Dingman Center Annual Report 2022-23

DINGMAN CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Dear Friends,

AS I TRANSITIONED into the Managing Director role over the past couple of months, one thing in particular stands out more than anything else at the Dingman Center: the quality, professionalism, and capability of the Dingman team. For example, after assuming the responsibilities of interim Managing Director, Tsega Belachew led the center to a stellar year of progress toward our strategic goals, all while being understaffed.

The Dingman Center and its many supporters completed work on a new strategic plan highlighting three key pillars for the future:

• Knowledge Hub • Inclusive Entrepreneurship • Growth Sustainability and Support

Other key highlights that the team accomplished this past year include:

• The University of Maryland rose once again in the national rankings to #7 for undergraduate entrepreneurship, and #1 in the Mid-Atlantic region for both undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship

• The Dingman Center Angels made 8 new investments despite suboptimal economic conditions, with new and follow-on investments totaling $2.9M

• Pitch Dingman Competition set an all-time record with over $100k in prizes supporting aspiring entrepreneurs

• Since 2016, 78% of finalists and 86% of Pitch Dingman Competition winners are still in business

• Pitch Dingman was also expanded with a new All-Stars track to include startups from 4 different University System of Maryland institutions, extending the reach and brand of the Dingman Center across Maryland

• With support from the Smith School, a community partnership was established with Junior Achievement to both deliver social impact and catalyze a pipeline of entrepreneurship from the local community to the University of Maryland

• Provided nearly $43,000 in ad-hoc microgrants to support students advancing their business ideas

I am truly impressed with the breadth of what the team accomplished while also completing a nationwide search for the next Managing Director.

Looking toward the future, you can expect a passionate vision for growth, continuous improvement, and expansion of the Dingman Center brand across the community, state, and region. In particular, we will be working toward expansion of media coverage, increased internal and external marketing, thought leadership, and steady, methodical progress toward our strategic objectives in knowledge access, inclusive entrepreneurship, and growth sustainability and support.

As we look to expand our physical footprint as well as our brand image and impact reach over the next few years, I cannot emphasize enough the crucial impact of your time, expertise, and support. The Dingman team and their high-impact work simply would not be possible without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your unwavering participation, support and contributions over the past year.

Michael Hoffmeyer | Managing Director

Dear Dingman Center Community,

IT HAS BEEN an exciting year at the Smith School, and with the completion of our new strategic plan, we are moving fearlessly forward.

One of the fundamental principles guiding our strategic plan is “Everybody’s Business” – the idea that no matter what a student’s major is, a knowledge of business principles and practice makes a student more productive and marketable in the workplace.

In much the same way, entrepreneurship education is useful for every student. It helps them develop creativity and problem-solving skills, and nurtures their ability to think critically and independently. It helps them understand the important “why’s” of business, as well as the “how-to’s.” It demonstrates how ingenuity, hard work, persistence and resilience are rewarded in our capitalist economic system.

The Dingman Center also plays a crucial role in expanding access to entrepreneurship resources. The Center’s work to empower a broader and more-representative proportion of the local community through business ownership speaks both to our mission as a land-grant university and to our strategic goal of investing in people and communities.

From automation and the assembly line to the internet and AI, innovation creates new challenges and opportunities. The opportunities and experiences available through the Dingman Center will better prepare students to navigate through the current wave of technological change, and inspire them to become changemakers, creators and innovators.

As we welcome new director Mike Hoffmeyer to the Dingman Center, we are anticipating the energy and vision he brings. The Center will continue to be a leader in creating opportunities for UMD students, alumni and community by enhancing inclusive entrepreneurship opportunities and contributing broadly to the local, regional, and national entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The next decade will be crucial as we reimagine learning in order to prepare students to become the innovators of tomorrow. And you, as the Dingman Center’s most valued supporters, will be vital to the success of those endeavors. Thank you for your investment in the Center’s important work.

