Zander Sheffield spent his high school years purchasing shoes at department and wholesale stores, then reselling them online for a profit. He would then use his profits to buy more shoes.

“I was kind of like a shoe hoarder at one point,” he said.

Now a third year industrial technology and packaging major at Cal Poly, Sheffield is using his knowledge of the footwear industry to pursue a new business endeavor and build his own startup, Yardy Shoes.

Yardy Shoes is providing greater longevity for children’s footwear with an extendable shoe system that can be adjusted to several different sizes. It’s a cost-effective solution for the 65% of children who wear ill-fitting shoes, Sheffield said.

Sheffield’s began developing Yardy Shoes in 2020, when he discovered the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Hatchery.

The Hatchery is an on-campus resource designed to help Cal Poly students develop their startup ideas. Sheffield stumbled across the Hatchery while looking through the Cal Poly website during quarantine.

“When COVID first broke out, we all got sent home, and I just didn’t know what to do with my time,” Sheffield said. “I was going through the Cal Poly website and found the Hatchery. I’d always had an idea for a shoe business, so I just thought, ‘Why not?’ and applied.”

The Hatchery introduced Sheffield to the basics of entrepreneurship and provided opportunities to learn and network.

Sheffield also found mentorship through the Hatchery program. CIE director of student innovation programs and Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business lecturer Jose Huitron connects Sheffield to resources that can help grow Yardy Shoes.

Other student entrepreneurs like Alexandra Joelson and Samuel Andrews, co-founders of Intego Technology, a startup creating the most durable and sustainable footwear on the market.

The Intego Technology team began participating in CIE programs in 2019, when Joelson won the CIE Elevator Pitch Competition (EPC). They joined the Hatchery shortly after their win at EPC. 

Now, the Intego Technology team is able to share their experience with new CIE entrepreneurs, like Sheffield.

“They’ve been a big help, especially when I first started out,” Sheffield said. “I had no idea what a patent was, I didn’t know the steps that were needed to make a shoe business. Sam and Alexandra have been a big help mentoring us.”

Sheffield’s team also includes computer science junior Arden Ozdere, general engineering junior Vincent Corella, entrepreneurship sophomore Erin Powers and materials engineering junior Chris Murray.

The startup team is currently working to generate prototype ideas and assess the viability of those ideas. Once their prototypes are completed, they plan to reach out to potential customers — parents whose children can wear the shoes and test the product.

The Yardy Shoes team hopes their product will eventually “change the world in a positive way,” Sheffield said. 

Shoes put, on average, 30 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to Sheffield. Yardy Shoe’s extendible shoe will reduce the overall number of shoes needed, and therefore reduce carbon output.

“Long term, I just want to create something that’s good for the world,” Sheffield said.

John Shaw’s interest in 3D-printing began when he got his first car.

Shaw drove a Nissan Altima, a model of car with a rubber strip that commonly loosens and disconnects from its place on the underside of the vehicle. The same problem happened to Shaw’s car, but when he approached a mechanic looking to repair the piece, he was told the auto repair shop did not keep those parts in-stock.

Shaw decided to literally create his own solution to the problem, and 3D-print a replacement part. The project was simple and successful and helped Shaw realize 3D-printing could help streamline engineering and manufacturing industries. 

Now a fifth-year aerospace engineering student at Cal Poly, Shaw is working to improve the capabilities of 3D-printing in order to accelerate innovation within the manufacturing industry.

Shaw is founder of Hedron Design, a startup digitizing the supply chain to transform manufacturing into a platform. This is accomplished “by integrating quality control, automation and things like distribution in enterprise resource planning into [manufacturer’s] workflow,” Shaw said.

Shaw later brought the startup to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Hatchery, an on-campus resource designed to help Cal Poly students develop their startup ideas.

The Hatchery provided Shaw with an introduction into entrepreneurship — a very different discipline than engineering. 

“Being an engineer, everything is about the solution, and there’s usually only one set way to do things, and you’re expected to find a complete answer at the end,” Shaw said. “But with entrepreneurship, you can take so many different avenues and approaches to solving a problem.”

Shaw is also working alongside Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) student Adam Heymann to build Hedron Design.

The Hatchery connected Shaw and Heymann with mentors who can help them navigate the startup process. CIE director of student innovation programs and Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business lecturer Jose Huitron has been a valuable resource, Shaw said.

Huitron advises the Hedron Design team and “not only helps bounce ideas around, but validates that we’re doing the right things at the right time,” Shaw said.

Shaw said he hopes Hedron Design can create a greener manufacturing industry. Traditional manufacturing methods require large machines which cut down a base material into the shape of the part. 3D-printing, meanwhile, begins with fine materials which are built upon until the part is created, so “there is significantly less waste material,” according to Shaw.

Hedron Design has the potential to increase access to 3D-printing, creating a greener manufacturing space.

