When he was a child, Anthony Vargas 24Ox 26C suffered headaches so severe he would scream into his pillow. At 14 he lost movement in his left hand. Something was very wrong. Doctors identified an arachnoid cyst the size of a small lemon and performed emergency brain surgery. Post-recovery, Vargas, an athlete and New Jersey sports fan, had to play basketball wearing a rugby helmet. Opposing players mocked him. He thought there had to be a better solution, but he couldn’t find an alternative. So he created one.

Vargas built a prototype with his girlfriend’s volleyball knee pads. He called it the Chrome Dome, and it still sits on a shelf at home next to the rugby helmet. He enrolled and played basketball at Emory University’s Oxford College, where his interest in entrepreneurship soared. After transferring to Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the pre-med psychology major has continued to refine his rudimentary Chrome Dome design. His new device, Safe Squeeze Headgear, is a more stylish option targeted specifically to youth athletes. “I want to make safety fun,” he says, “not just make fun safe.”

With support from Emory’s entrepreneurially-focused Hatchery: Center for Innovation and Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vargas now works with and learns from mentors and peer entrepreneurs. He has pitched his idea more than 100 times, is seeking an engineer to refine the design, and conducts customer validation with youth coaches and leagues in Florida, New Jersey and Georgia.

Many Emory students have solid startup ideas but lack a business background to develop them. They want to improve the lives of others, channel their creativity, drive, entrepreneurial spirit — and sometimes their personal experience — into a business they can launch, grow and sustain. But, like Vargas in the early days of the Chrome Dome, they don’t always know where to turn or what steps to take.

Thanks in large part to the generosity of longtime supporters Stuart Rose 76B and Mimi Rose, Emory is clearing new pathways to student entrepreneurship. The Stuart and Mimi Rose Program for Student Startups, launching in the 2025-26 academic year, will offer a series of courses, programming and mentoring opportunities open to students interested in founding their own ventures.  

Administered through Goizueta Business School and housed in The Hatchery, the Rose Program will offer all Emory undergraduates an opportunity to transform their bold, creative ideas into real-world solutions for real-world problems — much as a newly designed head piece might make sports easier, safer and more comfortable for a kid recovering from a head injury.

“Entrepreneurship really embodies Emory’s mission — it’s about figuring out how to apply knowledge and discovery to benefit society and expand impact,” says Wilbur Lam, vice provost for entrepreneurship, who is partnering with colleagues across the university to expand Emory’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “We’re eager to set more student innovators on that pathway by helping them develop the skills to turn ideas into impactful products and services. We are tremendously grateful to Stuart and Mimi Rose for supporting the next generation of Emory entrepreneurs.”

An Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

The Rose Program recognizes that great entrepreneurs are everywhere. Some come from the sciences, some from the humanities, others from the arts, business and beyond. Open to students regardless of major, the program is designed to equip them with the tools and resources they need to build, launch, promote and sustain a successful business.

That level of accessibility, according to Stuart Rose, is exactly what excites the Roses about this new initiative.

“Mimi and I believe great ideas can come from anyone, anytime, anywhere — no matter their background or academic major,” Stuart Rose says. “And we want every Emory student to feel like they have a chance to bring their ideas to life. Funding this program is our way to help make that happen. Mimi and I are thrilled and privileged to know this program will both educate and challenge future leaders, problem-solvers and changemakers to dream big, take risks and make a real difference in their communities and the world.”

Barbara Krauthamer, dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences, regularly meets and hears from students who express ideas for making an impact in the world. Some of those concepts materialize into a dream to start and run a business.

“The Rose Program is a wonderful addition to the rich array of academic and co-curricular programs in Emory College,” says Krauthamer. “I am excited by the opportunities students will have to pursue innovative and entrepreneurial activities through this initiative.”

The Rose Program engages students from the start, with a week-long Ignite pre-orientation course focused on innovation for incoming first-year Oxford College and Emory College students. It continues with a three-course academic sequence focused on experiential learning, innovation and mentorship:

1. Foundations of Entrepreneurship: Introduces fundamental principles, tailored for non-business students.
2. Applied Entrepreneurship (Startup Lab): Students explore real-world business scenarios and test startup concepts.
3. Business Development (Startup Launchpad): Students develop their business ideas and write a business plan.

