Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Babson College:

Babson College is setting its sights on the future with the launch of the C. Dean Metropoulos Institute for Technology and Entrepreneurship, an initiative designed to integrate cutting-edge technology with the College’s renowned entrepreneurial and business education.

The institute, made possible by a generous gift from C. Dean Metropoulos, aims to equip students with an essential blend of technical skills and entrepreneurial mindset required to lead in an increasingly artificial intelligence-driven world.

“It is clear that AI is critical to the future of business and society,” Metropoulos said in an interview following the institute’s sun-splashed dedication ceremony last week in the Babson Commons. “A lot of bright young entrepreneurs are tech savvy, but many of them lack business acumen and a financial understanding. I think the combination would make these young people so much more successful.”

The Metropoulos Institute represents Babson’s continued leadership in technology-driven entrepreneurship, which empowers students to harness technology’s potential to transform ideas into reality, pairing it with an entrepreneurial mindset to drive meaningful change.

“The C. Dean Metropoulos Institute for Technology and Entrepreneurship definitively elevates the groundwork that our talented faculty and staff have developed in the realm of technological innovation and AI,” Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. said. “The Metropoulos Institute will open new doors for so many at Babson and will become a global resource for the fusing of technology and entrepreneurship.”

From the University of Arkansas:

The Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP), the flagship business incubator at the University of Arkansas, has opened applications for its seventh cohort of companies. Led by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (OEI), GORP supports start-ups in the outdoor recreation sector, and its Cohort Incubator offers a 12-week curriculum including workshops, a dedicated mentor team, product/service development assistance, up to $15,000 per company of non-dilutive funding, and an intern from OEI’s Venture Intern Program.

The competitive program, located in Bentonville, is offered twice a year to selected applicants. The deadline to apply is November 15. Accepted companies will be notified on November 27.

“We’re seeking founders at the idea-to-launch stage,” said Zoe Buonaiuto, Director of Business Incubation and the key lead of the program. “These are founders that have identified a problem in the industry, have validated an early solution, but who’ve not yet fully entered the market. They’re committed to launching the business and have the bandwidth and dedication to be fully engaged with the program over the course of 12 weeks.”

The cohort will span January 28 to April 8, 2025. Companies accepted into the cohort will be expected to commit an average of 15 hours per week to the program and their businesses.

From the University of Mississippi:

Charles Doty‘s recent gift to the University of Mississippi will help School of Business Administration students participating in the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

The Atlanta resident’s $150,000 gift will establish the Charles R. Doty CIE Support Fund to provide resources for business plan competitions and Career Treks, which connect students with employers to find highly sought-after job and internship opportunities.

“I knew I wanted to do something for Ole Miss, and I spent time considering the issues and areas that mean something to me,” said Doty, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Asset Preservation Advisors, an investment advisory firm that specializes in managing municipal bond portfolios. “I felt like the CIE was a great option because it would allow me to share my experiences – both good and bad – with students pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors.”

Doty recently served as a judge of the CIE-hosted Gillespie Business Plan Competition, in which students pitch ideas for a chance to win cash awards. He offers a $10,000 prize to a student entrepreneur venture team or individual who exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit through a venture driven by innovation in a product, process or service.

The center’s mission is to inspire Ole Miss students to create innovative businesses.

From Furman University:

Furman’s student entrepreneurs can build their businesses in the newly opened Innovation Lab built to bring together start-ups and established companies alike. Located in the new Crescent One co-working space at 25 Goldsmith Street in Greenville, the Furman Innovation Lab emerged from years of collaboration between The Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Flywheel Co-Working, and Hartness Development, among other partners.

Crescent One is on the campus of Crescent SC, an innovation district developed by Furman Trustee Emeritus Sean Hartness, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hartness Development. 

“What we will be developing here is a community of 250 to 500 members that love being part of a shared environment,” said Peter Marsh, Flywheel CEO. “We’re bringing together ingredients that are needed for entrepreneurship to thrive.” 

With space for individuals to work, offices, and suites available to host whole companies, Flywheel and Hartness transformed what was once the Hartness family’s Pepsi bottling plant into works spaces for individuals, offices, suites, and conference areas. The site, about 6.5 miles from Furman’s campus along Poinsett Highway, sat vacant for years. Now, the industrial site is a sleek, but welcoming co-working space. At its heart, in one of the suites, is the Furman Innovation Lab. 

From Towson University:

Towson University’s (TU) business school has no full-time MBA program. For aspiring entrepreneurs, what the university does offer is probably more practically — and certainly more immediately — useful.

Just off campus in the suburbs north of Baltimore, Towson’s StarTUp Accelerator is a co-working hub based in a 26,000-square-foot former National Guard building that has been retrofitted to include more than 6,000 square feet of co-working space, including six conference rooms, plus a second floor of office space. The Armory is big, it is brightly lit — and it has a Starbucks, too. What really sets Towson’s StarTUp apart: The co-working space is free to use and open to all, not just Towson students.

“I have toured dozens of other accelerators and can attest there is absolutely nothing like what we do,” says Patrick McQuown, Executive Director of Entrepreneurship and Founder of The StarTUp, which launched in September 2021. “No fee, no membership, and no affiliation to TU needed. We have VPs from healthcare companies to solo business owners and everything between that use it daily. It’s open five days a week, 8:30 to 5:30. And it’s awesome.”

The StarTUp’s seven state-of-the-art conference rooms host more than 500 organizations annually, from local nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. On the Armory’s second floor is a suite of offices reserved for ventures accepted to the accelerator program; this year they number 16.

The accelerator works through Towson’s Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research division, which is external with business and public engagement and available to all of the colleges at TU, including the College of Business & Economics. Entrepreneurs who apply and are accepted to join The StarTUp get $10,000 equity free and eight weeks of programming each summer to help get their ventures launched.

In its first two years after opening, The StarTUp sponsored ventures that raised $29 million — compared to only about $3 million in operating expenditures.

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