Wishing you a great year ahead,

Prabhudev Konana, PhD | Dean and Professor of Information Systems

TERP STARTUP ACCELERATOR & FELLOWS

THE DINGMAN CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP accepted 11 University of Maryland student teams into its 2023 Terp Startup Accelerator summer program. This is the program’s ninth consecutive year and the second year that the program was held in The Loft at The Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center (ESJ). Aside from the program’s weekly workshops and roundtable discussions, each venture received a stipend of $5,000 and a dedicated advisor to help them grow their business. The program culminated in a demo day event where the founders pitched their businesses to our startup community at the Brendan Iribe Center.

AC CELER AT OR TERP STARTUP TERP STARTUP

Terp Startup Accelerator 2023 Cohort:

Cursive Technology, Inc. | Joseph Thibault, MBA ’23

Cursive Technology, Inc. utilizes machine learning and other technologies to identify unique writers in a secure online text box to protect academic integrity from the risk of copy/ pasting from generative artificial intelligence programs (such as ChatGPT) or contract cheating threats. The goal is to provide faculty and teachers with better tools for assessing student writing in the classroom, providing institutions a better solution for ensuring Academic Integrity.

DISTRICT5 | Sonny Tu ’23, Alex Chen ’22, Peter Chun ’22 DISTRICT5 is a film and media production company that creates compelling and thought-provoking content across a range of platforms for consumers and businesses looking to connect to consumers.

E. Ozie Studios | Ijeoma Asonye ’23

E. Ozie Studios is a multimedia creative house currently engaging young adults and the young-at-heart with the beauty of STEM and Art. E. Ozie Studios produces books, films, and other relevant merchandise to rise to the forefront of revolutionary conversations.

Kaalmi | Matthew Foulk ’23

Kaalmi is a mental wellness company that offers sensory-based products for individuals with mental illnesses to complement their medication and therapy. The company’s mission is to bridge the

resource gap that exists in mental health treatment and empower individuals to take control of their mental wellness.

Korion Health | Akshaya Anand ’23 Korion Health provides tools that empower people to conduct their own health screenings. The first product is an affordable stethoscope and user interface that guides individuals through properly recording their heart sounds.

Old Town, New Clothes | Brian Spinner ’23 Old Town, New Clothes is a sustainable clothing brand that continues to appeal to a growing following of 500+ supporters. The startup resells clothing and also makes custom clothing.

Slut for Yarn | Anna Boyd ’24 Slut for Yarn involves creating and selling unique crochet hats, clothes, stuffed animals, accessories, and more. The company aims to combat the unethical practices in crochet sold in stores by big companies, and to change the negative connotation of the word “slut” to something empowering.

Sociable AI | Thomas (Sunghyun) Noh ’24, Jenny (Seoyoun) Jeong ’25 Sociable AI is an innovative AI virtual influencer that helps teens struggling with mental health issues via Machine Learning. Sociable AI posts social media

content advocating for teens, available to chat 24/7 to emotionally support teens on a personal level through a hyper-realistic language model.

Spray | Connor Hartzog ’23, Mari Ortega ’24, Jason Fotso-Puepi ’23, Ajitesh Kaladi ’25 Spray is an augmented reality (AR) street art application that allows people, such as artists and creatives, to compose murals on realworld physical surfaces. Spray will provide users with the tools to beautify their world through immersive art.

Tessen | Celine Liptrot ’24, Kilian Liptrot Tessen designs and produces protective covers for large, high-quality lenses in the photography, scope, drone payload, and optical sight markets. Using a new, innovative, and patentpending iris design, Tessen’s “Lens Blade” product allows anyone to use their large high-quality glass optics in the field without having to ever remove their lens caps from their device.

WISE Cities | Marie Brodsky ’24, Katherine-Aria Close ’23

TUPARST TERP TUPARST

WISE Cities is a womenrun startup creating accessible technology for seniors experiencing social isolation to connect with their communities. The platform allows seniors to easily discover local groups and resources and gives community centers, city departments, and businesses the opportunity to share their services with this typically hard-to-reach audience.

