“I always had an entrepreneurial spirit, which I believe comes from my parents,” said Hernandez, a senior marketing major. He has tested the entrepreneurial waters with several ventures during his time at UofL, including photography and owning coffee roaster, Herns Coffee. Hernandez’s parents have been involved in textiles and manufacturing—a direct connection that helped to jump start the Secure Mask.

Brown’s passion for finance and investment has helped to give the duo a solid fiscal foundation. Like Hernandez, Brown has already built a successful enterprise—he has been a ticket broker since 2016.

“Building my ticket brokerage allowed me to learn how to interact with both business-to-business clients and business to consumers,” he said. “It also taught me the importance of cash flow and managing inventory.”

That inventory management currently occupies much of Hernandez’s apartment. “We ship everything out from my apartment. There are boxes everywhere.”

Ramping up inventory has gone hand-in-hand with an increase in demand. Initially, mask orders were from the Louisville metro area.

“When we first started selling the masks, I used to spend part of the day delivering them in my car,” Hernandez said. “But that all changed when we started doing ads on television.”

Brown, a rising junior double majoring in finance and economics, and Hernandez began working with a local media company when they were interviewed by a television station in Philadelphia.

“After that [interview], we started getting orders from all over. Pablo was on the phone with a repeat customer from LA last night. Folks call at all hours about orders,” said Brown.

The local media company has also helped place television spots for the duo in a variety of markets beyond the Midwest, including running ads in Hawaii.

The increased profile means increasing the team. The Secure Mask has between six to 10 part-time employees, many of them also UofL undergrads.

“Being an intern at the College of Business taught me a lot about working with people,” says Hernandez. “Working directly with Sharon Handy and the marketing team helped me understand the importance of project management and teamwork.”

Brown also attributes their venture’s success to his time at the College.

“I’ve met a lot of people [who] work or know people in different sectors of the economy. My professors have helped show me what a real workplace looks like,” he said.

Hernandez agreed, adding, “They have always been more than just professors. I will talk to them outside of the classroom and know that if I had any questions about anything, I could come to them. They are more mentors than professors.”

While Hernandez and Brown saw a business opportunity, The Secure Mask company understands it is much more than just making masks. Hernandez’s parents have started multiple businesses, which “always called his attention,” he said.��That sense of doing business right includes supporting the most vulnerable in the community. The Secure Mask website features a section that allows people to receive free masks to those facing medical or financial hardship.

With an upcoming school year just around the corner, both��Hernandez and Brown continue to strike a balance between work, school and life.

“As we begin to scale, gaining access to capital will be a big challenge. The Secure Mask has to keep a lot of inventory on hand, so we have to have a lot of capital to invest in inventory and run the day-to-day operations,” Brown said. “There’s a lot to learn both in and out of the classroom.”

Story written by Jim Warner, College of Business content developer.��

In late January, Shade started her term as an entrepreneur in residence, or EIR, through the UofL Office of Research and Innovation. In this role, she will work with inventors and the to connect UofL technologies to industry and startups.

“I’m excited to participate in this program and continue the momentum,” Shade said.��“This program furthers the potential for impact to our communities and reflects��the amazing work being done at the University of Louisville.”

Shade is a veteran of the healthcare industry, having worked in both large companies and startups. But coming back to campus as an EIR brings things full-circle: the company she founded, Louisville-based SentryHealth, was born at UofL.

SentryHealth has customized corporate care management programs that help employees stay healthy while controlling health care costs for employers.

Shade’s hiring marks the second class of UofL Research and Innovation EIRs. Funding for the program comes from the , a public-private partnership led by UofL and backed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The first round of EIRs, , included Josh Nickols, Jeff Cummins and Charley Miller. Nickols and Cummins will continue to serve as EIRs through summer 2020, while Miller is now focused on his new, Vogt Award-winning startup, Unitonomy.��

The company is built around a , which Miller discovered and licensed while working with UofL. It’s the first license from the EIR program and the first from the UofL College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development.��

“We’re very excited to have Alice join us as an EIR, and to benefit from her knowledge and experience in the healthcare startup space,” said Will Metcalf, UofL’s executive director of strategic initiatives and chairman of the LEAP board. “We had great success with the first round of EIRs, and with Alice on board, we’re sure to build on that momentum.”��

“The goal is to make connections between these founders, looking for their next big play, and our startup-ready technologies,” said Will Metcalf, executive director of research development and strategic initiatives in the UofL .��

The inaugural Founder Hunt, held in mid-November at Churchill Downs, was a partnership with the University of Kentucky and the Commonwealth Commercialization Center (C3).

The event’s format was something like a startup pitch competition, but flipped. Rather than have the entrepreneurs pitch their companies to investors, university researchers pitched their technologies to the entrepreneurs.

There were four pitches each from UofL and UK, along with one from C3/Eastern Kentucky University. Each presenter had five minutes to sell the packed house on their technology and its market opportunity.

“Working with academic universities and research, that’s a wide-open space for all of us,” said Signature HealthCARE CEO, Joe Steier, who keynoted the event. “And if the Commonwealth’s going to win, it’s going to be with all these partners coming together.”

For the first event, the focus was on healthcare-related technologies, though future events may focus on engineering, robotics or any number of disciplines.

