Lulu Teams Up with NC State to Fund the World’s Next Big Idea

We’re pleased to announce the five-year extension of our partnership with Lulu to host the Lulu eGames, NC State’s biggest startup competition! Learn more in Lulu’s official press release below.

Contact: Matt Briel, Lulu.com

Lulu, the world’s leading independent publishing company, proudly announces a five-year extension of our partnership with North Carolina State University’s Entrepreneurship Initiative to fund the Lulu eGames through 2020.

“Lulu was founded by entrepreneur Bob Young to remove the barriers that prevented promising new authors from publishing and sharing their knowledge,” said Nigel Lee, Lulu CEO. “Our partnership with NC State is a natural extension of that mission. Who knows how these brilliant young minds, these knowledge entrepreneurs, will change the world when given the opportunity to share their ideas for new products and innovative solutions to real-world problems.”

NC State’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI) is a campus-wide program empowering students to create meaningful change by turning ideas into action. Through entrepreneurial spaces like the EI Garage and Albright Entrepreneurs Village and programs like the Lulu eGames Startup Competition, EI strives to serve as the hub for student entrepreneurship at NC State.

Last year’s Lulu eGames competition awarded more than $60,000 in cash prizes across five different categories, including the Daugherty Endowment Challenge for companies who have licensed NC State intellectual property and the B Corp Champions Challenge for students building new ventures that use business as a force for social and environmental change. Past winners include Undercover Colors, a startup developing nail products that change color in the presence of date rape drugs; Bee Downtown, a venture that earned one of only four IDEO-backed global fellowships for climate innovators; and Trakex, a company whose founders were selected to participate in the competitive Y Combinator Fellowship program.

“The Lulu eGames provides participants with the opportunity to gain real-world experience in entrepreneurship; build invaluable relationships regionally, nationally and globally; and receive cash awards to help their ventures move forward in a real way,” said Dr. Tom Miller, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Outreach and Entrepreneurship and McPherson Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering Entrepreneurship at NC State. “It’s a pleasure to continue this partnership with Lulu, a company that shares NC State’s commitment to cultivating entrepreneurship because of the tremendous impact it has on our world.”

As the eGames sponsor, Lulu will work with teams to develop and present product pitches and written descriptions to more effectively tell their stories and share their ideas with the world.  Through our participation, Lulu hopes to further increase awareness and visibility of the eGames.

When asked about Lulu’s continuing relationship with NC State, Lee responded, “Lulu has always been dedicated to making the world a better place, one story at a time. By continuing our sponsorship of the Lulu eGames, we will add to this legacy one innovative idea, one life-changing product, and one entrepreneur at a time.”

For more information

NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative, please visit: https://ei.ncsu.edu/

Lulu eGames, please visit: https://ei.ncsu.edu/egames/

Lulu Press, please visit: www.lulu.com

About Lulu

Since 2002, Lulu has enabled authors in more than 225 countries and territories to self-publish nearly two million publications. Our industry-leading tools and global community help authors hone their craft and publish printed books and eBooks for free, then sell them in online bookstores around the world. At Lulu, authors are in control, owning the rights to their works, setting their own price and keeping up to 90 percent of their book profits.