“The benefits of 3D-printing are not only economically awesome, but also benefit the environment,” Shaw said. “I want to see the future of manufacturing being greener, and I think what we’re doing with Hedron Design can genuinely help with that.”

When Isaac Hernandez started high school, he attended a Fresno public school alongside over 2,500 other students. He had ambition, but no structure, and his school simply did not have the resources to help him develop career goals or build a four-year plan.

“It was thousands of students, and there was a fight every week. I didn’t feel like I was getting anything out of my education,” Hernandez said. 

Hernandez then discovered the Phillip J. Patiño School of Entrepreneurship (Patiño), a small magnet high school in the Fresno Unified School District that focuses on business and innovation.

“One day, Patiño was doing recruitment, came to our classroom and started talking about what they do,” he recounted. “It was the holy grail of ‘This is for you.’”

Hernandez eventually transferred from his original high school to Patiño.

Students at Patiño spend their time learning the process of building a business and the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.

“All of our classes are geared toward helping students develop an entrepreneurial mindset,” said principal of Patiño Blair Sagardia.

Freshmen at Patiño take a project management class that introduces them to basic principles of entrepreneurship. In their sophomore years, students move onto classes in online marketing and web development, where they build websites and create digital advertisements for real companies in Fresno.

Juniors at Patiño begin building their own companies through an incubator class. Students form small groups and work together to develop product, service and startup ideas. They continue working on these ideas into their senior years, when they move onto an accelerator class.

“Their goal is to further develop a business idea, pitch it to investors and to hopefully launch it at some point during their senior year,” Sagardia said.

During his senior year, Hernandez, along with a small group of classmates, launched Gavin’s Notebook, an online directory that connects families with special needs to disability services and resources. The Gavin’s Notebook website is still live, but is no longer being updated. The founding team took a step back from the project to focus on their studies as they entered their first years in college.

“If it were up to me, I would still be working on it,” said Hernandez, who is now a business administration freshman at Cal Poly. “There were many things we just couldn’t do because of our limited time and experience, but I’m very proud of what we created.”

The hands-on learning opportunities afforded to students at Patiño align well with Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy. The high school’s incubator and accelerator classes are remarkably similar to the programs offered by the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

Entrepreneur and Cal Poly alum Mark Jackson recognized these similarities. Jackson served on an advisory committee that provided feedback to Patiño during the school’s early development in 2015. He recommended that Patiño connect with Cal Poly and the CIE. 

“We really focus on a different way of educating students,” Principal Blair Sagardia said. “It’s about applying your [education] to something real to learn at a deeper level. What we saw with Cal Poly is that students have the opportunity to do the application of learning and the real-world experiences. It was completely aligned with what our kids were learning.”

Sagardia acted on Jackson’s advice and reached out to the CIE.

CIE executives were excited by the idea of building a relationship with Patiño.

“The idea was there’s this incredible school that has an entrepreneurial curriculum, so what can we do to inspire these students to pursue college, pursue an entrepreneurial experience in college and look to Cal Poly for that experience?” said CIE Senior Director of Development Cory Karpin. 

In their initial outreach, the CIE invited a group of Patiño students to attend Demo Day, where they could see firsthand what Cal Poly students are able to accomplish with the help of the CIE. 

Demo Day is the culmination of the three-month CIE Summer Accelerator program. During the Summer Accelerator, the CIE provides a select group of Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources needed to turn their startup ideas into real business ventures. At Demo Day, Accelerator teams showcase the results of a summer of hard work and pitch their companies.

“We had about 20 students come out with their principal, vice principal and counselor to attend Demo Day, and they just ate it up,” said Karpin.

Patiño seniors on a tour of Cal Poly campus in 2019

The relationship between the CIE and Patiño is now four years strong, and each year several of Patiño’s graduating seniors go on to attend Cal Poly. Nearly 10 of the 30-40 students who graduated from Patiño in the 2020-2021 school year now attend Cal Poly, according to Principal Sagardia.

The CIE ensures that even Patiño students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have the opportunity to attend Cal Poly. They do so with the help of Cal Poly Scholars, a program that supports high-achieving, low-income students at Cal Poly. 

“The ultimate goal is that students graduate Cal Poly, but we want to make sure that along the way, they are getting the support and resources they need,” said Cal Poly Scholars Assistant Director Alexis Melville. “The three goals we have for the program are to assist scholars in building a personal support network for college success, to foster an inclusive community of scholars and to help scholars develop knowledge and skills for lifelong success.”

Incoming students, both freshmen and transfer students, automatically qualify for the program based on their Free Application for Federal Students Aid (FAFSA) or California Dream Act application. The program currently assists around 1,200 students.

Cal Poly Scholars provides students with financial support, including a scholarship, technology credit and waived orientation fees, throughout their time at Cal Poly. The program also connects scholars with academic advisors, fosters an inclusive mentorship network, maintains a residential learning community for first- and second-years living on-campus and sponsors other workshops and programming that promote the central goals of the program.

