Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative kicks off

The opportunities and excitement of entrepreneurship took center stage at Rice Oct. 22-25 as students participated in two startup-focused events, networked and heard from trailblazing entrepreneurs.

Rice undergraduates Alex Dzeda, right, and Senthil Natarajan, demo their competition-winning product, Ziel Solutions, a wearable device for reducing the risk of injury from repetitive physical activity.

The activities were organized by the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative, which launched this summer as a cross-disciplinary initiative to provide students from across the university with skills and knowledge to succeed in a world where entrepreneurial capabilities are increasingly critical for meaningful and influential careers.

Events kicked off Oct. 22 with a “music and ideas festival” hosted by RECESS, a company that seeks to promote entrepreneurship among college students nationwide. The festival featured opportunities for career networking, entrepreneurship speakers such as WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, an undergraduate entrepreneurs’ pitch competition and a concert.

Alex Dzeda, a Sid Richardson College junior majoring in electrical engineering, and Senthil Natarajan, a Will Rice College junior majoring in electrical engineering, won the pitch competition. Their product, Ziel Solutions, is a wearable device for reducing the risk of injury from repetitive physical activity and can be used in both athletic and workplace settings. Their successful pitch gives them the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles in January to represent Rice in a national startup competition.

“We’re really excited about the prospect of going to L.A. to meet and pitch the investors,” Natarajan said. “It’s an awesome feeling, and we can’t wait for the chance to continue growing our startup and learning as much as we can from some really smart and successful people. It’s incredible that such a resource is available to undergraduates. The work is just beginning, though; there’s a long road ahead, but I definitely feel like we’re on the right track.”

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, center, participated in a discussion on entrepreneurship held at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business. He was joined by moderator Ashlee Clark Thompson, CNET senior associate editor, and Cory Levy, co-founder and COO of After School. Photo by Liana Lopez/Jones School

Following the RECESS event, a group of 55 Rice and University of Houston students participated in a three-day weekend startup event at TMCx, the Texas Medical Center’s new 100,000-square-foot facility dedicated to supporting life science startup companies in Houston. The 72-hour learning-by-doing workshop culminated with teams making pitches and demonstrations to a panel of mentors and investors from Houston’s business community.

“We define entrepreneurship and innovation not as ‘something you do’ but as a mindset,” said Yael Hochberg, director of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Ralph S. O’Connor Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship. “Entrepreneurship is not merely founding startups or working with an existing one — it is also creating opportunity within existing organizations, innovating within large companies and government and creating social change and nonprofit ventures. Our program ties not only into our world-class engineering and sciences programs, but also into Rice’s tradition of liberal arts — it is a program for everyone. We desire to see our graduates contribute to the common good and produce innovation that translates into impact on society at large.”

For more information about the initiative and its programs and events, go to entrepreneurship.rice.edu.