The first course will be offered in spring 2026, followed by additional coursework in the 2026–27 academic year. After completing the Foundations of Entrepreneurship course (or, for BBA students, the Entrepreneurship course), Emory College, nursing and business undergraduates may apply for the opportunity to become Rose Program Fellows, who are eligible to take the Startup Lab and Launchpad courses to further develop their ventures. Fellows can also apply to participate in a 10-week Summer Accelerator program at The Hatchery, Emory’s 15,000-square-foot creative, collaborative space, where they can benefit from further learning, testing, mentorship and even startup funding.

A Unique Approach to Entrepreneurship

Many universities have entrepreneurship programs, but Emory’s Rose Program is distinguished by its integration with Emory’s unique strengths, according to Brian Cayce, managing director for The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and a key figure in planning and developing the Rose Program.

Emory is a leader in health care research, an area ripe for innovation. It is also at the forefront of artificial intelligence, climate science and health care technology — fields increasingly intertwined with entrepreneurship.

“We’re creating an ecosystem that leverages Emory’s strengths,” Cayce says. “This isn’t just about building tech startups. It’s about empowering students across disciplines to become entrepreneurs in their own fields.

“They already have the raw materials — the curiosity, the knowledge, the drive,” Cayce adds. “Our role is to guide them, to help them shape their ideas into something tangible, something impactful. We don’t just want to tell them what they need to know; we want to give them the tools and the confidence to take action.”

The Hatchery: Where Ideas Take Flight

A startup needs more than a great idea, and student entrepreneurs need more than classroom instruction. They need physical space to grow their ventures.

That’s where The Hatchery comes in.

Serving as both the physical and symbolic home of the Rose Program, The Hatchery provides students with a collaborative workspace, mentorship and access to key resources, says director Ben Garrett.

“Entrepreneurs thrive within a supportive ecosystem. This is why, in addition to best-in-class instruction offered via the Goizueta Business School, The Hatchery will provide Rose Program participants with the ideal environment for student founders to succeed,” Garrett says, pointing to the center’s long track record of supporting student innovation. “Rose Program students will engage in real-world entrepreneurial challenges, from customer discovery to competitive landscape analysis to financial planning. Just as important, they will be surrounded by a community of like-minded innovators, learning from one another’s successes and setbacks.

“The Hatchery is a launchpad,” Garrett adds. “These students won’t just learn theories about entrepreneurship — they’ll be actively building their businesses in an environment that supports them every step of the way.”

Not Just Another Business Program

While the Rose Program works with students while they are enrolled, its reach extends beyond the university itself.

Young people are growing up in a world where innovation is at their fingertips. It’s practically in their DNA. Many students who don’t plan to launch a venture immediately after graduation are already envisioning ways in which they might create solutions to real-world problems. This experience will give them foundations to do so in the future.

At its core, it’s about more than just startups, says Cayce. “The program equips students with a mindset. Even if they don’t launch a business immediately, they will walk away with the skills and confidence to do so when the time is right.

“We don’t expect every student to leave here and start the next Nvidia,” Cayce says. “They don’t even have to bring a fully baked idea with them when they enroll in the program. What we want is for them to leave here knowing that they can start something if they want to. That they have the knowledge, the skills, and the support to make it happen.”

The bottom line is clear: The Rose Program is for everyone. It doesn’t matter what students are studying or whether they’ve thought about business before, says Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School. What matters is their desire to solve real problems and make an impact.

“The Rose Program is a game-changer for Emory,” he says. “It ensures that students from all backgrounds have access to the education, mentorship and resources they need to bring their ideas to life. By fostering an inclusive and interdisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship, we are creating opportunities for innovation across the entire university.”

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There are 20 MBA students and six undergraduate BBA students currently serving in the program’s fourth and fifth cohorts. Of these fellows, many have either started their own businesses or innovated within one. According to Cayce, nearly a quarter of the fellows either currently manage a startup or have in the recent past.

These students have some level of experience that indicates they’re willing and ready to explore what are otherwise unconventional paths for a lot of Goizueta students.

Brian Cayce, Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

As fellows, the students will have access to unique learning opportunities in three areas. These include venture development, capital formation, and corporate innovation and creativity. These opportunities include classes, experiential learning, and opportunities to connect and work with members of Atlanta’s startup and venture community.