Funding for the Scholars program comes primarily from the Cal Poly Opportunity Fee, a $2,100 fee paid by out-of-state students that is used to cover campus-based costs not covered by financial aid for first-generation and low-income California students. Certain scholars, however, receive scholarships paid for by private donors. Select students from Patiño, for example, receive scholarships funded in part by CIE donors.

Many students at Patiño are first-generation students from low-income backgrounds. When the CIE learned that several Patiño students had been accepted into Cal Poly, but turned down the acceptance because they could not afford the cost of attendance, they turned to their donors for help.

“We went to our donors with the goal of raising enough money to provide a full-ride scholarship for one Patiño student to come to Cal Poly that year,” Karpin said. “We very quickly were able to raise enough money for two full rides.”

CIE donors commit $7,500 per year, for five years, and Cal Poly partially matches that donation with $2,500, according to Karpin. These funds, along with government-provided financial aid, ensure that Patiño students are able to graduate from Cal Poly debt-free.

Hernandez was one of the two Patiño students in his year who received a scholarship from the Cal Poly Scholars program. Throughout his first quarter at Cal Poly, the program proved to be “very helpful when it comes to being acquainted with college life,” he said.

“Without my Scholars scholarship, I don’t think I would be here,” Hernandez continued. “I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of a program like this.” 

Patiño fosters students’ passion for entrepreneurship, and the CIE and Cal Poly Scholars program create opportunities for these students to pursue their passion. These programs not only ensure that they are able to further their education, but provide them with support that helps them thrive as both students and as entrepreneurs.

“It’s not only important to increase access to education, but it’s important to increase inclusion and support of all students on-campus, especially those who have been historically underrepresented and underserved in higher education,” Melville of Cal Poly Scholars said.

For students like Hernandez, increased access to education and educational support are seen as integral to the success of both current and future entrepreneurs.

“Being able to fund these kids who have dreams, but maybe not the finances to pursue them is essential in education,” Hernandez said. “It’s giving kids a chance to pursue their dreams, and I think Patiño is going to be dishing out some kids that have great dreams.”

Female representation within the entrepreneurship industry is steadily growing. The number of women-owned businesses is increasing faster than the number of businesses overall, according to Forbes Business. Despite this trend, however, the space is still male-dominated, with only 36% of small businesses owned by women worldwide. 

New female entrepreneurs encounter challenges that generally do not exist for their male counterparts. Women — especially young women — don’t align with the traditional image of an entrepreneur. This puts them at a disadvantage when meeting with investors and other industry professionals.

Roxanne Miller is one of three co-founders of TractorCloud, a startup developing a hardware-software solution that will help operations managers monitor the predictive maintenance of their vehicles. The startup is still in its early stages, and Miller and her co-founders, both male, are frequently meeting with potential venture capital investors (VCs). 

Miller found that her co-founders are able to effortlessly connect with VCs, 81% of which are male according to Forbes Business.

“Because VCs tend to be white males, my co-founders can identify with them,” Miller said. “They have a lot of similar interests and experiences. For me, it’s more of a balancing game. I have to think about how I’m presenting myself, and it takes a little bit more effort to figure out how to connect with them.”

Roxanne Miller and her co-founder, Morgan Swanson.

VCs are proven more likely to invest in male-led startups. White males control 93% of venture capital dollars, according to Forbes Business, and only 2% of raised VC backing went to female-founded startups in 2017, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

For Miller, TractorCloud’s male co-founders can act as allies, and are sometimes able to mitigate this issue.

“My male colleagues can support me, give me the floor when it’s my turn to talk and show potential investors that I’m trusted with our business,” she explained. 

But for female-founded businesses, Miller said, “figuring out how to connect with those male VCs on a level that makes them excited about investing in your company can sometimes be a roadblock.”

Christina Grigorian and Camila Monchini, founders of women-led startup For Mom Care, struggle to not only connect with potential investors, but convince VCs that their mission is worthwhile.

For Mom Care is building a postpartum recovery platform that provides holistic support to ensure mothers properly heal after birth. Since founding the company in April of 2021, Monchini and Grigorian found that most cis-gendered males are unaware of the physical and mental toll of childbirth. 

“Our biggest fear going into this was how we were going to convince a bunch of men that [postpartum care] is really important,” Grigorian said. “It’s an issue that they won’t 100% understand. They’re not women, and because there’s a stigma around not being okay after giving birth, their wives likely haven’t spoken about it.”

Grigorian and Monchini must prove to potential investors that problems exist within the postpartum space before they can showcase their startup as a viable solution. The For Mom Care startup pitch is very problem-centric compared to other early-stage startup pitches.

“If you compare our pitch to other startup teams’ pitches, they talk about their problems for one or two slides,” Grigorian said. “We have six or seven slides on our problem.”

Another challenge when pitching to investors, said Grigorian, is establishing credibility. 

