Miller Fellows and NC State Alumni Showcase Their Ventures at Reynolds Coliseum

The entrepreneurs presented in the Reynolds Coliseum gallery, showcasing ventures ranging from a space for creatives to a user interface to candy apples. On the floor below, entrepreneurs and those interested in becoming ones could share their ideas and network over grilled shrimp and sliders.

Many of the attendees were involved with the Miller Fellowship. The program allows newly minted entrepreneurs to drive their businesses forward even after graduation so they do not have to sideline their ventures. Fellows receive a $1000 monthly stipend, mentorship and continued access to resources like the Albright Entrepreneurship Garage at no cost.

Paula León, a recent Miller Fellow, set her booth up next to a display honoring NC State Olympians. She works on a device that improves the cleaning experience for menstrual cups and discs in public settings. “We know that disposable menstrual products have a lot of chemicals in them and are not safe for women, and we want to reduce the amount of waste that is being generated by disposable menstrual products,” León said.

“We are putting a provisional patent together right now, that normally takes a year,” León said. “As soon as we file the patent, we can start showing and commercializing the product.” The company is currently manufacturing high-fidelity prototypes and hopes to start selling the product next year. 

Nick Broza, also a recent Miller Fellow, set up his stand near León. Broza co-founded PointHalo, a company that strives to make 3D modeling using drones cheaper and more convenient. 

The company has developed a device that can be strapped to a consumer drone and improves the GPS accuracy from a range of one to ten meters to only 3 centimeters. This enables users to create high-accuracy 3D models using a cheap consumer drone. 

Broza and his co-founders also started two other companies that are complementary to this device. “Our website takes the GPS data and the pictures and stitches them together into a 3D model,” Broza said. The other website they created essentially flies the drone. “It’s a bit like Google Maps,” Broza said. “You can go on there, click around, create waypoints and upload that to your drone, and your drone will fly that path.”

Broza said the Miller Fellowship helped him fund prototyping and development. He added that he also benefited from continued access to NC State lab resources and grew personally due to the fellowship. “Personally, it has helped me to understand more on the business leadership side of things,” explained Broza, who studied electrical engineering and designed all of the company’s circuit boards. 

Personally, it has helped me to understand more on the business leadership side of things.

Tom Miller, who spearheaded Entrepreneurship initiatives at NC State, attended the event and recalled how the Miller Fellowship came to life. Miller said he had a program in which students would start companies as part of their senior projects and often came up with brilliant products. 

In 2014, a group of students approached Miller saying they would like to continue working on their products, but now that they had degrees and offers for high-paying jobs, they couldn’t justify it to their parents. At the time, Miller asked himself, “What if I could come up with enough money for rent and ramen noodles?”

“I talked to some of the university leadership, and said, what if we could set these guys up as lifelong students, give them access to the library and campus resources,” Miller said, ”then I would come up with enough money to pay them a very small stipend for six months, and we would give them a title, the NC State Entrepreneurship fellows.”

Later, more students who also wanted to keep on working on their ventures came up to Miller. “I just kept on finding money to pay these students a small stipend and then get them lifelong student access so that they could access the campus resources,” Miller said. A person in University Development who knew a lot of Miller’s former students later raised more money to keep the program going forward. “That’s how it all got started,” Miller said. “And then, they surprised me by naming it the Miller Fellows Program.” 

Kyle Linton was in the first cohort of fellows in 2014. “The program connected me to some of the best mentors, advisors; the people that I’m still friends with to this day, 10 years later,” Linton said, “it led to partnerships and investors and I think the network part of it is also huge, in addition to the stipend.” 

The [Miller Fellows] connected me to some of the best mentors, advisors; the people that I’m still friends with to this day, 10 years later.

There were other NC State Alumni, showing their business ranging from swimming boards to dog leashes to handmade jewelry. 

It was a grand night of celebration for entrepreneurship in the NC State community with food and friends. “I will close out by saying thank you all for being part of such an amazing Innovation and Entrepreneurship community,” said Jennifer Capps, Assistant Vice Provost at NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship, during a brief speech. “This makes NC State my favorite place.”