From Healthcare to Film: Meet Two of the 2024 Fellows

Omid Razmpour 26MBA/PhD

The early stages of Omid Razmpour’s 26MBA/PhD nursing career coincided with the worst part of the Covid pandemic. Razmpour soon found himself battling burnout and let his manager know he was struggling. But rather than provide him with the resources he needed, Razmpour’s manager told him everyone was facing the same issues. So, when the struggle became unsustainable, he left. “That wasn’t my goal—to leave my job within the first year,” says Razmpour. 

Razmpour’s experience as a nurse made him passionate about reducing turnover in the nursing profession. To that end, Razmpour, who is also pursuing his PhD at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, created the RETAIN (Retention Evaluation and Turnover Analysis) Framework^©, an innovative, data-driven approach to quantifying the nuanced cost of nurse turnover. With RETAIN and his PhD dissertation, Razmpour is attempting to make the business case for investing in the nursing profession. “My partners and I really think this project has the potential to be industry-changing,” he says. 

Razmpour sees his time as a fellow at the center much as a nursing student who learns in the classroom and then applies that knowledge in a lab or hospital.

I’m really passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, and investment, but if I didn’t have the opportunity to apply that knowledge, then I feel like it’s kind of a waste.

Omid Razmpour 25MBA

“That’s what the center offers,” Razmpour explains. “I’m going to be able to get into projects, work with the team, and be able to apply my learning.”

Cayce is excited to work with Razmpour to support his curiosity on how to grow nurse-founded ventures solving big problems the entire industry faces. “The fact that Razmpour has felt the pain of the target population he seeks to serve offers him the tremendous advantage of empathy,” says Cayce. “This will serve him as he evaluates startups and makes investment recommendations in this space.”

Parallel to his involvement with the fellowship program, Razmpour has connected with Nurse Capital. The venture capital company was started by a pair of former nurses and invests in “nurse entrepreneurs.” He’s working with the company’s general partners on due diligence, potential investment opportunities, and the organization’s backend operations.

Patrycja Kepa 21BBA 26MBA

After a brief stint in consulting, Patrycja Kepa 21BBA 26MBA joined independent film-making company Anchored Lens Productions as its chief operating officer. Dedicated to producing high-quality content, Anchored Lens is also leveraging the exposure that the film industry provides to help end homelessness (10% of the company’s profits from its feature films goes to its homeless foundation). The production company’s second feature film, The Grove, will debut in theaters in February 2025, and Anchored Lens is currently in talks with streaming services to distribute the film.

Cayce is excited to work with Kepa on the business side of media and entertainment, exploring the role of technology as well as potential opportunities for startups like Anchored Lens. According to Cayce, the fact that Kepa has raised a significant amount of capital and is currently running her business while also pursuing her advanced degree “is kind of off the charts for a Goizueta student.”

Kepa hopes to leverage Goizueta’s and the center’s networks and to learn from fellow entrepreneurs—especially when it comes to a long-term vision for Anchored Lens.

I’m excited to get guidance from people who’ve actually done that. I’m very open to new opportunities and to collaborating and seeing how it can benefit Anchored Lens Productions.

Patrycja Kepa 21BBA 26MBA

The center is working with the organizers of Avant South to bring its annual gathering of creatives, entrepreneurs, and business professionals from industries such as entertainment, music, content creation, and e-sports, to the Emory campus in the coming years. “I think there’s a huge opportunity at Emory to introduce more initiatives—even courses—about media and entrepreneurship,” says Kepa. “Atlanta is such a hot spot right now, and I don’t think it’s been fully tapped into yet.”

Expanding the Fellowship’s footprint

Later this year, the center fellows will get a chance to work on two technology conferences.

This October, the fellows will create a concierge-type service that matches attending venture capitalists with startups at Venture Atlanta, a conference that supports tech companies in the Southeast. And at Startup Atlanta, a non-profit focused on connecting, growing, and promoting Atlanta’s startup ecosystem, center fellows will provide judges with the due diligence reports to help them determine winners in several showcase categories.

“Students will see the themes that are really driving innovation. And that’s not just at Emory, but across the Atlanta ecosystem and beyond,” says Cayce. “They’ll also get exposure to some of the best startups in the area and learn about their process of securing investors for their startups.”

Tapping into the Emory Ecosystem

Additionally, the fellowship program continues to build connections across the Emory University ecosystem. The collaboration between Goizueta and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing on behalf of Razmpour is one such example. “We are diligently working to collaborate across the University with other schools,” Cayce explains.