Grigorian and Monchini are both biomedical engineers, but because they are not mothers, VCs and other industry professionals often question why they are interested in postpartum care. Grigorian, who has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biomedical engineering, believes her credibility is brought into question because of the deep-rooted gender bias in both the entrepreneurship and healthcare industries.

“Women in the healthcare space are not taken seriously,” Grigorian said. “I 100% believe that if there was a man standing behind us on stage, no one would question what makes us credible.”

Graphic by Rachel Weeks

And Grigorian’s belief is not unfounded. A recent study conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that investors prefer startup pitches presented by male entrepreneurs over those presented by female entrepreneurs — even when the content of those pitches is exactly the same.

When pitching their startup, Grigorian and Monchini go out of their way to establish their credibility and stress that they have both the passion and the skills to bring For Mom Care to fruition.

“At the beginning of our pitch, we say we’re the two biomedical engineers so [investors] know we’re not just two random girls standing up there,” Grigorian said. “Saying ‘engineer’ gives you a certain amount of credibility.” 

Tessa Luzuriaga, co-founder and CEO of OdinXR, faces similar challenges. OdinXR is a startup developing a virtual reality where engineering students and professors can conduct hands-on experiments during online learning. Luzuriaga, an electrical engineering student, founded the company after watching her professors struggle to adapt lab classes to an online format during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was her passion for engineering that inspired Luzuriaga to found OdinXR, but people often assume that her interest is rooted in the educational aspects, not the technological components, of the company.

“People assume I don’t know anything about computers, when in reality, I’m doing this because I’m an engineer and I know VR hardware to an obsessive amount,” Luzuriaga said. “I’m constantly validating myself. I have to work that much harder to prove that people should be listening to me.”

Tessa Luzuriaga and her co-founder, Ali Mohammad.

Luzuriaga feels that because she is a woman in a male-dominated industry, people expect less of her and hold her to lower standards than they do her male counterparts.

“Sometimes it feels like there’s more positivity than I deserve, and I’ll very candidly say, ‘No, you should not be applauding this right now,’” she admitted. 

When meeting with industry professionals alongside her male co-founder and all-male team of engineers, Luzuriaga works to “not make gender a thing,” and instead “walks into the room with the same confidence that any one of [her] male peers would.”

She hopes that, as female representation in entrepreneurship increases, gender will no longer be an influential factor in the success of an entrepreneur.

“My biggest hope is that when a woman walks into the room, the initial thought isn’t ‘Oh cool, another woman entrepreneur,’” she said. “It’s ‘Oh sweet, there’s another entrepreneur.’”

Camila Monchini of For Mom Care echoed similar sentiments.

“It would be amazing if in the future, when we think of an entrepreneur, there isn’t necessarily a gender assigned to it,” she said. 

More women entering the entrepreneurship space today leads to a more diverse industry tomorrow, and diverse representation makes the space feel more accessible to people of all backgrounds. Monchini hopes that these changes will inspire younger generations and encourage more young women to embark on their own startup endeavours. 

“It’s absolutely incredible to see so many women getting into the [entrepreneurship] space,” she said. “For younger girls, it’s really cool for them to have role models and know they can one day get into the space and pursue their passions.”

For Mom Care, along with OdinXR and TractorCloud, is one of nine participating teams in the 2021 Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program where Cal Poly students and recent graduates are given the resources needed to turn their startup ideas into real, scalable businesses. 

Demographics within the Summer Accelerator reflect the worldwide trend of increased female representation in entrepreneurship. Over half of the co-founders (59%) in the 2021 cohort are women, compared to the previous year, when women made up less than one third (27%) of the entire cohort. 

“It’s really inspiring being constantly surrounded by strong, amazing women who are dealing with the exact same work relation problems as me,” said Luzuriaga. “It’s so nice to have another woman’s shoulder to lean on, especially when I have nothing but guys on my team.”

CIE staff are hopeful that this trend will continue, and more women will get involved with the Summer Accelerator as well as other CIE programming. 

Many CIE programs, including the Summer Accelerator, match students with mentors who can help them to navigate the startup process. These mentors are often CIE alumni and often male. Increased female representation across CIE programs, however, will eventually lead to more female mentors, with current students hoping to become mentors for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“It’s so exciting to see the flywheel in motion,” said CIE Senior Director of Development Cory Karpin, who often works with CIE mentors and alumni. “In the early days of the CIE, the percentage of female entrepreneurs was far lower than it is today, but each year, the number grows. Those trailblazers in the early days of the CIE inspired other female founders and so on and so forth. Here we are today with more than half of our Summer Accelerator startups founded by women.”

The growth of female representation in the entrepreneurship space is a slow process, but a valuable one — and one that Grigorian believes is key to successful entrepreneurship.

“There’s no way to solve problems that women have without the involvement of female entrepreneurs — and that includes female entrepreneurs of color and of different backgrounds, ethnicities and religions,” Grigorian said. “People of different orientations have such different worldviews and can offer such different perspectives on how to solve a problem.”

