Success Stories

Invent Penn State helps bring dreams to life during Startup Week 2020

The agenda for Penn State Startup Week 2020, March 30 – April 3, across the university’s Commonwealth campuses, is set to connect students with some of the leading minds in entrepreneurship and innovation. Startup Week features entrepreneurial workshops; networking; student pitch competitions; and presentations from startup founders and corporate innovators,…

Navy veteran taps leadership skills to dive into entrepreneurship

Before Tamela Serensits got her entrepreneurial feet, she got her sea legs as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy – traveling the world protecting freedom and leading critical decision-making when lives were on the line. That experience helped form her character, and commitment to her own startup company: Argolytics, a web-based…

After a Stroll Through Smeal, an Entrepreneur Gets His Wings

After five years of traveling the country witnessing the day-to-day challenges marketers face, Penn State alum Anthony “AJ” Bruno knew he could present a better solution. In 2012, he created an analytics platform aimed at public relations firms: TrendKite. Over the next six years, the success of Bruno’s digital PR…

3M and Penn State strike new three-year deal to drive research

As Penn State Materials Research Institute prepared for its 2019 Materials Day event – held October 29th and 30th – 3M was busy reinforcing its relationship with Penn State to advance research activities with a new $900,000 commitment over the next three years. The new agreement harnessed the efforts of…

Disrupting the sleep market was all in a day’s work for alumni JT Marino

Every parent knows college students like sleep. College of Engineering graduate John-Thomas “JT” Marino, however, committed all his energy to sleep after graduating in 2012 when he started Tuft & Needle – a direct-to-consumer online mattress retailer with a "bed in a box" concept – completely disrupting the way consumers purchase…

It’s amazing what a drop of water can reveal to the trained eye.

In the lab of assistant professor Lauren Zarzar, Ph.D., in Penn State's Eberly College of Science, Zarzar and graduate students Amy Goodling and Caleb Meredith were studying droplets of water for use in lenses. They happened to notice certain conditions where the droplets were colored. This observation enabled them to understand and…

Rachel Herder leads IP Clinic effort to boost entrepreneurship success

Rachel Herder knows a thing or two about how complex systems work. As director of the Penn State Law Intellectual Property Clinic and assistant professor of clinical law, she leverages her multiple degrees and experience in life sciences patent law to help entrepreneurs across Pennsylvania determine how to properly secure a patent,…

Alumni give purpose to America's aging population

Who knew back in 2015 when Occupational Therapy Assistant students Ali Izzo and Holly Masters met as Penn State freshman that their budding friendship would blossom into a growing entrepreneurial enterprise that today is changing the lives of older Americans? Masters and Izzo's desire to help aging Americans incubated over…

Invent Penn State adds second LaunchBox location in Reading, PA

Invent Penn State is expanding its footprint in Reading, PA to enable budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to grow their ideas into businesses that positively impact the community. Penn State Berks recently opened its second LaunchBox location at the Goggleworks Center for the Arts, 201 Washington Street. It will augment the…

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