NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Meet the person behind ALA 2026 team, Lainey Volz Button-Cup Shirt! 👚

Lainey Volz, the CEO, founder and designer, is a recent graduate of the fashion and textile design program from Wilson College of Textiles. The Lainey Volz brand’s debut product is the Button-Cup Shirt: a button-up shirt specifically designed for women who wear a D cup or larger.

NC State Wilson College of Textiles

Meet the people behind ALA 2026 team, IronPlate Solutions! 🧑‍🍳

Braden Champion and Trevor Champion are co-founders looking to improve the restaurant industry. IronPlate Solutions is building Relay, which is an AI system that converts restaurant conversations into structured POS orders in real time. Servers take orders naturally while Relay captures, interprets and injects the order directly into the restaurant’s POS system, eliminating manual order entry.

Meet the person behind ALA 2026 team, DentalHold! 🦷

Saif Saleh is the founder and engineer behind this company. DentalHold uses AI voice agents to verify patients’ insurance for dental practices, automating the manual phone calls that tie up front-desk staff every day.

Meet the people behind the ALA 2026 team, Climbit! 🧗

Kyle Tomek and Josh Alger are the co-founders of Climbit, a platform that helps climbers decide where to climb, when to go and whether conditions are worth the trip.

Climbit turns hyper-local weather, crag-specific terrain data and user preferences into clear recommendations on the best places and times to climb. The program serves a growing community of climbers through our app and powers partner forecast experiences across climbing organizations and commercial platforms.

Meet the 2026 Miller Fellows! 🐺

🎮 Benjamin Rimon | Frontline Interactive is a game studio focused on building interactive video games for government organizations and NGOs.
📲 Gabe Huntsman | Afuse is a mobile app helping students find roommates and friends.
☕️ Kenza Tekil | Kasbah Koffee serves coffee with an Arab, Algerian and Palestinian twist with bold flavors, authentic ingredients and a touch of home in every sip.
🎧 Max McKee | SPRTN Technologies has built the world’s first wireless earbuds with 1-mile range, underwater audio, and live AI coaching.
🌳 Megan Aljian | Forest Found Products produces and sells patent-pending Bite & Sting Relief naturally with local plants.

Over the next six months, these recent grads will receive funding, guidance and resources to grow their businesses. Learn more 👉 https://buff.ly/6hgUe4I

NC State University | NC State Poole College of Management | NC State Engineering | NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

We are excited to introduce the 2026 Andrews Launch Accelerator cohort!

Building on an initial gift, Lyn and Chip Andrews have renewed their support for the NC State Acceleration fund, providing an endowment to power future generations in the Andrews Launch Accelerator (ALA) with a transformative gift.

The 2026 ALA cohort ranges from early idea-stage companies to those with rapidly scaling revenue across a variety of industries. As support for this program spreads across NC State’s campus and throughout the startup ecosystem, this year’s cohort will feature six sponsored teams across NC State Wilson College of Textiles, Social and Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship and NC State Engineering - Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, in addition to those directly funded by ALA.

Meet the teams 👉 https://buff.ly/5Stophl

NC State Poole College of Management

One Make-A-Thon, countless possibilities and a career that followed. 🚀

Nick Sischo, a 2020 environmental technology graduate, returned to support the competition that helped shape his own path as an undergraduate. Now, he works as a systems engineer at Cisco, applying a blend of technical skill and systems thinking that first took root during his time at NC State University.

Through Make-A-Thon, he and his teammates identified sustainability challenges, sketched solutions and built prototypes under tight time pressure. The late-night work sessions and final pitch to judges became a formative experience in collaboration and rapid problem-solving.

Now working as a systems engineer at Cisco Systems, he applies the same approach to complex technical systems every day. His time at NC State showed him the value of showing up, testing ideas and learning through iteration. Today, he encourages students to take that first step and trust where the experience can lead. 🌟 💼

Learn more about Nick and Make-A-Thon 👉 https://buff.ly/R5ps7ME

NC State College of Natural Resources | NC State Alumni | NC State Sustainability

More than a campus clip 🤳

Indio Skinner, a graduating business administration major with a concentration in marketing at NC State University, is known for a lighthearted tradition of asking students their favorite ice cream flavor and returning with it. Behind that is a much longer journey shaped by an early drive to build, sell and turn ideas into something real. 🚀

Growing up, he was already selling gum, lemonade and later terrariums to local businesses, but college expanded that drive. Surrounded by ambitious peers, he leaned into NC State's entrepreneurship ecosystem, where experiences like Minute to Pitch It, VenturePack Challenge, LaunchPad and a Silicon Valley trip helped him learn what it takes to bring ideas to life. 🏆️

What shaped him most was the community around him. Professors, mentors and fellow students opened doors to events, travel and opportunities that pushed his perspective far beyond the classroom. As he reflected, “Making genuine connections everywhere you go is one of the most powerful skills you can develop.” 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

After graduation, he plans to use social media and content creation to help others live more intentionally and lead with love. He aspires to become a speaker, host retreats and travel globally to inspire others to rethink how they approach life. 🌎️

Read more about Indio's journey 👉 https://buff.ly/ckcr9G4

NC State Alumni | NC State Poole College of Management

Research with real-world reach 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 🌍️

After gaining international experience in Shanghai and completing her master’s, Arianna Minzoni began her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at NC State University Stefano Menegatti’s lab, where she develops peptide ligands that improve purification of gene therapy vectors while protecting their stability and effectiveness. 👩‍🔬

Alongside her research, she strengthened her business expertise through the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) program through NC State Poole College of Management. She applied those skills during a STEM-MBA internship with TOSOH Bioscience GmbH, gaining experience in product strategy, supply chains and commercialization for AAV technologies. 🧬

As she graduates from the TEC program, Arianna reflects on the perspective guiding her work: “Ultimately, what matters is not how elegant the solution is, but whether it works — and having the vision to understand why it matters.” 👍

Read more about Arianna's journey in the TEC program 👉 https://buff.ly/25a4M3s

NC State Engineering

Engineering the future 👨🛠📋

At NC State University, Park Scholar Cole Malinchock is graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering with minors in computer programming and environmental science. During his time on campus, he became deeply involved in research, contributing to projects in medical robotics, drones, computer vision and autonomous systems that shaped his technical skills and leadership. 💼

Through the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program and the Albright Entrepreneurship Garage, he co-founded Sylva Systems, an autonomous drone service that inspects tree farms and was selected to represent NC State at the ACC InVenture Prize.

A trip to Silicon Valley further expanded his perspective on startups and innovation, reinforcing his advice: “Don’t be afraid to form connections with people you meet.” 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

This fall, he will begin a Ph.D. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he plans to explore marine robotics and continue pursuing the creativity and innovation he built through research and entrepreneurship. 🚀

Read more about Cole 👉 https://buff.ly/NU0KcM6

NC State Engineering | NC State Alumni | Park Scholarships | University of Michigan | NC State College of Natural Resources | ACC InVenture Prize