ARTIFEX co-founders (left to right): Anna Baytosh and Elijah Williams. Photo by Willa Westneat.

Elijah Williams and Anna Baytosh are reimagining the architectural process with their startup ARTIFEX. 

“The tools that architects use to draw existing buildings are very outdated and don’t represent the technological innovations that have happened in parallel sectors, such as construction, mining and trucking,” Williams said. “All different sorts of technology fields have progressed long past the tools that are used in architecture.”

Williams and Baytosh are introducing similar technology to the architecture sector through easy-to-use, direct workflow integration hardware.

Their first product, the AFX-10, “directly replaces the tools that [architects] already use, so there are no extra steps,” Baytosh said. “No technician needs to come in and teach them how to use it.”

Williams graduated from the Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) in 2020 with an undergraduate degree, then again in 2021 with his master’s degree. 

The idea for ARTIFEX originated during his master’s research. He analyzed the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) scanners, which use light in the form of a pulsed laser to collect measurements. ARTIFEX is now applying this technology to the architectural space, increasing its affordability and accessibility.

Williams took the idea for ARTIFEX to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Hatchery, an on-campus incubator that connects Cal Poly students with the resources needed for a startup to succeed, where he met Baytosh.

Baytosh graduated from Chico State in 2018 with a degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations. Following her graduation, she worked in New York at an investor relations firm before returning to California to earn her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Cal Poly. 

“I really love the process of creating a company by building a business model around passionately representing the solution to an industry-specific problem,” Baytosh said. 

She reached out to CIE Director of Student Innovation Programs, Jose Huitron, who connected her with Williams.

“Elijah needed a business context for his in-depth research, and I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, but didn’t have an idea to work with,” Baytosh said. 

ARTIFEX competed in Innovation Quest (iQ), an annual business plan and prototyping competition hosted by the CIE, in April of 2021. They won the second-place prize of $10,000.

Following their success at iQ, the team joined the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates turn their startup ideas into real, viable business ventures. 

ARTIFEX was one of nine startup teams, and the only remote team, accepted into the Summer Accelerator. 

The Summer Accelerator connects participating teams with mentors who share their expertise and experience. This mentorship is proving valuable to the ARTIFEX team, providing Williams and Baytosh with insight into both the startup industry and the architecture industry.

“The people who they pair us with are so experienced and share such a vast array of knowledge,” Baytosh said. “They were not only deeply involved in their respective industries, but were entrepreneurial within those sectors, which takes extra courage, collaboration and teamwork.”

ARTIFEX is also working with their mentors to prepare for Demo Day, the culmination of the Summer Accelerator program where the teams showcase what they have accomplished throughout the summer and pitch their startup plans. Their mentors are helping the ARTIFEX team fine-tune their business plan and pitch deck before Demo Day on September 14.

Working with their mentors is “good practice” for pitching to investors, according to Baytosh.

“These 13 weeks are just one big practice session for the real deal,” she said.

To keep up with ARTIFEX, visit artifex.tools  or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

TractorCloud co-founders Roxanne Miller (left) and Morgan Swanson (right).

Morgan Swanson and Roxanne Miller are helping farmers manage their equipment with greater ease and efficiency. Their startup TractorCloud is developing a hardware-software solution that will help operations managers monitor predictive maintenance of their vehicles. 

The idea for TractorCloud originated when Swanson, who will be graduating from Cal Poly in 2022 with a B.S. in computer engineering and an M.S. in computer science, learned that there was a widespread problem in the agricultural community, with farmers not knowing how to repair their own equipment.

“As an engineer, I thought there had to be a technological solution to this problem, and I worked really hard to find that solution,” said Swanson, TractorCloud’s CEO. “Eventually, I found a bunch of other problems that farmers were having with their equipment and I got really attached to the idea of helping farmers manage their equipment better.”

Swanson never expected to become involved in entrepreneurship prior to TractorCloud.

“I never wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he admitted. “It wasn’t until I realized that I would have to start a company in order to achieve my goals, that I realized I would have to learn these skills of entrepreneurship.”

Entrepreneurship was also an unexpected choice for Miller, who graduated from Cal Poly in 2021 with a B.S. in animal science and an M.S. in computer science. Her computer science education, however, taught her the value of product development, which prepared her for her current role as TractorCloud’s head of product.

“Through my computer science education, I realized that I really value being able to build something that I care about,” she said. “Being able to connect with customers and deliver them something that is going to change their lives ended up meaning a lot to me.”

The two co-founders recruited 2021 liberal arts and engineering studies graduate Takumi Arai and 2021 electrical engineering graduates Jin Huang and Kyle Kesler to develop their product.

The TractorCloud team is now working with the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) to further develop their startup. They were one of nine startup teams chosen to participate in the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

The Summer Accelerator exemplifies the Cal Poly ‘Learn by Doing’ motto, providing teams with practical experience and applicable knowledge of the startup process.

