NC State Poole College of Management hosted the fall edition of the biannual PNC Thought Leadership Series on October 18 focused on entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demetris Cheatham, Poole College lecturer in management, innovation and entrepreneurship, led the panel of experts, including: <\/p>\n\n\n
Thomas Armstrong graduated from Poole College of Management in 2020. Armstrong is a serial entrepreneur who began working on ventures during his time as an undergraduate student. He is the COO of 9miles Media, a downtown Raleigh based video production agency, and co-founder of Entrepreneur House, a co-living community for young entrepreneurs. He is also passionate about helping aspiring entrepreneurs understand their \u201cwhy\u201d and connect with other valuable innovators.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Haley Huie joined Poole College of Management in April 2022 as the director of the Entrepreneurship Clinic and as a professor of practice. Huie brings a variety of industry experience beginning as a journalist in northern Virginia, an advisor and instructor in higher education and as a business and strategy consultant for a school group on the west coast. Most recently, she spent her time in student-facing programs at NC State in her role as director for experiential learning where she had the chance to build the living-learning community for student entrepreneurs at NC State. She led other signature programs such as the Entrepreneurship Garage, Jump Start summer camp and helped begin the annual Make-A-Thon sustainability challenge on campus. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Shraddha is the founder of Freshspire, a start-up that makes buying and selling local food accessible. She makes software that allows wholesale food buyers and local farmers to help plan and place orders effectively, and provides data to best assist in that process. In the past few years of starting the company, Freshspire has worked with private companies and local government, including Wake County and Orange County. Shraddha is passionate about mission-driven companies and social entrepreneurship – especially when it comes to technology products. Shraddha studied electrical & computer engineering at NC State.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Mark Saad is a proud Raleigh native that loves problem-solving. Soon after graduating in with a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration with concentrations in finance and entrepreneurship from NC State in 2008, Saad founded Flat World Trading Co., an organization specializing in consumer product sourcing. In 2010, he founded the Kinder Soles footwear brand until it was acquired by Feelgoodz Holding, Inc., where he became CFO. From 2013 to 2018, Saad served as Feelgoodz Holding\u2019s CEO, leading the company to 500% growth. In 2019, Saad co-founded Sherpa Collaborative, bringing his talents and \u201cnon-traditional\u201d strategies to earn other companies an impressive market share.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Thomas:<\/strong> It\u2019s not as much about the work as about the culture we\u2019re able to create at the company. The work is obviously very important but\u2026I\u2019m able to create an environment where these 10 people love coming into work every single day. They feel like they belong to a cause bigger than themselves\u2026They feel like they have the right environment to do the best work they possibly can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shraddha:<\/strong> I had an innate need to make a difference in this world\u2026It started off with this surface-level statistic that 40 percent of our food goes into landfills\u2026As an engineer, I thought efficiency, technology could really help this problem\u2026Once I put myself in that industry, I realized I had a place at the table and could make that difference\u2026Your why is so important to help yourself wake up every morning and do what you need to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Haley:<\/strong> One thing we do in the Entrepreneurship Clinic is help you become comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty\u2026Your why can take a lot of different forms. My why became how I can accelerate people\u2019s careers\u2026The things we try to expose you to in the clinic are solving real-world problems for real organizations that exist to create value and hopefully to create a huge difference and make an impact on our state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas:<\/strong> I disagree with the idea that it\u2019s impossible to start something while you\u2019re in college. I did two days of classes at Poole College of Management, it was awesome, and then I did three days of working on the startup downtown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Haley:<\/strong> It lowers the barrier for you if you have some income coming in, so that was the reason I started something while working full time. It gives you the flexibility and freedom to test a concept and try something out\u2026When you sit in the student seat, you should know how many resources, people, places and things want you to be successful in trying out some of those concepts\u2026Take advantage of all the things on campus and this runway you have as a student. