Three UNC alumni have been given the chance to take their startup businesses to a new level.
UNC graduates Coleman Greene, Sarah Press and Erik Severinghaus, who all created startups, were chosen by the entrepreneurial mentoring company Techstars to participate in a 12-week training program to help expand their enterprises.
Techstars is a chain of six national locations that select 10 startups from a throng of applicants each year, whom they provide with financial support, mentoring and networking opportunities.
The three alumni were all chosen by the members of the Chicago location out of a pool of 900 applicants in April.
TechStars gives each company $18,000 in seed money which they can use to expand their business, as well as an option for an additional $100,000 loan.
The program culminates in a demo day where the entrepreneurs present a 10-minute pitch in Chicago to more than 500 investors.
Severinghaus said having UNC represented in a program more exclusive than Harvard shows the growth of the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, which started in 2008.
“I was back (at UNC) when a bunch of smart people were laying the foundation,” said Severinghaus, a 2004 graduate. “Fast forward 10 years and you see all these successful entrepreneurs from UNC.”
Severinghaus’ startup, SimpleRelevance, provides companies with personalized profiles of its customers based on their past purchases, which allows for more efficient and individualized advertising.
