When Bill Burns began experimenting with insect farming in his mom’s basement, he never imagined it would grow into a company tackling one of agriculture’s biggest challenges: food waste.

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) materials engineering graduate Burns founded ENTEIN Alternative, a food upcycling company that helps food manufacturing facilities repurpose organic waste into sustainable products. ENTEIN installs on-site insect farming systems that convert leftover materials into protein, ideal for livestock, fish, pets and a frass fertilizer that can be returned to the same fields where the food was grown.

The idea for ENTEIN blossomed while Burns was an undergraduate student. “During my time at Cal Poly, we were working on a food waste program for my communications class,” he said. “Through some more research, I saw someone growing bugs in their backyard. They were putting in waste products, and out came food for their chickens. I thought that was really cool and wanted to do the same.”

That curiosity led Burns to start a small colony of insects in his family’s basement around 2019. Using local food waste, he produced protein to feed his mom’s chickens. What began as a personal project soon grew into a sustainable venture. Burns later secured a 2,000 square foot greenhouse space on campus, where he turned food scraps from Cal Poly dining halls into insect protein and fertilizer for Cal Poly’s agricultural fields.

In 2023, Burns joined the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE)’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo. 

 “The Accelerator was a great experience,” Burns said. “I learned how to build a company and tell its story through my pitch at Demo Day.”

09/08/23 – SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA: The CIE’s Summer Accelerator teams showcase their startups during Demo Day 2023 at SLO Brew Rock on September 08, 2023 in San Luis Obispo, California. Photo by Ruby Wallau for CIE

After graduating, Burns transitioned into the CIE’s Incubator program, where he began developing ENTEIN full-time. The Incubator is a two-year program that includes everything needed for early-stage companies to develop into financially stable, high-growth enterprises by providing the tools, training and infrastructure that help facilitate smarter, faster growth.

“Joining the Incubator felt like the next logical step,” he said. “We had built a lot of good momentum through the Accelerator and during the school year, and the Incubator gave me the space, mentorship and resources to keep it going.”

Through the program, ENTEIN gained access to experienced mentors, business coaching, and connections in the agriculture and agtech industries — resources that helped turn the startup’s pilot operation into a growing enterprise.

“The mentors that the Incubator provides have been essential in helping guide our mission, vision and day-to-day operations,” Burns said. “Through the CIE, we were connected to great folks in agriculture who helped us get our fertilizer onto the crops that most benefited from it. Those connections were instrumental in getting our company going.”

Since joining the Incubator, ENTEIN has begun collaborating with larger companies across California’s Central Coast, strengthening both sides of its business: the waste management partnerships and the sale of its upcycled products.

“It’s been really helpful in getting the customers we need,” Burns said. “The Incubator helped us build a strong pitch so people understand our story, our journey and the value we create for agriculture on the Central Coast.”

As a solopreneur who was once a student balancing a full course load and an operating business, Burns had to learn the importance of prioritization early. “It was a lot to balance going to school full time and having a company full time,” he said. “I spent a lot of late evenings at the greenhouse and early mornings on homework. You just have to focus on what’s most important at that moment.”

Now, with ENTEIN growing steadily, Burns is focused on scaling the company’s impact. “Moving forward, the plan for ENTEIN is to continue building relationships and increasing our capacity to turn food waste into new food products,” he said. “We’re experimenting with other crops in this region and getting our protein to customers who will really benefit from sustainable insect protein.”

For student entrepreneurs who want to follow a similar path, Burns says the Incubator can be a powerful starting point. “If you’re an entrepreneur, you should apply to the CIE Incubator program,” he said. “It’s a vibrant community that supports you with mentorship and resources and helps propel your business to a level you wouldn’t reach otherwise. It’s really helped us get our business where it is today.” 

For many recent graduates, the post-college transition comes with an unexpected challenge: loneliness. After leaving behind the built-in community of school, making new friends in adulthood can be difficult. That reality is exactly what sparked the idea behind Social Spark, a startup helping young adults build genuine, in-person friendships during life’s most transitional phases.

Founder Sam Moberly, a Cal Poly mechanical engineering alum with a minor in entrepreneurship, first started working on Social Spark as a senior project. Inspired by what she and her friends were experiencing during that post-grad adjustment, she felt a pull to create something new.