This includes working with the University’s new vice provost for entrepreneurship, Wilbur Lam, professor and W. Paul Bowers Research Chair in the Department of Pediatrics and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech. Lam has been tasked with fostering a vibrant startup culture throughout the University.

The center is also assembling a robust mentor network. It hopes to offer “venture mentoring,” a team mentoring service for startups across the Emory ecosystem. “We want to be an agent for growing the number of founders that come through Goizueta’s doors and see success with their efforts,” says Cayce.

Learn more about The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Emory University’s Goizueta Business.

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The event is a joint collaboration between Goizueta’s Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and The Hatchery.

This year’s Demo Day began with Dean Gareth James offering welcoming remarks. Then, the 12 participating startups took to the stage and delivered five-minute pitches to about 40 prospective investors. Emory University faculty and staff and more than 80 local community members filled the crowd.

Each year, we’ve seen the quality of startups in the cohort get better and better.

Brian Cayce, managing director, Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

“Demo Day was exceptional,” shares Brian Cayce, managing director of the center. “The turnout was fantastic.”

The 2024 cohort included the following startups: Excellence Box, Motian, BrICS, AskSci, Team Swift Gear, Immform, Explorify, Uppergate Bio, Direct to Camera, Por+, Xpediter, and Alabaster House.

Learning the Path to Success

The Emory Goizueta Startup Launch Accelerator is an initiative of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. The program is open to anyone affiliated with Emory—from faculty and staff to students and alumni. In fact, the majority of participants over the years have come from outside of the business school.

The goal of the program is to help early-stage founders turn ideas into solid business models. This year’s participants conducted a total of 180 customer interviews to refine and sharpen their plans. All 12 startups felt confident in their pitches before Demo Day. They said they had a much more complete and thorough understanding of their business models by the end of the program.

We view this program as a service the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation provides the university.

Brian Cayce

“There are innovators across all pockets of the university, and we want to support them.” explains Cayce.

The Expert Behind the Entrepreneurs

For the last three years, Christy Brown has been the primary accelerator instructor. Brown, the chief executive officer of Dr. Noze Best, designs the sessions and pulls from her extensive network to bring the most realistic information and lessons to the participants. Goizueta’s own mentor network also contributes to these sessions.

The 10 modules cover critical topics for early-stage ventures. These include subjects such as the business model canvas, go-to-market strategy, market entry, raising venture capital, and pitching, explains Brown.  

Participants were grateful for Brown. They praised her willingness to share her contacts, experiences, and knowledge throughout the course of the program.

One of the most rewarding aspects of participating in this program is the opportunity to share hard-earned lessons and wisdom with budding entrepreneurs.

Christy Brown, lead accelerator instructor

“Watching these founders pivot, adapt, and ultimately scale their businesses is incredibly fulfilling,” shares Brown. “Being part of their growth journey and witnessing their progress firsthand is what makes this work so gratifying for me.”

Building a Business Blueprint

Karthik Ramesh and Hyunsuk Shim are both professors of radiation oncology at Emory University’s School of Medicine. The idea they brought to the Startup Launch Accelerator is the Brain Imaging Collaboration Suite, also known as BrICS. The software platform helps doctors customize plans for brain-tumor patients, explains Ramesh.

Ramesh’s favorite part of the experience was developing and refining BrICS’ pitch and pitch deck. In order to get there, he had to first identify and understand his ideal customers. Then, he had to figure out what the market looked like for the product, including researching any existing competitors.

This accelerator helps people turn an idea into a tangible business plan with actionable follow-ups for the future.

Karthik Ramesh, BrICS

Participants also got to meet with lawyers who specialize in startups as well as CEOs of other ventures and financial experts.

“Pitching at Demo Day truly felt like an accomplishment,” recalls Ramesh. “Every founder formed a bond with the others as we learned about and gave advice for everyone’s companies. It felt special to sit together and cheer each other on during our pitches.”

Tapping Into Resources

For fellow founder, Douglas Brooks II 24MBA, the confidence that the program – particularly Brown and Cayce – helped cultivate was one of his favorite parts.