The UofL technologies this year included , an , an and .

“What a fabulous opportunity to promote our technology in front of a room full of experienced investors, marketing representatives, and founders of local startups,” said UofL researcher and inventor, Tommy Roussell, who pitched the latter device. “We made several meaningful connections, and just had a ton of fun.”

The goal of the event is to find a founder who wants to license one of these technologies and build a company.��

To help set them up for success, the first founder to license one of the pitched technologies will also receive a package of services: up to $10,000 in product design services from MED Institute, up to $2,000 in legal services from Frost Brown Todd and up to $1,500 in accounting services from DMLO CPAs.��

“We want to build strong teams, strong partnerships, that can build high-growth businesses and draw significant investment to Louisville,” Metcalf said. “We’re shooting for $200 million over the next several years.”��

Other sponsors for the event included PNC Bank, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, Technstars, RoundTower, Switcher Studio and LEAP.��

Check out video from the event below:��

The free event, at the Speed Art Museum’s Speed Cinema, is open to the public and boasts an agenda packed with workshops, speakers and other fun activities for aspiring and current founders.

“Our goal with the AWARE:ACCESS program, and this event, is to help entrepreneurs and startups grow,” said Jessica Sharon, director of Innovation Programs at UofL. “At the summit, we’ll have a lot of resources to help them do that, from advice on applying for federal grant funding to how to make the perfect elevator pitch.”

In addition to workshops and speakers, attendees can also participate in a “Shark Tank”-style pitch competition. They can also speak one-on-one with experts in finance, accounting, marketing, human resources and pretty much any other topic a budding entrepreneur might need to know about.

More information and registration are .��

While the summit is open to all, the AWARE:ACCESS, or Accelerating Women and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs: Accelerate Entrepreneurial Success, program has a special focus on women and underrepresented entrepreneurs.��

The program, a National Science Foundation-backed partnership between UofL and Indiana University, provides support to help these entrepreneurs submit more competitive proposals for SBIR and STTR grant funding.

Women entrepreneurs represent only , despite making up some 51 percent of the total population. Collective minorities represent only 10 percent of awardees, combined.

“Diversity unlocks so many new perspectives, ideas and potential innovations,” said Robert S. Keynton, interim executive vice president for Research and Innovation. “In accelerating the success of women and underrepresented entrepreneurs, we hope to improve that diversity of thought and spur new growth and opportunities for all.”

AWARE:ACCESS is one of UofL’s suite of�� dubbed the “Superfecta,” to support the translation of research into viable commercial products.��UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the country to receive each of these, and is��the only one to receive all of them.

The startup, Pascal Tags, was founded by��J.B. Speed School of Engineering student, Brandon Young, and recent College of Business graduate, Haley Pfeiffer. Young will pitch the company’s�� at the competition in November at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia.����

“For Pascal Tags, I think the opportunity is potentially once in a life time,” Young said. “It is very humbling being the first representative from the state of Kentucky and the University of Louisville.”

He and other collegiate finalists will present��their inventions to a panel of judges that includes National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees and USPTO officials and showcase their work at the Collegiate Inventors Competition Expo.

“We will get to present and discuss our technology with very distinguished individuals from the Hall of Fame, compete against other great innovators, and reach an audience most innovators do not have the chance to in college,” Young said.

Pascal Tags, a , has developed smart tags that��help track inventory.��Young invented the technology with his faculty mentor, Dr. Thad Druffel of the UofL Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research.��

The team worked with the UofL to protect and commercialize their intellectual property.��Pascal Tags also participated in UofL’s entrepreneurship training and the����site program��for translational research.��

“This is great honor and opportunity for Brandon and the University,” Druffel said. “With a good idea and a lot of hard work, Brandon has definitely earned his place among the top collegiate innovators.”��

The Women in Leadership Forum will feature the seven women answering questions as part of a panel discussion April 17 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the PNC Horn Auditorium in the College of Business. The event is free and open to the public.

Allison Moen, president of the UofL student chapter of the National Association of Women MBAs, helped organize the event after she attended the national association’s conference last fall.

“I left the conference inspired, motivated and wanting more,” she said. “Upon my return to Louisville, I began to think of how we could replicate the experience to share it with the entire student body.”

Allison said the Louisville business leaders were enthusiastic about the discussion from the very beginning.

“Their response was tremendously moving and reflective of their commitment to their community and to the University of Louisville College of Business. They were supportive and committed to the event from our first correspondence with them. As the responses came in, that is when I fully recognized that we were onto something extraordinary and important,” she said.

The 49-member , many of whom are alumni, includes business leaders, entrepreneurs, visionaries, philanthropists and community activists who generously give their time and talent to support the college’s plans, programs and mission.

The forum participants are:

• , founder, and iPay Technologies
• , MD, regional vice president, senior clinical officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky
• Margaret Handmaker, retired director of Louisville’s Innovation Delivery Team, Louisville Metro Government
• , regional executive and senior vice president, Louisville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• , managing partner and co-founder, MCM LLP, and of the UofL Foundation
• , president,
• , chairman and CEO,

The women will discuss subjects such as their best and worst decisions, barriers to female leadership and challenges for the next generation.

College of Business associate professors Beth Davis-Sramek (marketing) and Kristen Lucas (management) will moderate the discussion.