“I had a lot of friends who were graduating and realizing that after college, it’s really hard to meet people in person,” Moberly said. “And when I graduated myself, I started to realize this too.”

Through interviews, research and early testing, Moberly discovered a clear gap: people craved authentic friendships but didn’t know how to find them without relying on dating apps or awkward networking events. “We realized there were pretty abysmal solutions out there if you want to actually have the authentic way of meeting people in person,” she said.

Social Spark offers a more thoughtful approach. Users fill out a short application with their interests and availability, and Social Spark invites them to curated group outings (also known as “socials”), such as hikes, dinners or coffee meetups, designed to foster low-pressure environments for real connection. After piloting the idea and seeing how much people valued the experience, Moberly recognized the startup’s potential, but didn’t feel ready to grow it alone.

“I had never worked in business before, so I was not ready to take that step by myself,” she said.

That changed when her senior project advisors pointed her toward the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Summer Accelerator, a 12-week program that helps student founders launch their startups full-time. The experience became a launchpad for Social Spark, and once it ended, joining the CIE Incubator program was a natural next step.

“It’s a pretty natural lead-in there because you go through 12 weeks of working on your startup every day, and now we get to be a part of this two-year program where we can continue to be connected to the CIE,” Moberly said. “We get help from all of these amazing advisors and have that strong support system while you’re still in the beginning phases of your startup.”

She credits the Incubator community as a key reason Social Spark has been able to grow. “We wouldn’t be where we are without all of those supporters,” she said. “And then there’s also the community element of getting to work with fellow founders who are oftentimes also in their first startup experience.”

Social Spark now hosts socials in cities across California, helping young adults statewide make meaningful connections where they live.

Moberly is building Social Spark alongside a dedicated team of fellow recent grads—Quoya Mann, Mariah Olson and Sophie Liu—who all bring shared passion and lived experience to solving the problem of post-grad loneliness.

Currently focused on serving 21 to 29-year-olds, Social Spark already sees opportunity to scale. “There is so much more that we can do—so many more age groups and demographics that we want to serve, and so many different communities across the country that we want to reach,” Moberly said.

Even as the company grows, the core mission remains the same: building genuine human connections. “Our goal is to be the future of friendships,” she said. “So whenever you’re in a phase of life where you’re not feeling like you have the solid friends around you and the support you want from the community, you can go out and easily make new friends.”

While Social Spark has evolved since its student project beginnings, the motivation behind it is still deeply personal. “We’re not meant to do life alone,” Moberly said in a recent interview with New Times SLO. “We all need support and a sense of belonging—and we want to help people find that.”

Alcohol misuse costs U.S. employers an estimated $249 billion per year in lost productivity, healthcare expenses and workplace incidents. Owen Works, founder and CEO of Horizen Tech, is on a mission to help individuals and companies make more informed health choices regarding alcohol use. Horizen Tech provides corporate wellness solutions focused on alcohol accountability and behavior change, helping businesses reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and support employee well-being.

His entrepreneurial journey began in 2022 when Works saw a flyer for an Elevator Pitch Competition hosted by the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), and decided to try his luck.

Brainstorming an idea that could be presented at the competition and possibly carried on afterward, Works took inspiration from his own experiences and identified a growing movement: sober curiosity. He wanted to develop a solution that supports individuals looking to build healthier drinking habits and explore a lifestyle with less alcohol.

“I think I was terrified because deep down, I knew this is something I really wanted to do, and I was worried I was going to screw it up. But it’s better to try it and possibly screw it up than to never try at all,” Works reminisced.

At the time, public speaking was not a strong suit for Works, but he pitched his idea for an alcohol-detection patch. He won first place in the competition and the grand prize of $1,000. 

Following the momentum from his successful elevator pitch, Works participated in Startup Launch Weekend, an event where entrepreneurial students work for an entire weekend to advance and develop a tangible business.

That following spring, Horizen joined Innovation Quest, an innovation-centered showcase for Cal Poly entrepreneurs to pursue their ideas and gain funding.