Terp Startup Fellows:

Thanks to continued support from Dingman Center Board Member, Bill Boyle ’81, the Dingman Center supported two ventures in the Terp Startup Fellows program, both of which are female founded. The following two companies were selected to receive additional resources throughout the academic year, including non-dilutive funding of up to $20,000.

Arch Dash | Ina Kovacheva ’23 and Brian Godsey

Arch Dash enables architects to make data-driven decisions that will result in healthier, efficient, and more sustainable building designs. Kovacheva participated in Terp Startup Accelerator in 2022, where she won the Go-to-Market Award ($1,000) at Demo Day and received the second place Audience Choice award. Kovacheva also recently completed the regional I-CORPS program.

Platybase | Colleen Baldwin and Olivia Bruno

Platybase is a HIPAA

compliant healthcare platform that serves as a visual diary to celebrate milestones of children with disabilities, while improving learning outcomes, creating community, and allowing pediatric therapy centers to emerge from a historically analog industry. Platybase is a company founded exclusively by disabled women, for the disability community. The company, formerly known as Dorothy’s Place, participated in Terp Startup Accelerator in 2021. The team also won the 2Gether International women’s pitch competition last spring and received a $10,000 prize.

MEET THE FOUNDERS:

Q&A with Arch Dash Co-Founder Ina Kovacheva ’23

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Arch Dash?

A: Arch dash started out as an automation platform. However, after going through the Conscious Venture Lab and speaking to customers, they thought the sustainability aspect of the platform is more important than the automation one—so we pivoted.

Q: What are Arch Dash’s biggest accomplishments so far and what do you hope to achieve in the future?

A: Our biggest accomplishment so far has been being accepted into the Terp Startup Fellows program and the development of our platform. In the future, we hope to put our platform to use and have potential customers give us feedback to help us improve it. We hope to then acquire customers and scale.

Q: How has being a part of Terp Startup Fellows helped your business?

A: It has helped us immensely! The support and guidance we’ve received has been invaluable and our network has grown exponentially. We’ve learned a lot and know what we must accomplish to reach the next steps in the startup journey. The Dingman Center team has been very invested in us and it’s been amazing to have their support.

Q&A with Platybase Co-Founders Colleen Baldwin and Olivia Bruno

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Platybase?

A: Platybase was created out of love for the disability community and commitment to improving services for the next generation of families like our own. Olivia and Colleen are both Autistic and grew up receiving help from supportive therapies, tutors and specialists, all of which were organized and forced to communicate through our parents due to healthcare privacy regulations. Over 3% of American kids are Autistic and the average Autistic child has 10-15 care team members, all of whom have to communicate through a parent, which makes miscommunications common, slows learning outcomes, and can lead to adverse childhood experiences. This core problem led us to participate in Terp Startup Accelerator in 2021 where we began developing a HIPAA compliant healthcare communication platform that shares milestones, updates and daily communications between therapists and families to keep entire care-teams up to date on a child’s progress and share mutual support.

Q: What are Platybase’s biggest accomplishments so far and what do you hope to achieve in the future?

A: So far, Platybase has raised more than $45k in non-dilutive funding through the UMD system and various pitch competitions. Platybase now serves hundreds of families through our relationships with major ABA therapy centers across the USA. In the future we hope to leverage artificial intelligence to improve learning outcomes for children undergoing behavioral therapy, and provide cost effective communication solutions.

Q: How has being a part of Terp Startup Fellows helped your business?

A: The Dingman Center has been a huge source of support for the Platybase Team as we have tackled the challenges of being founders while working full time. The weekly meetings with Tsega and Alex have been instrumental in our success, as they have provided grounding perspectives when challenges have seemed daunting or roadblocks have looked insurmountable. Additionally, Terp Startup has provided the Platybase team with access to priceless mentorship opportunities with alumni and faculty that have guided the founders during times of uncertainty. Entrepreneurship is something that needs to be learned by doing, and our Dingman mentors and advisors have given us the space to grow as founders while providing invaluable insight into their lived experiences that have informed our decision making.

