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Raleigh startups Cityzen, Vital Plan tap NC State Poole College’s students’ brainpower

“Just when Raleigh’s startup scene couldn’t get any hotter, the NC State Poole College of Management is infusing it with innovation and business expertise in the form of graduate students and an in-house Entrepreneurship Clinic at local startup incubator HQ Raleigh,” said Jay Dawkins, chief executive officer of Cityzen, one of HQ Raleigh’s resident companies.

Dawkins said Cityzen and Vital Plan, another startup based at HQ Raleigh, were among the companies that benefited from the work done this spring by 24 graduate students in the Jenkins Master in Global Innovation Management (MGIM) program at the NC State Poole College of Management. The graduate students, who came to the program from nine countries – France, Taiwan, China, the U.S., Pakistan, Canada, Nicaragua, Brazil and India – worked with seven area companies to exchange ideas and gain hands-on business experience.

“Many people cannot articulate what they want and what their pain points are,” said Diana Hejjaoui, a May 2015 graduate of the MGIM program, originally from France. “Our job was to listen to the voice of the customer, read between the lines and come up with the products and services that best address their true needs.”

Dawkins said, “Our MGIM team helped us understand what our customers wanted, as opposed to what we thought they wanted. Their research showed us that people want a private way to express their political views, away from Facebook & Twitter.”

Cityzen, which uses online polling to connect people with causes and organizations, is incorporating the MGIM team’s feedback into a new polling tool that will let online news readers vote privately in online polls, see how others voted, and view groups and causes that align with their opinion. They’re working with area media outlets to test the new approach.

The MGIM team working with Vital Plan, a startup that offers physician-formulated herbal supplements and protocols for chronic disease recovery, focused on its international operations.

“We started receiving international inquiries for our Lyme disease program, which was exciting but also overwhelming to navigate,” said Braden Rawls, Vital Plan’s chief executive officer. “The MGIM team has been tremendously helpful in defining the Lyme disease population worldwide and mapping out a strategy for scaling our business internationally.”

Vital Plan now has a formal international strategy in place and is gaining customers in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, Rawls said.

Working with the startups was a valuable learning experience for the students, as well.

“The startup concept is very new for me,” said MGIM graduate Vivien Ho. “In Taiwan, where I’m from, we don’t have many startup companies. But I worked on a startup during my fall 2014 semester in France, so this is the second startup project I’ve done in the MGIM program.” MGIM students study at the program’s partner business school in France in the fall semester and at NC State Poole College in the spring semester.

“It’s great to be able to use what I’m learning in school and apply it to a real company,” she said. “It’s a lot like an internship but in a project team with my classmates. This has taught me that even if you just have a little idea, you can make your dream big.”
James Powell, another MGIM graduate, said, “I love the atmosphere of HQ Raleigh. Being able to come in and see these young, ambitious CEOs with their sleeves rolled up and to feel the energy here has inspired me to one day own my own business.”
Also working with the MGIM students this spring were Triangle-area companies Deutsche Bank, EG Gilero, Pentair, Ply Gem, and State Innovation Lab (I-Center).

The launch of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic at HQ Raleigh earlier this year provides another resource for Triangle-area startups, Dawkins said. Since opening in January, the 15 undergraduate entrepreneurship clinicians have been working with 27 startups on projects ranging from customer discovery to product development.

The Entrepreneurship Clinic is an outreach of The Entrepreneurship Collaborative at Poole College that focuses on research, experiential learning and embedding the students in the entrepreneurship community. Lewis Sheats, Poole College senior lecturer and director of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic, will provide an update on the Clinic at the June 5, 2015, Wolfpack Your Lunch – NC State Executive Education’s lunch and learn program that will be held at Artspace, 201 E. Davie Street in downtown Raleigh. The program begins with registration and networking at 11:45 a.m. The presentation and discussion are held from 12:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. There is no charge to attend but registration is required. View registration and other details about this event.

Startups interested in working with the MGIM program in the coming academic year may contact Leigh Shamblin, director of the MGIM program. Those interested in working with the Entrepreneurship Clinic may contact Lewis Sheats.

About the Master of Global Innovation Management program

The Master of Global Innovation Management (MGIM) is a global dual degree jointly delivered by the Jenkins Graduate School at NC State University Poole College of Management and IAE-Aix en Marseille University (France). Established in 2008, this program prepares students to manage the process of innovation and new value creation across a variety of industries and contexts. Students complete a total of 33 credit hours (66 ECTS), completing their fall semester in France and their spring semester in the US. The students work in team on real-world innovation projects in both semesters. They also have the option of completing a summer experience in China or India following graduation.

About the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic

The NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic (TEC) is an outreach of The Entrepreneurship Collaborative at NC State’s Poole College of Management. Inspired by the university teaching hospital model, the Entrepreneurship Clinic is a place where students, faculty, entrepreneurs and service providers go to teach, learn and build the next generation of businesses in Raleigh. New Ventures come for help and guidance. Students provide counseling in exchange for experience and an opportunity to build their social networks. Faculty study entrepreneurship and to develop cross-disciplinary knowledge they will share with both scholarly and entrepreneurial communities. The Clinic focuses on research, community engagement and experiential learning.

Media contacts:

Jay Dawkins, co-founder and CEO, Cityzen
O (919) 432-5293 | M (910) 797-4480 | Jay@CityzenPolls.com

Anna Rzewnicki, NC State Poole College communications
O 919.513.4478 | anna_rzewnicki@ncsu.edu.edu