As a fifth-year Cal Poly Industrial Engineer minoring in entrepreneurship, Works was able to leverage his academic network and resources. Horizen has collaborated with students across both the business and engineering colleges, working with over 30 student interns to develop the product and refine the business model. These students have played a critical role in research, product design, and software development, helping drive the startup forward.

Horizen Tech was accepted into the 2023 Summer Accelerator, a 12-week intensive program where Cal Poly students and recent graduates transform their business ideas into startups with the help of a $10,000 in seed funding and local resources.

Upon the conclusion of the Accelerator, Horizen Tech joined the CIE Incubator Program in November 2023, a 2-year full-time program that provides resources in all aspects of early-stage companies to develop into high-growth enterprises; including a dedicated desk in the CIE HotHouse coworking space in downtown San Luis Obispo. Works spotlights the importance of this, mentioning the significance of a sense of community in the field of entrepreneurship, which can be so isolating for founders.

 “When we were in the Accelerator, we knew for sure that the Incubator was the place that we wanted to go after that,” Works adds.

In May 2024, Horizen Tech was one of six startups to pitch at AngelCon, an event hosted by the Cal Poly CIE Small Business Development Center (SBDC) that brings together tech-based startups who receive training and mentorship from expert business advisors and a group of dedicated angel investors.

Works remarked that during AngelCon, “the access to consultants and mentors in different areas, whether that be customer development, finance or marketing, has been instrumental.”

Horizen Tech’s first product, Pulse, is an app designed to support sober-curious individuals by providing accountability, connection and resources. The app pairs with the Pulse Patch, a wearable device that detects alcohol levels in sweat, helping users track their drinking habits and make informed health decisions.

Over time, the wearable patch has evolved into a continuous monitoring device, much like a glucose monitor, that enables individuals to make informed choices about their health. Through Pulse, users can share achievements and goals with their trusted inner circles, providing viable proof of abstinence to sponsors, family or employers.

Eventually, Horizen Tech intends to integrate data with Fitbit and Apple Health, allowing users to correlate their lifestyle choices with well-being practices, such as quality of sleep and impacts of caffeine intake.

In January 2025, Horizen Tech hosted its first-ever SLO Dry January Challenge, attracting over 100 participants. The initiative encouraged community members to abstain from alcohol for the entire month, offering incentives such as cash prizes, yoga sessions and gifts from local businesses. The impact was significant: 97% of participants rated the challenge as successful or very successful, with 69% stating they would participate in a future challenge. Most participants successfully completed the month, reinforcing the effectiveness of structured accountability in fostering healthier habits. 

Works has organized this event to “encourage better health decisions in the community and really make it a fun experience. It is kind of like a preview of what’s to come with our challenges that will be part of the platform.”

With the Pulse Patch now in manufacturing and software development accelerating, Horizen Tech is expanding its corporate wellness offerings. The startup is focused on helping individuals and businesses create healthier environments around alcohol consumption and is on track to make a lasting impact on workplace wellness and personal health.

Mense is a period product company with a mission to provide a comfortable, safe and working solution for people with periods. Founded in 2022 by California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) biomedical engineering graduate McCall Brinskele, Mense aims to destigmatize menstruation and elevate the conversation surrounding this essential aspect of reproductive health.

While Brinskele was taking a course at Cal Poly focusing on biomedical engineering in women’s health, her sister was diagnosed with endometriosis and uterine fibroids. The reality of female reproductive health conditions and Brinskele’s learning of the lack of coverage in the women’s health space inspired Brinskele to create a platform addressing this underrecognized topic.

“I first began working on this company as part of my interdisciplinary senior design project, which was a wonderful experience,” says Brinskele. “It’s awesome that Cal Poly has the ability for students to work with other disciplines outside of their major.”

Mense quickly earned a spot in the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) 2022 Summer Accelerator, a 12-week intensive program where Cal Poly students and recent graduates transform their business ideas into startups with the help of a $10,000 seed fund and local resources.

After completing the Summer Accelerator, Mense joined the Cal Poly CIE Incubator program,which helps early-stage startups develop into financially secure and scalable enterprises providing entrepreneurs with mentorship, funding opportunities and other resources over two years.