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark:<\/strong> In the consumer product world, there aren\u2019t nearly as many investors as there are in tech or software\u2026so profit is very important for us, but it is a balance between people and profit. You can\u2019t lose sight and just completely sell your soul for the sake of profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shraddha:<\/strong> Almost whatever decision we made and whatever sale we made, we could help the triple bottom line. That means we could affect our community, we could help ourselves, and we could give a return to everyone involved…If you are providing something that people need then you will get paid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas:<\/strong> So far, it\u2019s all been bootstrapped, which means we make money and reinvest the money back into the company\u2026I\u2019ve really loved being able to do that\u2026hiring more people, getting more equipment, whatever that might be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shraddha:<\/strong> We\u2019re also bootstrapped, but the way we got started was in college. We did a lot of business plan competitions, e-games, almost everything single thing NC State has to offer. And also every single thing our country has to offer, we were applying for it. In that way, we were able to get our idea out, get our plans out, really hone down communication of our story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark:<\/strong> We did not bootstrap Feelgoodz because we had to buy a lot of inventory, and it\u2019s harder in the consumer products space. The lead investor was the entrepreneur-in-residence at NC State when I was an undergraduate\u2026As the company grew\u2026we ended up doing it via debt financing, which was fantastic. We didn\u2019t have to give up a ton of equity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Haley:<\/strong> We run a program called the Andrews Launch Accelerator, which over the summer helps us accelerate the growth of between three and five companies…Fundraising is at the front of all of these companies\u2019 minds\u2026They empower this network of people they\u2019ve met throughout this fantastic experience to help them make connections and help make them more investable. Bootstrapping is a solid path. If you\u2019re growing a traditional service-based business, perhaps SBA loans are a great path, private equity, individual angel investors, friends, family, there are so many different avenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas:<\/strong> I was at every single entrepreneurship mentors event they had while I was at NC State\u2026I grew in confidence so much that I could just walk up to people and start talking and carry on a conversation\u2026That confidence served me so much when I wanted to start different businesses because people started taking me more seriously because I was taking myself more seriously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shraddha:<\/strong> Even if you are struggling with confidence, I think it\u2019s definitely a mindset that you have to practice\u2026If you\u2019re able to put yourself in places that help you practice that, that makes a lot of difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark:<\/strong> As far as what we look for, if it\u2019s somebody young, fresh out of school, the number one characteristic for us is they\u2019re coachable\u2026When you talk to folks in the entrepreneurial space, make sure that you\u2019re taking notes, you\u2019re listening, you\u2019re not trying to argue with every point they make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Haley:<\/strong> What do we look for in the Entrepreneurship Clinic when students reach us, and we\u2019re the springboard into the world beyond college? Tenacity, people who are not afraid to ask questions and put themselves in the right spaces, people who are very open, which goes back to coachability. They\u2019re really interested and invested\u2026The extra step is people who do their due diligence\u2026It certainly helps build a strong bridge when you know something about the person you\u2019re talking to, and you have a goal in mind for that conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n NC State Poole College of Management hosted the fall edition of the biannual PNC Thought Leadership Series on October 18 focused on entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demetris Cheatham, Poole College lecturer in management, innovation and entrepreneurship, led the panel of experts, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Armstrong graduated from Poole College of Management in 2020. Armstrong is a serial entrepreneur who began working on ventures during his time as an undergraduate student. He is the COO of 9miles Media, a downtown Raleigh based video production agency, and co-founder of Entrepreneur House, a co-living community for young entrepreneurs. He is also passionate about helping aspiring entrepreneurs understand their \u201cwhy\u201d and connect with other valuable innovators.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Haley Huie joined Poole College of Management in April 2022 as the director of the Entrepreneurship Clinic and as a professor of practice. Huie brings a variety of industry experience beginning as a journalist in northern Virginia, an advisor and instructor in higher education and as a business and strategy consultant for a school group on the west coast. Most recently, she spent her time in student-facing programs at NC State in her role as director for experiential learning where she had the chance to build the living-learning community for student entrepreneurs at NC State. She led other signature programs such as the Entrepreneurship Garage, Jump Start summer camp and helped begin the annual Make-A-Thon sustainability challenge on campus. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhat are some of the things the Entrepreneurship Clinic offers to students to help them understand what problem they\u2019re trying to solve and why they should become an entrepreneur? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Any advice for students contemplating being a full-time student and an entrepreneur or starting their full-time careers and doing an entrepreneurship venture?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
How do you balance your social mission with profit? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
How do you fund your businesses? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
For college students who want to start a business or someone who recently graduated, how did you overcome those perceptions from people thinking that you\u2019re just a kid with an idea versus no, I have a real business idea? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Armstrong, COO, 9miles Media\u00a0<\/h2><\/a>
Haley Huie, director, NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic\u00a0<\/h2><\/a>