“It’s been amazing going to [Summer Accelerator] sessions and learning something, and then we’re applying it tomorrow,” Miller said. “That’s helping me learn and grow much faster than just reading a book.”

The TractorCloud team is finding value in the relationships they’ve formed through the Summer Accelerator. The program creates countless networking opportunities for the team and connects them with mentors who can help guide them through the obstacles inherent in the startup process.

“Being able to stand there every week, face to face with someone who’s done this before, is extremely valuable,” Swanson said. “There’s immeasurable value that you can get from the right people at the right time, and the CIE has been instrumental in forming those connections.”

Participating in the Summer Accelerator is not only helping TractorCloud develop as a startup, but helping each team member grow as an entrepreneur. The program allows the team to explore the ins and outs of the entrepreneurial world, and that exploration has cemented their passion for entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurship, for me, is the quickest path to causing big change in the world,” Swanson said. “I want to influence the future of what we do as humans, and entrepreneurship seems like one potential and really powerful way of doing that.”

To keep up with TractorCloud, visit tractorcloud.io, follow them on Instagram at @tractorcloud or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14. 

Intego Technology co-founders Samuel Andrews (left) and Alexandra Joelson (right). Photo by Willa Westneat.

Third year business administration major Alexandra Joelson and third year environmental management and protection major Samuel Andrews are on a mission to create the most durable and sustainable footwear on the market with their startup Intego Technology, formerly Intego Sports.

“Shoes don’t last as long as people really want them to, and the core problem is delamination, which is the separation of the upper and the sole of the shoe,” Joelson explained.

Intego Technology is looking to solve this issue with their patent-pending manufacturing process that will increase a shoe’s lifetime threefold.

The idea for Intego Technology originated when Joelson was in high school. Years of playing soccer showed her firsthand the quick deterioration of athletic footwear. 

Her initial solution to the problem was a product she called the Cleat Guard, a silicone-like mold that adhered to the bottom of a cleat to prevent the studs on the bottom from wearing down. Joelson pitched the idea for the Cleat Guard at the 2019 Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Elevator Pitch Competition, a fast-paced competition where students are given 90 seconds to pitch their innovation and startup ideas. She won the first place prize of $1,000.

“The judges asked me what I was going to do with the money [and suggested] I should start a company,” Joelson said. 

She acted on their advice and began forming a team. She recruited Andrews, and together, they took Intego Technology to Startup Marathon, a 54-hour long event hosted by the Cal Poly Entrepreneurs at which student innovators work through the weekend to develop a startup idea. The Intego team won the first place prize of $750 with an idea for shoes with interchangeable soles.

“I had no idea that I was going to be involved in entrepreneurship at all in college,” Andrews said. “Then I joined Alexandra’s team for Startup Marathon, and from there, we kept building and growing, and I really grew to love it and decided this was something I wanted to carry through.”

Intego Technology pivoted a number of times since Startup Marathon. The CIE Summer Accelerator program is helping the team navigate their most recent pivot, which will allow them to focus on licensing footwear technology as opposed to operating as a sporting goods company.

The CIE Summer Accelerator is an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses. The Intego team first applied to the program in 2020 under an earlier version of their startup idea, but was not accepted. They spent the following year working on and improving their business and reapplied in 2021.

“After pivots, focusing on our business model and ensuring that we developed our product and our technology, we knew that we had a more developed business,” Andrews said. “We really wanted to grow over the summer, so [the Summer Accelerator] was the perfect opportunity. We reapplied and we were accepted.”

The resources afforded by the Summer Accelerator are proving valuable to the growth of Intego Technology. The mentors that the Intego Technology team are meeting and the relationships formed through their involvement with the CIE are especially beneficial, according to Andrews.

“Some of the mentors that we’ve had access to through the CIE have been absolutely incredible and massively influential to our business,” he said. “Having them as a resource and having their advice has made our business process better overall.”

The Summer Accelerator also creates an “immersive environment” that allows the Intego Technology team to surround themselves with “a bunch of like-minded individuals and entrepreneurs,” said Joelson. The fast-paced, collaborative environment fuels creativity and inspires hard work and innovation.

The Intego Technology team developed their technology, confirmed the manufacturability of their product and filed a utility patent. Now just a few months out from having their patent published, both Joelson and Andrews are looking forward to having a manufactured prototype to share with consumers.

“A great part of entrepreneurship is solving a problem and being able to make an impact,” Joelson said. “We’re trying to solve a big problem right now, and it’s fascinating to be able to talk to consumers and see how your solution can really impact their lives.”

To keep up with Intego Technology, visit www.integosports.com, follow them on Instagram @integosports or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

Zoetic Running co-founders Zeeshan Khan (left) and Ivet Avalos (right). Photo by Willa Westneat.

Recent mechanical engineering graduate Ivet Avalos and computer science master’s student Zeeshan Khan are helping runners move pain-free with their startup Zoetic Running.