“The Incubator is the next step of growth for companies that are moving from just an idea and a product to incorporating and taking on investment,” says Brinskele.

The program has connected Mense to business professionals in various fields, including Novocuff, a graduated Incubator company also focused on female reproductive health, which has been an asset for Mense.

“Dr. Christopher Heylman is a personal mentor to our company. His advice has been absolutely crucial when it comes to our prototyping and securing non-dilutive funding. Kelly Sooter is another wonderful marketing consultant that we work with,” says Brinskele. 

In May 2024, Brinskele brought Mense to the seventh annual AngelCon competition, where six tech startups compete for over $100,000 in equity funding. After pitching to an audience of 250 attendees and over 20 angel investors, Mense received a $50,000 investment. 

Photo by Ruby Wallau for SBDC

“The Incubator played a crucial role in helping us prepare for AngelCon,” remarks Brinskele. “We heavily leaned on all of our consultants when it came to pitch prep and making sure everything was together, and the boot camp was an absolutely amazing experience.”

As an entrepreneur who has utilized several programs offered by Cal Poly and the CIE, including lecturing for classes in the Orfalea College of Business, Brinskele is always looking for growth. She encourages new entrepreneurs to do the same, by being unafraid to ask questions and never fear failure.

“For anyone who’s applying to the Incubator program, I would say go for it. Lean into your connections. You never know who’s going to be helping you in the future.”

Mense is currently working with manufacturers on a final design for their menstrual cup and applicator product and will graduate from the Incubator program in 202

Leaving the corridors of Google behind in February 2023, Colby DeRodeff made a bold move into the startup world with Abstract, a cybersecurity platform aimed at empowering enterprises to detect and thwart breaches. 

Transitioning from the comfort of a tech giant to startup co-founder and CEO, DeRodeff’s commitment to safeguarding businesses from cyber adversity underscores his dedication to innovation and security in an ever-evolving landscape. 

After working generally in the cybersecurity space for 11 years and acquiring valuable knowledge in the field, DeRodeff wanted to start his own company focused primarily on cybersecurity.

“This problem space is near and dear to my heart,” DeRodeff said. “I think there’s better ways to do cybersecurity these days than has been done in the past, and so I figured I’d give it a shot.”

Abstract boasts a team of 15 professionals spread across the globe. DeRodeff focuses primarily on technical aspects, while Ryan Clough, co-founder and chief product officer, oversees product development and engineering. They have an international go-to-market worker in London, another in Dubai for the Middle East and three team members in Colombia, handling development. The remainder of the team is based in the U.S. spread across New York, Atlanta, Texas, the Bay Area and San Luis Obispo.

“I think the reason customers tend to look to us is because we’ve been doing this for a long time, and we’ve seen a lot of the mistakes that have been made in the past,” DeRodeff said. “A lot of the newer companies that don’t have that experience are repeating some of the mistakes that we made back in 2005/2006, so we’re trying to take all those lessons learned and roll that into the cybersecurity platform that customers are looking for that’s going to leapfrog the current solutions that are out there now.”

Joining the CIE Incubator program in 2023, through the virtual track, has been invaluable to Abstract, DeRodeff said.

The CIE Incubator helps develop early-stage startups into financially secure and scalable enterprises. Entrepreneurs in the program are provided with mentorship, funding opportunities and other resources to develop their business. 

 “The sense of community and seeing the struggles other people are having also helps a lot with your own mental state as you’re doing this, because it’s pretty crazy and a lot of pressure,” DeRodeff said. “Being able to get out of the house and get into an open environment with lots of founders who are doing different things is super motivating.”

The program has connected Abstract with a diverse range of professionals who have played a pivotal role in guiding the startup through the intricacies of the landscape.

“Our lead mentor Jeff Erramouspe is great to work with. I think of our relationship as an accountability check,” DeRodeff said. “We’re running fast, and he reminds us to hold on, take a step back, and see if we actually did the things we knew we were supposed to do. It’s also a relationship where we collaborate on different ideas like go to market, sales and financials.”

Unlike many of the interactions in business, DeRodeff said he was pleasantly surprised and grateful with the CIEs staffs’ genuine willingness to assist without any hidden agendas. 