PITCH DINGMAN COMPETITION

THIS YEAR , the Dingman Center held Pitch Dingman Competition on April 18 at Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center for over 400 audience members and over 500 virtual observers. The Dingman Center distributed more prizes to student entrepreneurs than ever before, over $100,000 in total, in part due to the addition of a fourth track to the competition, the All Stars Pilot Track, for recent, previous winners of select University System of Maryland entrepreneurship competitions. In its pilot year, this track included students from Bowie State University, the University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The Dingman Center hopes to further expand this track in future years to include even more USM schools.

Main Street Track Winners:

The Main Street Track is for small businesses with revenue and initial customers, but not focused on scale.

Around the Block | Gabrielle McLaughlin ’23 and Joelle Anselmo ’23

GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($20,000)

Around the Block is an apparel company that invokes nostalgia and camaraderie in the university community through our one-ofa-kind designs. The company prioritizes sustainable processes and philanthropic initiatives.

NotUrAverage Candles | Courtney Johnson PhD ’23

SECOND PLACE ($7,500)

NotUrAverage Candles is a coconut wax candle company that illuminates the world of science through fragrance.

Room 242 | Kang Ewimbi ’24

THIRD PLACE ($1,000) AND AUDIENCE

CHOICE ($1,000)

Room 242 is an independent artist services company designed for college musicians. From living space and record label services to intuitive artist data and events, Room 242 provides not only a pathway to the career every new artist wants but the creative community every artist needs.

The David and Robyn Quattrone Tech Track Winners: This track is targeted to students with scalable, tech or tech-enabled ventures that already have traction, but no minimum revenue is required.

Sustainabli | Kevin Tu ’23, Telon Yan ’23 and Oliver D’Esposito ’26 GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($30,000)

Sustainabli provides avenues for research institutions to reach sustainability goals by making labs greener.

Lingo AI | Pranav Shikarpur ’23 and Ian Costello ’22

SECOND PLACE ($10,000)

Lingo AI is an AI-powered multilingual content tool designed to help content creators launch language-specific channels with no extra work/cost to the creator. This helps content creators reach untapped global audiences on platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, and Tiktok.

WISE Cities | Marie Brodsky ’24 and Katherine-Aria Close ’23

THIRD PLACE ($1,000) AND AUDIENCE CHOICE ($1,000)

WISE Cities is a women-run startup creating accessible technology for seniors experiencing social isolation to connect with their communities. The platform allows seniors to easily discover local groups and resources and gives community centers, city departments, and businesses the opportunity to share their services with this typically hard-to-reach audience.

All Stars Pilot Track Winners: Pilot competition track for recent, previous winners of University System of Maryland entrepreneurship competitions.

Meridian Health (UMD) | Aishwarya Tare ’22 and Deep Mehta GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($10,000)

Meridian Health is building a conversational LLM to connect 18-26 year olds to mental and physical healthcare near them, and collecting data on their health outcomes.

Exclusiveekicks (BSU) | Johnathan Russell AUDIENCE CHOICE PRIZE ($1,000)

Exclusiveekicks is an aftermarket specialist business, providing you with 100% authentic, limited, and soughtafter sneakers.

Idea Track Winners:

The Idea Track is an idea-style challenge for students who do not yet have a developed venture.

Tessen | Celine Liptrot ’24 and Kilian Liptrot ’23 GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($3,000)

Tessen designs and produces protective covers for large, high-quality lenses in the photography, scope, drone payload, and optical sight markets. Using a new, innovative, and patent-pending iris design, Tessen’s “Lens Blade” product allows anyone to use their large-high-quality glass optics in the field

Team Sustainabli took home the $30,000 Grand Prize in The David and Robyn Quattrone Tech Track

without having to ever remove their lens caps from their device.

