Embry-Riddle, StarterStudio Relaunch Business Accelerator Program

Students and staff celebrating the kickoff of Embry-Riddle’s Accelerator program.
Celebrating the kickoff of Embry-Riddle’s Accelerator program are (back row, L-R): Pradeep Shinde (SpaceLoon), Elias Campbell (CerebriTech), Alex Britton (Cerebritech), Taylor Stroup (Velocity Technologies), Ali Tamijani (Novineer), Salman Ahmed (CVVlogs), Syed Ahmed (CVVlogs), Stephanie Miller (Embry-Riddle) and Ramy Rahimi (Embry-Riddle). Also shown (front row, L-R) are: Dawn Haynes, Lilian Myers, Bob Reed and Scott Ritchey (StarterStudio). Not pictured are Ryan Patterson and Nicholas Sontra (Velocity Technologies). (Photo: Embry-Riddle/Daryl LaBello)

To help jump-start a thriving innovation corridor offering high-quality, high-paying job opportunities in Volusia County, Florida, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has partnered with StarterStudio to relaunch its successful business accelerator program.

The intensive 10-week program, June 1 to Aug. 3, will provide significant mentorship to award-winning entrepreneurs, focusing on how to build, sustain and grow their businesses by focusing on their go-to-market strategies, perfecting their customer pitch and creating business infrastructure (including accounting, finance, legal, HR and insurance). At the end of the program, participating startups will pitch their companies during a demonstration event to an audience of advisors, sponsors, community stakeholders and the StarterStudio investment committee, for a chance to receive between $10,000 and $25,000 in funding, as well as matching funds in the future of up to $225,000.

All startups are carefully selected and vetted through the accelerator program to set them up for long-term success, said Dr. Stephanie Miller, Embry-Riddle’s executive director of technology transfer and Research Park initiatives.

“After a three-year hiatus amid the pandemic, we are once again pleased to be offering the Embry-Riddle Accelerator, an outpost program of StarterStudio, to continue our track record of economic development and investment in our community,” Miller said. “This year’s cohort includes startups founded by Embry-Riddle students and professors, startups currently residing in the university’s MicaPlex Technology Business Incubator and a startup from the Volusia County community.”

Innovation for Earth and Space

This year’s participating startup companies are developing innovative technologies to solve business and healthcare problems and to advance commercial space enterprise. The 2022 participants include:

  • Novineer, a novel engineering design firm that is building an integrated modeling, design and simulation software for 3D printing. Novineer, founded by Embry-Riddle’s award-winning researcher Dr. Ali Tamijani, sprang from research completed in his laboratory.
  • SpaceLoon™, developer of the first commercially available balloon capable of reaching the suborbital Mesospheric region of space. The company’s low-cost, rapidly deployed, long-duration solution makes it possible to deploy payloads for space research and exploration without the expense of a rocket launch, and more.
  • Cvvlogs, maker of a unique recruitment platform that allows candidates to post their video resumes. Recruiters can save time by only scheduling candidates who set themselves apart via video, Cvvlogs has reported.
  • Velocity Technologies, which strives to improve the business experience within event spaces and venues by using radio-frequency identification technology to provide precise customer data analytics.
  • Cerebritech, a startup developing a product to detect concussions in real-time, providing athletes and teams with a new, more consistent baseline for diagnosing traumatic brain injuries.

Entrepreneurs will also work on building a company culture, operational planning, scaling and learning fundamentals of sales management. Other areas of emphasis will include marketing, customer onboarding, expansion and growth, key performance indicators (KPIs), and funding options and sources.

Posted In: Institutional News