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Director of NC State’s Entrepreneurship Clinic Gives Students a Head Start on Success

Lewis Sheats was already a young father when he came to N.C. State University in the 1990s. So while he studied books on business theory in class, he also launched his own company as an undergraduate to support his family.

Sheats would go on to launch and sell several businesses, accruing the kind of hard lessons that come from making mistakes and trying again. By the time he started teaching courses at his alma mater in 2002, he was committed to teaching students those lessons through hands-on work.

Two years ago, he put his vision to work at the N.C. State Entrepreneurship Clinic, which he helped design and now directs. The clinic goes beyond teaching business concepts to what Sheats calls “embedding students in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Students at the off-campus clinic, which is based at HQ Raleigh, work closely with area startups to gain experience and contacts before they earn their degrees, or to get help starting their own companies. Read more here.

Published in the Raleigh News & Observer, Feb. 11, 2017