DeRodeff recounted an instance when he used the wrong template for employment offers, causing issues with state laws. Unsure how to fix it, he turned to Judy Mahan, Cal Poly CIE Senior Economic Development Director, who promptly connected him with someone to revise the offer, ensuring compliance with California law and other state regulations. Notably, there were no hidden fees involved; DeRodeff explained how their sole intention was to provide genuine help—a rarity in his experience, he said, where most interactions come with ulterior motives.

When asked “what’s next for Abstract?” DeRodeff quickly replied “Well, a lot.”

Abstract has reached their minimum viable product (MVP) stage in their product design and are working on installing it with their design partners.

“It’s an interesting and tough process. We’re taking software that’s been developed in our labs and tested on our own systems, and now we’re trying to convince an enterprise customer to go install it into their environment. We can plan and plan, but when it gets to that day, there are things that happen that we couldn’t have planned for, so you have to readjust and go back to the drawing table.”

The startup is also planning the launch of the company and the general availability (GA) of their software in April. As the company keeps progressing and hitting new milestones, DeRodeff said it’s important to “celebrate the little victories” to maintain morale and momentum.

While pursuing their MBAs at Oxford University, the brains behind Little Place Labs brewed up their startup idea over pints of Guinness. It all kicked off with one, then turned into five, and soon enough co-founders Bosco Lai, acting CEO, and Gaurav Bajaj, acting CTO, were deep into brainstorming. Fueled by laughter, camaraderie, and a dash of liquid courage, these co-founders turned pub banter into a startup known as Little Place Labs.

Little Place Labs, a space tech company, specializes in developing solutions for near real-time space insights. In a world heavily reliant on space data collected by satellites, their innovative approach involves implementing software that operates directly on satellites, enabling the transformation of space-collected data into actionable information delivered quickly to ground stakeholders. Their software is particularly crucial in situations where real-time decisions are imperative.

At the heart of Little Place Labs’ narrative is the profound significance of relationships and engaging with individuals.

“One of the key elements of why Little Place Lab exists is because I met my co-founder and some of the team members,” Lai said. “When you meet the right people, everything just kickstarts.”

The theme of relationships continued, as it was through a coincidental interaction that the Texas-based startup came to join the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship  Incubator program. 

The CIE Incubator helps develop early-stage startups into financially secure and scalable enterprises. Entrepreneurs in the program are provided with mentorship, funding opportunities and other resources to develop their business. 

In 2022, while attending a space event in Los Angeles, Lai said he crossed paths with Judy Mahan, Cal Poly CIE Senior Economic Development Director. Their casual conversation delved into the essence of Little Place Labs and Mahan’s role within the organization.

Quickly captivated by the Incubator’s diverse support for various startups beyond space tech, Lai said he immediately recognized the unique prospect the program offered. More than just a chance to immerse Little Place Labs in California’s dynamic ecosystem, Lai saw it as a golden opportunity to foster profound connections with a program deeply connected to a university that encourages collaboration between startups, academia, students and professors.

Little Place Labs joined the Incubator in 2022 and participates in the program virtually from Texas.

Through the CIE Incubator, Little Place Labs was introduced to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) professor Barry Lieberman, which they credit to be one of the best opportunities utilized from the program.

“Interaction with the personnel and people with Cal Poly really, really helped us,” Lai said. “Working with the professors, students and directly with the university, helps us think through things not just from a commercial way, but also from a technical way.” 

Lieberman runs a commercialization of new technologies course at Cal Poly, structured around grouping his students to research for an emerging company in an under-researched market. Little Place Labs has collaborated with the students in this course the last two years.

Their participation in the course has proved to be a beneficial experience for both the students and Little Place Labs.

“We are able to really leverage the students during their time with Professor Liberman to do market research on Little Place Labs,” Lai said. “There’s a lot of excitement and a lot of work that we were able to leverage from the students during their time with us. We were very happy to use their work and merge it with our own.”

As the 2024 year begins, Lai said Little Place Labs is focusing on their business development. Specifically, working on partnerships, contacts, increasing exposure and planning seed ground fundraising events in the upcoming months. 

In line with their commitment to fostering relationships, they plan to continue working with Professor Lieberman and interacting with Cal Poly students.

