Celebrating Success at the 2025 WIN Holiday Party

NC State’s Wolfpack Investor Network (WIN) held its annual holiday party on the evening of Monday, December 8, 2025, at the Carolina Exotic Car Club in Raleigh, where WIN members and staff gathered for a joyful celebration of a great year.

The night began with an introduction from Abby Phillips, WIN director.

WIN was honored to be joined by two keynote speakers. The first was Sharat Nagaraj, an NC State alumnus and successful entrepreneur. In July 1999, while a student in the College of Engineering, Nagaraj founded his first company, Celito. He graduated in December 1999 and continued developing Celito. In 2023, Celito was acquired by a private equity firm, which became the majority stakeholder.

Nagaraj remains on the board of directors at Celito but has shifted his focus to his new company, Anything Earlier, which fills medical appointment cancellations with waitlisted customers.

In addition, Nagaraj is a major supporter of the military appreciation events at NC State and sponsors the university’s military flyover. He also serves on the university’s Board of Visitors, which assists the Chancellor and Board of Trustees in advancing NC State’s standing among America’s leading institutions by advocating for the university and expanding its visibility and connections beyond campus.

Highlighting the importance of your why, entrepreneurial characteristics and moving businesses forward, Nagaraj began his speech by explaining his why. “Everyone has a fun story, and I live a very charmed life. But, I have had my ups and downs too… all of this I do for my family. They are my ‘why.’ We do literally everything together, and I attribute that to me getting grounded a little earlier in life.”

Nagaraj continued his speech on taking action. He said, “In order to charge, execute and scale, you have to take action now, and build the right team around you to help make sure that you can take action and move forward.”

While reflecting on his younger days, Nagaraj spoke about trusting himself and customer validation. “As a younger person, I used to say, ‘my gut is right, my gut is right.’ We all say that. But if you can verify your gut, you are going to be a lot better off. So I want to encourage that as you are going through your businesses.”

He began wrapping up his speech, saying, “I challenge you as you go through WIN and are investing in companies or as you are meeting founders to ask yourself, ‘Are they really ready to succeed?’ It’s so funny how we all plan for the negative side, like, ‘oh, we don’t have enough money’…but what if you do?”

Nagaraj left the WIN members with this powerful message: “Be ready for success, and in fact, plan for it.”

Lisa Chang, WIN’s director of diligence and resident NC State enthusiast, addressed the crowd to introduce Will Wade, head coach of the NC State men’s basketball team.

Wade began his speech by highlighting NC State’s greatness. “I’ve never worked at a school that has anything close to this investor network, so this is part of what makes NC State so great. One thing I’ve found just from being here for seven months is that we have the best people in the country. Our people are tremendous people. Very, very giving people at NC State, and they support the Wolfpack to the nth degree…and thus they want to give back.”

He attributes giving nature to the passion of the Wolfpack, “And I think that adds to the passion of our fan base, and I don’t think that can be replicated anywhere.”

Wade continued to emphasize building a solid foundation, likening it to what he expects of his team. “Our goal is to build our program on a rock-solid foundation. We want to be able to weather the storms. We want our guys to act the right way, and for us, that’s aggressive, committed, and thankful.”

These three mindsets are essential to basketball and entrepreneurship. Wade continued by explaining what these expectations bring for his team. “The first thing is, I want guys that are aggressive. I’d rather tell you ‘woah than go.’ We also want guys that are naturally self-starters.”

Exploring the idea of commitment, Wade said, “We want folks who are committed to something bigger than themselves. That’s a challenge in today’s society.”

Wade continued on to gratitude, “The last part is being thankful. I’ve made some mistakes, but I’m very, very thankful that I get the opportunity to do this every day, and I believe appreciation is the currency of success.”

Continuing to make the analogy to basketball and entrepreneurship, Wade said, “My job at the end of the day is to get my guys to do a little more than they want to do…we’re working every day to get these guys to push and do more. I think that’s in basketball, in life, in business. We all get settled into what we’re used to. I would encourage you to look in the mirror and make sure that you give everything you’ve got to everything you do.”

Wade wrapped up his speech by saying, “I like the acronym, WIN. I like how that comes together. What’s important now? WIN!”

Robert Ross, partner at WIN’s venture partner Harbright Ventures, finished out the night thanking the two keynote speakers. Ross echoed the adjectives Wade used to describe his players in characterizing WIN’s investors, noting that WIN members are aggressive and deeply committed to investing in early-stage companies. He then highlighted the seven investments completed this year, ranging from a greentech company, Invicta Water, to an AI company, Ariso.

Ross closed the evening by inviting the audience to demonstrate their own gratitude by giving to one of three charitable causes selected by WIN for 2025. https://go.ncsu.edu/win2025.

Looking ahead to 2026, WIN is excited about the future of innovation and entrepreneurship at NC State. If you are interested in learning more about the network or joining, explore WIN’s website or reach out via email to wolfpackinvestornetwork@ncsu.edu.