in the arts about their experiences. This is also reflected in Wyatt’s success: she won a TechStars pitch weekend competition during her time as a Miller Fellow. 

Wyatt said the other Miller Fellows inspire her and give her comfort on her entrepreneurial journey. “It feels great to have these intelligent and creative people around me who exhibit passion and drive for their work—excellent company!” Wyatt said. 

She is looking to go back to school to continue on the model and related topics in arts entrepreneurship.

Shaun Deardorff

Shaun Deardorff is the founder and CEO of Airmage Media Productions LLC, a film production company specializing in aerial photography, videography, and professional commercial photography. He has expanded the company to operate in five states, completing high-profile projects and commercials. 

Recently, Deardorff gained a business partner, Aaron Lewis, who is located in the Bay Area, California. Together, they have expanded their companies by mutually providing collaboration, mentorship and growth strategy. This has enabled Deardorff to conduct key brand partnerships and collaborations with Marriott, Amazon and Toyota all across the country.

He attributes much of his company’s recent success to the support of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship team and his Miller Fellowship experience. “The Miller Fellowship has supported our growth efforts through various service platforms and allowed us to take this crucial next step in the future of our company,” Deardorff said. “Hearing the enthusiasm from each and every one of the Fellows helps to further fan the flame of curiosity and growth,” he added.

Beyond his media work, Deardorff co-founded Chubby’s Chow, a sustainable dog food company, reflecting his commitment to sustainability and innovation across industries. 

Academically, Deardorff recently started his PhD in aerospace engineering. He is currently working on his first journal paper, researching origami-inspired packaging and deployment for shell composite deployable space structures, and has submitted applications to the NSF GRFP, NASA NSTGRO, and DoD NDSEG fellowships. This academic success builds on his recognition as one of ten recipients of the prestigious NCSU Provost Doctoral Fellowship (2024), a full-ride fellowship awarded to only ten out of over 3,000 engineering graduate applicants. On the personal side, Deardorff recently got engaged to his fiancée, Zoe.

As a Student Creator for NC State, he has significantly contributed to the university’s social media presence, producing NC State’s most-viewed video with 4.5 million views. Deardorff was also recently recognized as a finalist for NC State’s 2024 Leader of the Pack award, selected as one of 6 finalists from nearly 100 nominees for his leadership, academic excellence and community service contributions.

This year the Miller Fellowship has brought together entrepreneurs from very different backgrounds. From arts to engineering, these entrepreneurs have found they have more in common than they initially thought. After all, some of the challenges they face are the same: bridging the gap between graduation and a thriving business was just the first.