“We really enjoy working with the professor and the students. We learned a lot, and I think that’s really valuable. Not all programs can provide us with that kind of exposure and interactions,” Lai said. “The Incubator is fantastic because it really provides you support in many different ways. The program is open to your imagination.”

Logan Jennings’s routine in San Francisco was a balancing act between grueling hours at a hedge fund and workout sessions alongside his friend, and soon to be co-founder and chief results officer, Jacob Hubert. However, a sudden health scare ultimately rewrote his life’s trajectory. 

A blood clot in his shoulder threatened his life. It took a close friend’s plea to prompt Logan’s visit to the hospital –– an action that proved to be a critical, life-or-death decision. The forced pause from his usual workout grind and prospect of losing his active lifestyle triggered a profound realization: he didn’t want to keep working for others. The experience ignited a desire to create something more aligned with his passions of fitness and health.

It was during regular hospital visits and recovery support that Hubert and Jennings came up with the idea for their startup, Intersect Executive Performance.

“I started visiting the hospital and thereafter he would come meet me for hours and we would talk and understand what the holes in the fitness industry were and where we could fit in,” Hubert said. 

The startup works to provide top leaders with a personalized, data-driven plan on how to best improve all aspects of their health without drastically changing executive’s already busy schedules. 

Intersect Executive Performance has a two-part process, which allows them to curate the optimal plan for their user. First, they collect the user’s parameters of work schedules, home life, stress levels, sleep quality, health history, gym accessibility and dietary restrictions. Then they analyze the results of the user’s blood biomarker and gut intelligence testing results.

Afterward, the team works with experts to create a personalized plan to enhance the team’s seven pillars of peak performance: energy, sleep, stress, daily habits, movement, nutrition and focus.

Like Jennings, Hubert was fully immersed in the corporate world after graduating, being employed at a consulting firm and sharing a passion for health and fitness. 

“[Fitness] was the only way I was able to stay sane with the amount of hours I was working,” Hubert said. “I was having success in my role, but I wanted that opportunity to grow. I knew that my potential wasn’t going to be as a cog in the machine. My potential was going to be in a place that required me to struggle and not have a safety net.”

Given their shared passion and solace in fitness, the two knew they wanted to do something in health and fitness performance, Hubert said. And their experience working in corporate America provided them insight into their target market of top leaders and executives. 

“We found there’s a hole in the assumption around these top leaders having everything figured out. But in reality, they need help balancing,” Hubert said. “When I was working in my consulting firm, a lot of my leaders seemed like they’re handling everything, but they’re struggling to balance it all. They might have been fulfilled from a work perspective, but they felt other aspects of their life slipping as a result of the burden that they take on by being a leader in their business and community.”

Their services are provided primarily virtually, with weekly touch points and opportunities for phone calls and direct messaging to allow executives to continue focusing on their responsibilities.

“Our goal is really not to take up time or add things to an already crowded plate but really be able to blend into their lives,” Hubert said.

With a clear goal in mind, the two California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo graduates turned to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Incubator program in the fall of 2022 to gain knowledge in entrepreneurship and startups.

The program helps develop early-stage startups into financially secure and scalable enterprises. Entrepreneurs in the Incubator program are provided with mentorship, funding opportunities and other resources to develop their business. 

“Although we both graduated from the school of business, we realized that we don’t know what we don’t know,” Hubert said. “There’s so many different stones that need to be turned, and every time you untorn a new stone, there are 1,000 more stones underneath that.” 

Beyond providing resources and knowledge, the Incubator has also provided the startup with a community. 

“The killer of startups is a lack of focus. There’s a lot of noise, and the CIE provides a community that has gone through and heard the noise before,” Hubert said. “Even though not every person in the Incubator is in the same industry or solving the same problem, [the Incubator] allows us to learn from each and grow alongside other people who are struggling and growing and learning.”

The team was also introduced to consultant Mitch Emerson, who is now a part of the team’s advisory board. 

“Mitch Emerson has had the biggest impact on our growth and success,” Hubert said. “Mitch has technical background, but his operation skills and understanding of what matters what and what doesn’t and how to shift your focus and how to prioritize has been instrumental to our ability to grow and succeed.” 