“You really work on the psychology of your business and ask yourself a bunch of times throughout the workshops, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

Douglas Brooks II 24MBA, Team Swift Gear

Brooks has been working on his startup since 2019. His venture is a health tech company that aims to reduce the number of heart attacks in the U.S. each year with aquatic exercise. His father was a special education teacher and swimming coach. Together, they began to develop an apparatus that people can wear in the water to add resistance to water-based physical activity. Better yet, it does so without adding extra pressure or stress to joints or existing injuries. After watching an elderly fraternity member decline in health and disposition following an injury, Brooks wanted to bring the device that he and his father created to other people.

“We had a technology that can decrease people’s fall risk and improve cardiovascular health. I felt like there weren’t enough tools to bring people to the water for strength training. So, that’s what really made me want to go into the health space,” says Brooks, who joined Goizueta’s One-Year MBA program to learn more about raising funds after working in finance for several years.

Since launching the startup, Brooks has secured a U.S. patent, gathered dozens of testimonials from consumers and college athletic departments, established a medical advisory board, and conducted a study about the benefits and outcomes of using his device.

Brooks says he has grown tremendously through his experience in the Startup Launch Accelerator. He found it especially helpful to share ideas with fellow founders and learn about how someone as successful as Brown deals with challenges.

Now, Brooks is spending his summer as part of the incubator at The Hatchery.

Everyone has a greater understanding of where they want to go. You might not have the entire puzzle figured out, but we at least have the outside pieces.

Douglas Brooks II 24MBA

Experiential Learning for Students

In addition to the benefits for program participants, the accelerator also serves as a learning experience for Goizueta students. Fellows of The Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation play a critical role as program managers. They act as resources for the startups and ensure that everything runs smoothly throughout the sessions.

“The program helps to move Emory-related ventures forward by leveraging the skills and competencies of Goizueta faculty and staff,” says Jill Perry-Smith, academic director of the center and professor of organization and management.

It is exciting to see students build on the knowledge they learn in our courses via the accelerator and take their enterprises to the next level.

Jill Perry-Smith, academic director and professor of organization and management

From Classroom to Crash Course

Qazi Haq 25MBA says his experience as a fellow at the center has supplemented what he’s learning in the classroom. Whereas course work might focus on how large companies operate, sitting in on the accelerator program sessions inadvertently taught him the ins-and-outs of running a startup. He got a crash course in the early-stage venture ecosystem, including how to raise funds, what investors look for, and startup-industry dynamics.

Haq is also involved in the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, another program within the center. This academic year, he was an associate, but he’s now a student fund manager. Listening to the pitches allowed Haq to connect several participants to potential funds.

I love being around people trying to build new things because it’s always exciting and they have passion.

Qazi Haq 25MBA

Exploring Career Paths in Entrepreneurship

For Molly McDonald 25EvMBA, being involved in the accelerator is part of her job as community engagement coordinator for the program. She’s also a Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation fellow and working on her MBA through Goizueta’s evening program.

The MBA experience is a time for students to explore career paths, even those paths that involve more risk, such as entrepreneurship, she says. This program is an excellent opportunity for students with business ideas to take advantage of valuable resources like mentorship, networking, and funding.

“There is no clear or defined path to becoming an entrepreneur. However, the Startup Launch Accelerator puts a framework in place for founders to build their business model and move forward,” says McDonald. “The program also puts Emory on the map as a leader in entrepreneurship education and experiential learning opportunities for students.”

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Are you an Emory-affiliated startup founder currently seeking early-stage risk capital or interested in learning about other startup programs? Connect with us through our startup pipeline to learn about future opportunities.

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Each year, PMVF students acting in the investor role, along with faculty and advisory board input, hold the Spring Showcase at The Hatchery on campus to announce new investments. To date, the fund has made total investment commitments of $170K into seven companies in seven different industries in six cities. In the first round for the 2021-2022 academic year, the investment process began with commitments to CommunityX, Ecotone Renewables, and FundStory. Just this past spring, investments were committed to Arch, Chezie, ConConnect, and Tuyyo.

JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and a Business & Society Institute faculty advisor, guides the PMVF’s academic curriculum with Jill Perry-Smith, senior associate dean, strategic initiatives, and academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, and Juanita Velez, adjunct professor and senior manager diversity, equity, and inclusion operations for Delta Airlines. In addition, Brian Cayce recently joined Goizueta Business School as Managing Director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Cayce brings 17 years of venture capital experience to the team having founded the early-stage impact-focused funds of Gray Ghost Ventures.