“We’re trying to figure out how runners’ muscles are acting and reacting when they put pressure on their body [and] if there are any certain actions that cause pain or injury,” Khan explained. “Our solution will show [runners] how they can improve their form, improve their pain and run injury-free.”

The idea originated when Avalos and Khan took Experience Building a Startup, a Cal Poly senior project course in which business and engineering students spend three academic quarters building their own startup. Avalos and Khan, along with three other classmates, wanted to use the class as an opportunity to explore the pain points of runners.

“We interviewed a lot of runners and found how much of an issue injury was and how much [injured runners] hated being taken away from running,” Avalos said. “We started looking into the physiology and the causes of injury. We wanted to be able to provide people with a solution to minimize injuries.”

That solution came in the form of wearable injury-prevention technology.

The Zoetic Running team took their idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) in April of 2021. They applied to Innovation Quest (iQ), an annual business plan and innovation competition hosted by the CIE, but were not accepted.

“After we got rejected from Innovation Quest, we were super disheartened, but we couldn’t give up,” Khan said. “We still had to finish our senior project. But as we started making progress, our passion for the project increased.”

Then, the Zoetic Running team learned of the CIE Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates turn their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

“When we saw the application for the Accelerator program, it was just something that fit, and we were really excited,” Khan said.

He and Avalos applied to the program and were one of nine startup teams accepted.

The Summer Accelerator program connects participating startups with industry experts who provide mentorship and guidance. This mentorship is proving extremely valuable to the Zoetic Running team — as are the other teams involved in the program.

“Everything is a learning opportunity,” Khan said. “Sometimes you’re able to see how other people are working in their startups and learn what they’re doing right or what they’re doing wrong, then apply that same logic towards your startup.”

The Summer Accelerator also provides participating teams with a workspace in the CIE office known as the SLO HotHouse, located in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo. The HotHouse is filled with high energy throughout the summer, with startup teams using their provided office space to brainstorm, work and collaborate. 

The HotHouse, according to Avalos, is filled with “people who are really passionate and excited, so it’s a fun environment to be in.” 

Working out of the HotHouse also gives the Zoetic Running team easy access to CIE resources, which helps them grow their startup quickly and efficiently.

“We’re able to make mistakes in a confined space with the resources we need to move forward with our project,” Khan said. 

Zoetic Running is still in its early stages, working on research and development and interviewing prospective customers. Avalos and Khan are looking forward to developing their startup idea into a full-fledged business. Both are eager to create a viable product for consumers and help runners move pain-free.

“I’m really excited to get people using our products,” Avalos said. “I’m excited to see if [consumers] actually like what we came up with and how they interact [with our product]. I’m really excited to get to that stage.”

To keep up with Zoetic Running, follow them on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/zoeticruns or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

Kit & Sis co-founders (from left to right): Madeline Pollock, Kate Lally, Gabrielle Pollock. Photo by Willa Westneat.

Third-year Cal Poly business administration majors Madeline and Gabrielle Pollock and their childhood friend Kate Lally, a second year at Stonehill College, are inspiring creativity with their startup Kit & Sis, formerly AG Sisters.

Kit & Sis encourages young girls to explore their creativity through crafting with subscription craft boxes as well as both in-person and virtual summer camps. The summer camps, led by Madeline, Gabrielle and Kate, provide attendees with a three-day immersive experience centered around crafting doll accessories.

“We’re teaching [young girls] to use their hands, get creative and make their own doll accessories while having a creative experience and being resourceful,” Madeline said.

Madeline, Gabrielle and Kate grew up playing with American Girl dolls, but it wasn’t until 2013, when they were packing away their dolls for storage, that they realized they had crafted most of their doll accessories themselves. The realization inspired them to found Kit & Sis and share their crafting expertise with young girls everywhere.

“I’m always blown away by the fact that we were three 13-year-old girls who thought, ‘Let’s make an American Girl doll summer camp’ [and] somehow figured out how to do it,” Madeline said. “It’s just so cool that we’re able to use our hands and our minds and create something to help others.”

Kit & Sis experienced significant growth in 2020 when, with the rise of COVID-19 and the implementation of nationwide shelter-in-place orders, parents turned to their virtual summer camp to keep their daughters entertained during the quarantine. This unanticipated growth inspired the Kit Sis to take their idea to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

The CIE and the Summer Accelerator program provides the Kit & Sis team with valuable resources that are helping them grow their startup. The expert mentorship from CIE staff and industry professionals have been especially helpful, said Gabrielle.

“We love the entrepreneurial opportunities here,” she said. “There’s so much freedom to go where we want to go with our company and so much fantastic support… The most helpful resources have been all of the amazing speakers that have come in. We’ve learned so much from them.”

The Summer Accelerator has not only helped the Kit & Sis founders develop their business, but has helped them to grow as entrepreneurs, independent from their startup.