The Incubator program, Hubert said, perfectly embodies the saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together,” Hubert said. “The CIE really provides that sense of togetherness.”

CEO and founder of TractorCloud, Morgan Swanson, is plowing through conventional agricultural practices to cultivate a new era of efficiency with a tech savvy twist where crops meet code.

TractorCloud is developing a software, equipped with complementing hardware, which aims to provide farmers the ability to detect and predict maintenance needs to increase farming efficiency, Swanson said. The startup is creating a fitness app for tractors, allowing farmers to collect data on their tractors to ensure they are running effectively.

“I’m the type of person that if I see something in the world that I don’t think is right, I’ll generally do something about it,” Swanson said. “When I heard that farmers were having difficulty accessing the computers on the tractors they had purchased, that didn’t feel right to me. So I started trying to get access to those computers on the tractors that were at Cal Poly while I was a student there [and continued my journey to improve agricultural technology since].”

To make his vision into a successful business, the startup is participating in the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Incubator program, and he has long been familiar with the CIE. TractorCloud has been involved with the CIE and Cal Poly CIE Small Business Development Center (SBDC) since 2021 when TractorCloud joined the CIE Summer Accelerator program and became an SBDC client. Swanson said joining the Incubator after completing the Summer Accelerator did not feel like a decision; instead it felt more like a natural sequence.

The Summer Accelerator acts as a prerequisite to the Incubator Program, Swanson explained. Specifically, Swanson said the Summer Accelerator provides entrepreneurs a strong foundation on how to start and grow a business, which translates into knowledge on how to use the plethora of resources provided to them in the Incubator Program.

“When you’re in the Summer Accelerator you’re like a little kid running around and you don’t really know what things are, but by the end of the Accelerator you start to understand the way this world works,” Swanson said. “In the Incubator program you’re not going to have people telling you what to do. You’re ready to use their [CIE’s] resources and figure out how that’s going to fit in your journey. [To do that] you have to be comfortable with your identity as a company, and the Accelerator can help you develop that.”

One of the beneficial resources provided to startups throughout the program are the weekly meetings with lead consultants, each with varying areas of expertises, assigned to every startup to help guide and resolve issues and needs they are facing that week, Swanson said.

“I was really grateful that they [the consultants] were there when I was stuck on something. Having that person checking in with you is like something to keep you on track every week,” Swanson said. “All the mentors I’ve talked to have their own perspective they can help you with. I had a mentor named Ulrika Lidstrom, and she was awesome. Then when I didn’t feel like that was what I needed, I was able to transition to a different lead mentor. The Incubator is like insurance – something you can fall back on when you get stuck.”

Beyond supplying resources to help kickstart and propel startups into the market with networking opportunities, consultants and a physical work space, the Incubator program provides a community among entrepreneurs, Swanson said.

“If you’re struggling with finding people that are gonna give you emotional support and engagement with your company,” Swanson said, “you will find that the Incubator is a place where just by you being an entrepreneur is enough for you to get care and respect from the people that are involved.”

Zoetic Motion is a startup focusing on providing mobility support to people in physical therapy. Using artificial intelligence (AI) powered assistance, they are building a platform that allows patients to guide themselves through home exercises. The platform provides real-time feedback to patients by detecting and correcting their form during movements.

Zoetic Motion is making the recovery process more accessible and convenient, ultimately creating a better experience for patients, said Zoetic Motion founder and CEO Zeeshan Khan.

Khan thought of the idea for the startup while taking an Interdisciplinary Senior Design Project I Course (ENGR 463) at Cal Poly. Through the class, Khan partnered with other Cal Poly students to create Muscle Ninja, an attachable sensor that informs users of muscle activation during exercise.

Khan and his team brought the idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Summer Accelerator program in 2021. 

The Summer Accelerator is a three-month program that provides hands-on mentorship and resources needed to build a business. To help grow startups, Accelerator participants gain access to $10,000 in seed funding. Muscle Ninja, now known as Zoetic Motion, was one of the nine startups accepted into the program in 2021. 