Spray | Connor Hartzog ’23, Mari Ortega ’24, Jason Fotso-Puepi ’23 and Ajitesh

Kaladi ’25

SECOND PLACE ($2,000)

Spray is an augmented reality (AR) street art application that allows people, such as artists and creatives, to compose murals on real-world physical surfaces. Spray will provide users the tools to beautify their world through immersive art.

Specialty Prizes ($1,000 each):

Best Graduate Founder or Team:

Pet Passport | Dorian Stephens ’23, Alex Sonnie ’22, Shahriar Jahanbani ’22, Ogugua Obii-Obioha ’23, Musangu Bukasa ’23

Best Maryland Smith Student Founder or Team: Exercise Network | Candace

Austin ’23

Ladies First Founders:

Visionergy | Terry Goolsby ’25

Social Impact: Frontground | Kenneth Yeaher Jr. ’24, Kenneth Yeaher Sr.

Sustainability: Arch Dash | Ina

Kovacheva ’25, Brian Godsey

Tom’s Industrious Entrepreneur Award: Sustainabli | Kevin Tu ’23, Telon Yan ’23 and Oliver D’Esposito ’26

Founders Showcase Audience Choice

Award: Rent My Closet | Ariyan Khana ’23, Arvyn Garchitorena ’23, Jamil Mailk ’23

Spotlight on Tessen, Pitch Dingman Competition 2023 Idea Track

Grand Prize Winner:

Q&A with Tessen Co-Founder Celine Liptrot ’24

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Tessen?

A: The idea for the Tessen lens blade came from our mutual love of photography, and began as simple as a conversation wondering why there had been no innovation to a camera lens cap. Over that year casual conversations envisioning what that product could look like became planning on how to make this product a reality.

Q: What are Tessen’s biggest accomplishments so far and what do you hope to achieve in the future?

A: So far Tessen has won the Pitch Dingman Competition Idea Track Grand Prize and has placed as a finalist in the Georgetown McDonough School of Business Bark Tank Competition. We’ve started prototyping and the patent process since Pitch Dingman and are seeing exciting growth in our product. We hope to bring Tessen back to compete next year in the Pitch Dingman Competition Main Street Track.

Q: How has winning the Pitch Dingman Competition Idea Track helped your business?

A: Winning the Idea Track has proved to be an instrumental catalyst for the advancement of our burgeoning business. The financial support extended to us through the Dingman Center has significantly helped further our progress in producing a fully functional product. The award funds have helped make strides in prototyping and patenting. Additionally, winning Pitch Dingman has opened doors to the Terp Startup Accelerator program, which we will be participating in this summer, allowing for us to get additional insight and mentorship in product creation and effective marketing.

PITCH DINGMAN COMPETITION 2023 JUDGES

FINALS JUDGES:

Main Street and Quattrone Track Judges:

David Quattrone MBA ‘05 | Co-Founder & CTO, Cvent

Chris Ballenger | Founder & CEO, APEX Strategies

Tom Parsons ’93, MBA ’10 | President, Parsons Ventures, Inc.

Adriana Avakian ‘12 | Founder and CEO at TheIncLab

Holly DeArmond, MBA ‘17 | Executive Director, Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship

Jennifer Hsin ‘89 | Partner, CNF Investments LLC

All Star Pilot Track Judges:

Kate Heath | Director, Student Entrepreneurship at GWU

Kendall Hobrock | Chief Executive Officer, Dev Technology Group Inc

Vishal Khera, MBA ’00 | Founder and Managing Director, Khera Ventures

Markus Proctor | Executive Director, Innovators of Progress

Lindsay Ryan | Director, University System of Maryland

MaryCatherine Wright | Vice President of Talent, Venture For America

Thank you to David and Robyn Quattrone, Chris and Vidya Ballenger ‘89, Parsons Ventures, Inc. and Amazon Web Services for providing funding for the competition.

