2018 Miller Fellows Announced
Every May is marked by the announcement of thousands of graduates from NC State. These Wolfpack grads will put their “think and do” attitudes to work as they take their next steps after graduation. For some students, this means forgoing a traditional career path and instead choosing to pursue their entrepreneurial endeavour full-time.
The Miller Fellows program was created to support these student entrepreneurs who commit to developing their startups full-time in the 6 months following graduation.
Rent and Ramen Noodles
Dr. Tom Miller, senior vice provost for academic outreach and entrepreneurship, started the program (originally named the Entrepreneurship Initiative Fellows) in 2014. In fall 2017, a group of Dr. Miller’s former students came together to endow the program and re-name it the Dr. Thomas Kenan Miller II Fellows Program.
Benefits of the program include access to mentors and industry professionals, continued access to the Entrepreneurship Garage and a $500 monthly stipend that provides enough budget for “rent and ramen noodles.” Entrepreneurs also benefit from access to workshops and networking facilitated through the Andrews Launch Accelerator. The Miller Fellows program runs from June through November.
Seven students were selected for the Miller Fellows class of 2018.
Meet the 2018 Miller Fellows:
Steven Guido, College of Engineering
Steven is the co-founder of Aeva Labs. Aeva Labs is designing a product that speeds up the aging process of alcohol, allowing breweries, distilleries, and wineries to increase profits, experiment quickly and scale production in real time.
Shraddha Rathod, College of Engineering
Shraddha is the founder of Freshspire. Freshspire aims to use technology to optimize food distribution. It is an online marketplace in which food distributors/suppliers can post deals of their low-cost excess produce so restaurants in the area can take advantage of them in a time-sensitive manner.
Daniel Beall, College of Engineering
Daniel Beall founded BnaFit. BnaFit is a fitness platform that allows customers to follow inventive workout plans created by coaches they know and love. Daniel’s team is also in the Andrews Launch Accelerator out of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic.
Cameron Coleal, College of Engineering
Cameron is the founder of Thrive Biotechnologies. Thrive is promoting safer driving behavior from an employer perspective by providing real-time insights to both drivers and their employers. Through a machine learning platform, Thrive can detect abnormal driving behaviors that correlate with drunk, drowsy or distracted driving and give fleet managers an opportunity to contact their drivers before an accident occurs.
Ryan Kelley, College of Engineering
Ryan Kelley is the co-founder of Atomo. Atomo is an indoor spatial intelligence platform for augmented reality and location data applications. Ryan and his team were finalists in the 2018 Lulu eGames Built on Cloud category and have also been accepted to the Andrews Launch Accelerator.
Khushbu Madhiwala, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Khushbu is the sole founder of Sudsy. Sudsy is developing single-use, dehydrated soap tablets that turn into a liquid soap at the touch of water. Sudsy aims to make traveling and outdoor recreation more convenient by saving space, weight, and avoiding any potential leakage.
Bobby Bacon, College of Education
Bobby is the founder of Numeralique. Numeralique, also called WolfGen, is a platform built to test, automate and optimize algorithmic trading strategies using advanced mathematics and machine learning code. The company seeks to build trust in cryptocurrency trading through transparent operations.
Past Miller Fellows: Samuel Eddy and Luke Smith, Kast Clothing; Jack Dodd and Travis Murray, Rhythcor; Tayyab Hussain and Moaad Benkaraache, Trakex; Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, Bee Downtown; Tyler-Confrey Maloney and Steven Gray, Undercover Colors.