Nurturing Future Investors and Entrepreneurs

“Through directed curriculum and classwork, students gain the real-world analysis skills required to make informed investment decisions,” Kurish says. With an industry agnostic approach, “The fund follows a holistic research process during which the students operate in the role of investors. Investors not only learn about the company in front of them, but also about the larger industry and its risks and upside.”  

Student participants come from a wide range of degree programs, including Goizueta’s undergraduate Bachelor of Business Administration program, the school’s multiple MBA programs, and Emory University’s law school. This diversity excites Kurish. “We like the fact that we’ve got students from various academic programs involved. Add to that their unique cultural perspectives and age differences and we all benefit from the interaction.”

A richness and experiential value come to students by what they bring as individuals to each discussion. This sharing develops a collective holistic appreciation for the needs and desires of underrepresented founders.

JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and Business & Society Institute faculty advisor

The PMVF documents investments of entrepreneurial funding ranging from $5-50K through a simple agreement for future equity. Kurish explains, “Most common are seed stage investments of $15-$30K. The goal for these investments is to gain allocation into a financing round led by institutional investors.”

In addition to benefiting each founder and company, this process also provides students unprecedented access and exposure to the world of venture capital–not to mention potential job opportunities.

JB Kurish

To educate and empower founders, the fund offers resources and tools such as Cap table simulator, talent locators, pitch deck examples and basics, and financial modeling for startups. As an educational partner to founders, Goizueta will continue to expand its impact for growth. Kurish notes, “In the future we will incubate their success with even more educational and professional networking opportunities.”  

Changing the Funding Narrative 

Each fall, student class members and leaders are selected for participation in the fund activities. Past student participants continue to support the fund by taking part in evaluative and processing activities in the fall. These fall activities pave the way for the main thrust of student engagement in spring.  

During the 2023 spring class, the fund received over 50 applications. From this applicant pool, managing partners screened over 100 deals and engaged in preliminary due diligence on over 50 of them. To further narrow the pipeline of potential investment, the PMVF team conducted another round of deep due diligence on 10 deals. The investment committee then reviewed the final five deals and ultimately selected four companies to receive PMVF investment. 

JB Kurish

After extensive research, interviews, and analysis by the PMVF team, the following companies received investment commitments through the fund in the 2022-2023 academic year: 

• Chezie, Co-Founder and CEO is Toby Egbuna, COO is Dumebi Egbuna 18BBA 
• ConConnect, Co-Founder and CEO is Andre Peart 
• Tuyyo, Founder & CEO is Stefanie Garcia Turner 21EMBA 
• Arch, CEO & Co-Founder is Gabriel Huertas del Pino and Adam Mutschler 

It is an honor to receive an investment from Emory University’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund. As an alumna of Goizueta Business School, this investment is a full circle moment as I began working on TUYYO while I was receiving my Executive MBA in 2020-2021. This investment will further support TUYYO’s growth in new retail locations across the United States and assist in our efforts to provide clean ingredient, Latin-inspired products to the LatinX community and beyond.

Tuyyo Foods Founder/CEO Stefanie Garcia Turner 21EMBA 

To carry on the rich tradition of investing in and supporting underrepresented founders, the new managing partners of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund have been named. Brandon Best 24MBA, Sumo Desai 24MBA, Savannah Holmes 24MBA, Brandon Jacobs 24BBA, Madeline Ledford 24MBA, Kevin Liu 24EvMBA, and Benedict Owanga 24JD will all lead for the coming year.  

PMVF Wins the AACSB Innovations that Inspire 2023 Award 

AACSB International, a global nonprofit, is the world’s largest business education alliance that connects educators, students, and businesses across the world. Since 1916, the organization has been committed to creating the next generation of leaders. As part of its advocacy outreach in more than 100 countries and territories, AACSB selects 25 Innovative Business Schools of Tomorrow that drive new value for stakeholders.  

Kurish shared, “In the words of AACSB, Goizueta’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund ‘was one of 25 institutions that demonstrate how AACSB member institutions are creating new value for a continuously evolving business world and global society.’”  

Learn more about the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund and access founder applications.  

Follow fund news on Twitter @Peachtree_Fund and LinkedIn @PeachtreeMinorityVentureFund.  

Read more about the prestigious AACSB International award here. 

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