Through the Summer Accelerator, Zoetic Motion pivoted from a wearable hardware prototype to a software solution. Khan said the Summer Accelerator helped organize his team’s thoughts, explore more ideas, and de-risk their business. 

After completing the Summer Accelerator, Zoetic Motion joined the CIE Incubator and has been working to build out Zoetic Motion’s mission since then. 

“Since joining the Incubator program, I don’t think I would have had access to the same resources that I did,” Khan said. 

The Incubator allowed Khan to connect with people genuinely interested in his product and with real experience in the entrepreneurship world, he said. 

“It is a great, safe environment where there is someone there to check on your work, check on your progress, and help you stay accountable for the milestones that you set,” Khan explained. 

The Incubator has connected Zoetic Motion with various fundraising opportunities, including AngelCon, an annual pitch competition hosted by the Cal Poly CIE Small Business Development Center (SBDC) where six tech-driven startups compete to win more than $100,000 in equity-backed funding.

After leveraging resources from the Incubator, Khan said he felt more prepared to pitch in front of investors at the upcoming AngelCon event. 

Khan said he is excited to partner with various physical therapy clinics and clinicians. Zoetic Motion now has a business model that allows them to earn income through subscriptions while providing revenue back to the clinics. Khan said Zoetic Motion is now in the hands of users and is steadily gaining more traction.

Their team is giving back to their patients and clinics by making therapy more accessible and providing physical therapists with valuable insights into recovery outcomes.

In addition to providing Zoetic Motion a great setting to fail and receive feedback, the Incubator also allowed Khan to learn about his business and ultimately grow from it. 

“If you want to test yourself out or give yourself a challenge, entrepreneurship is the way to go, especially in the Incubator program,” he said. 

Quantum Energy is a software service in the energy industry that is helping finance and organize the future of energy while optimizing economic, environmental and health outcomes.

Their platform is creating a more sustainable future and maximizing business’s financial outcomes by bringing new data-driven insights to energy decision-makers. 

The idea for the startup originated after co-founder Andrew DeMille, multi-exit Software as a Service (SaaS) startup founder, reconnected with his friend and co-founder Dr. Daniel Howard, who has a Ph.D. in Energy and Environmental Engineering. 

With DeMille’s and Dr. Howard’s combined passion for the environment, they recognized the importance of considering potential impacts on our health and planet when making energy decisions.

DeMille was involved with the Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Small Business Development Center (SBDC) through his previous software company, CoachNow. The SBDC introduced DeMille to the CIE Incubator program. 

The CIE’s two-year Incubator program helps develop early-stage startups into financially secure and scalable enterprises. Entrepreneurs in the Incubator program are provided with mentorship, funding opportunities and other resources to develop their business. 

Since joining the Incubator, DeMille has benefitted from advice given by mentors and peers to combat startup challenges. He described the Incubator process as “invaluable.” 

“Being able to come in and have access to a network of peers who are also building startups, also going through the trials and tribulations and sharing successes together. That has been super, super helpful,” DeMille said. 

In addition to helping Quantum Energy co-founders expand their network, the Incubator also connected them with fundraising opportunities.

Following the Incubator, Quantum Energy competed in, applied and was accepted as a top six finalist in the SBDC’s annual AngelCon pitch competition which hosts six tech-based startups in an annual pitch competition to win $100,000+ in equity-backed funding. 

Quantum Energy competed as a finalist in AngelCon 2023 and won the Audience Choice Award, receiving $1,300 in prize money from the crowdfunding campaign. 

“The Audience Choice Award means so much to us,” DeMille said. “It just felt like an acknowledgment of a solution whose time has come.” 

DeMille said the Incubator program helped him prepare to pitch at AngleCon. Receiving feedback from different angles and experts demystified the presentation of their startup, he explained. 

Quantum Energy is now working on an initiative to add a new purchaser-caused avoided emission impact label to the renewable energy credit market. This label will be applied to energy so that, for the first time, businesses can make healthy decisions for profit, people and the planet. 

DeMille thanks the Incubator program for helping Quantum Energy build momentum and encourages entrepreneurs to apply. 

“There is nowhere else that I can imagine where you can get this level of access to resources and support as a startup founder to move forward and to make your vision a reality,” DeMille said.