“Sometimes I struggle with making decisions and I want someone to tell me what to do,” Kate said. “To be in an environment where people aren’t necessarily telling us what to do, but guiding us, is helping me learn how to [make decisions] myself,” Kate said.

The Summer Accelerator has provided the Kit & Sis team with practical lessons in developing a startup, as well as emphasized the value of entrepreneurship.

“The power of entrepreneurship is your ability to create something out of nothing, and I think that’s really powerful,” Gabrielle said. “It’s going to stick with me the rest of my life, knowing I have the power to change things for myself.”

The Kit & Sis team intends to continue growing their business, even after the Summer Accelerator comes to a close. The lessons learned through the program will help them to expand their impact efficiently and effectively.

“We are dreamers and we have so many ideas of ways to grow our business,” Madeline said. “I’m excited about bringing these dreams to life and helping inspire more girls to be creative [and] seeing what the three of us can do together.”

Working and growing together, as a team, is important to the Kit & Sis team. 

“I think a lot of people talk about how business relationships shouldn’t be personal and you [need to] keep your space,” Gabrielle said. “It’s the opposite for us. If I wasn’t so close to [Madeline and Kate], we wouldn’t be here.”

The Kit & Sis founders rely on each other for support when navigating difficulties in entrepreneurship. Their close relationship, they attested, is integral to their success as a startup.

“One thing that motivates us to keep going when we hit a roadblock or an obstacle is each other,” Kate said. “We discuss problems together and make decisions as a team. Working as a team is really important to our dynamic as a business.”

Gabrielle echoed similar sentiments.

“Obviously the Kit & Sis means so much to me as a company, but [Madeline and Kate] mean even more,” Gabrielle said. “When we face obstacles in our company, we all have the same values in what this means to us and we’re going to help each other no matter what.”

To keep up with Kit & Sis, visit kitandsis.com, follow them on Instagram @kitandsis.official or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.

OdinXR co-founders (left to right): Ali Mohammad, Tessa Luzuriaga, Michaela Whitcomb-Weston. Photo by Willa Westneat.

When fourth year electrical engineering major Tessa Luzuriaga was approached by a Cal Poly professor struggling to teach his labs in a virtual format, she set out to create a new and more effective method of online learning. 

Together with sixth year computer engineering major Ali Mohammad, sixth year graphic design transfer Michaela Whitcomb-Weston and fourth year electrical engineering major Ruben Curiel, Luzuriaga founded OdinXR, an educational virtual reality company developing a virtual sandbox for science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) students and professors.

“We’re focusing on creating a sandbox experience in which professors can teach a lab however they want,” Luzuriaga said. “Students can go into this lab and conduct any experiment that they need to because we’ve created the digital twins, we’ve created the equipment and we’ve given them a space to do so.”

OdinXR will provide STEM students with hands-on learning opportunities that most online classes lack.

“We were inspired by the Cal Poly ‘Learn by Doing’ mantra,” Whitcomb-Weston said. “Virtual learning today is very theory-based. We want to give students the opportunity to work with their hands and understand the practicality and application behind the theory.”

OdinXR was one of nine startup teams accepted into the 2021 Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long program that helps Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses.

The Summer Accelerator is helping the OdinXR team navigate the startup process, providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to build a successful business. 

“When we looked into this program, it was made up of professors and other students and people local to San Luis Obispo,” Mohammad said. “It was a lot easier to trust them, and that was really nice because when we were first starting up, there were a lot of things we didn’t know.”

The resources afforded through the Summer Accelerator have proven valuable to the OdinXR team, the funding helping them to further develop their technology and the workshops helping them to develop their business model. The mentors and guest speakers, however, have proven most valuable, according to Luzuriaga.

“The community we build here, that networking is superb,” she said. “It’s so nice to hear from other people and have the insight of successful entrepreneurs who had a lot of failures before they had that one home-run. Seeing that in front of you and meeting those people is so much better than just hearing about their story online.”

While the Summer Accelerator is centered around entrepreneurship, the program offers participants a chance to grow not only as entrepreneurs, but as professionals. The lessons that Whitcomb-Weston has learned through the program feel relevant to a number of disciplines outside of business and entrepreneurship, she said.

“I don’t necessarily know if entrepreneurship is for me in the future,” Whitcomb-Weston admitted. “But I know that everything I’m learning here, these are skills that are going to help me no matter what, not just in entrepreneurship.”

Their introduction to the intricacies of entrepreneurship has also helped the OdinXR team to gain confidence as entrepreneurs.

“The opposite of fear is competency,” Mohammad said. “Once you have the skills, there’s very little reason to be afraid anymore.”

OdinXR helped Luzuriaga find a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation, and she encourages others with that passion to act on it.

“You’ll never accomplish anything by staying in your own head,” Luzuriaga said. “Start making noise. Be as loud as you can and just do it.”

To keep up with OdinXR, check out www.odinxr.com, follow them on Instagram at @odin.xr or catch them at Demo Day on Sept. 14.