Tessen founders Celine Liptrot ’24 and Kilian Liptrot ’23 proudly display their Idea Track Grand Prize winnings.

INCLUSIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP & ELEVATE! DIVERSE FOUNDERS

THIS PAST YEAR , The Dingman Center team has broadened its original Ladies First Initiative in order to include all minority founders, making way for a new event series: Elevate! Diverse Founders, as well as a new signature course: BMGT369D Inclusive Entrepreneurship. This programming is meant to include all students including those from diverse gender, racial, socio-economic and neurodivergent backgrounds.

The Inclusive Entrepreneurship course empowers and connects diverse students interested in careers as founders, investors or early startup employees with a passion for advancing equity and inclusion within entrepreneurship. In this one-credit course, students learn about entrepreneurship, grow their own ventures, and support each other’s entrepreneurial journeys through a blend of skill-building workshops and sessions with guest speakers. The pilot course, introduced during the Spring 2023 semester, was taught by the Dingman Center’s own Director of Venture Development, Tsega Belachew.

The Dingman Center team also hosted two events this year as part of the Elevate! Diverse Founders series. These events are meant to celebrate the entrepreneurial journeys of underrepresented entrepreneurs and explore the challenges and triumphs they face. The panel discussions ensuing provided a space to discuss the kind of campus community that can elevate equity and inclusion within entrepreneurship.

We would like to thank the members of our community that served on a panel for these important discussions:

On November 15, the Dingman Center hosted an Elevate! Diverse Founders Dinner featuring the following panelists:

Colleen Baldwin | Co-Founder of Platybase

Maurice Boissiere ‘89 | Chief Customer Officer at DataTribe (Moderator)

Ngozi Irondi-Azubike ‘82 | Co-Founder & COO of OBAN Corporation

Dr. LaTanya White | Founder at Concept Creative Group

Rashida Petersen ‘03 | Founder of 1847

Philanthropic

Brin Xu, PhD ‘23 | Founder of Fancy & Spicy

Panelists at the Elevate! Diverse Founders Fall '22 event.

On March 9, the Dingman Center hosted Elevate! Diverse Founders: Access to Networks. The first panel, Ladies First Equity in Entrepreneurship: Access to Networks, featured the following panelists:

Misha Bucknor ‘20 | Founder of AmeriCariMade

Claire Cochrane ‘11 | Co-Founder of Vault Health

Abby Malchow, MBA ’17 | Small Business Partnerships at Amazon (Moderator)

Breonna Massey ‘18 | Founder of SLAY Naturals

Kathryn Stewart | Founder of Cranbrook Capital

The second panel, Black & Latinx Equity in Entrepreneurship: Access to Networks, featured the following panelists:

Harry Alford ’07 | Senior Cloud Sales Specialist at Coinbase

Audrey Awasom ’18 | Founder of Noble Uprising

Aurelia Flores | Investment Director at Virginia Venture Partners

Malcolm Tyson, PhD | Managing Director & Chief Strategist at Stratascension, Inc. (Moderator)

“Not everyone will be an employee. Through Elevate! Diverse Founders, the Dingman Center is leveling the playing field for all who want to take that entrepreneurial journey to see themselves in that space.”

Ngozi Irondi-Azubike ‘82: Co-Founder & COO of OBAN Corporation

Panelists from the Elevate! Diverse Founders Spring '23 Ladies First Equity in Entrepreneurship: Access to Networks panel

Panelists from the Elevate! Diverse Founders Spring '23 Black & Latinx Equity in Entrepreneurship: Access to Networks panel

REMEMBERING OUR FOUNDER, RUDY LAMONE

1931–2023

RUDOLPH (RUDY) P. LAMONE , the founder of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, passed away on Jan. 30, 2023. As previous dean of the Smith School (1973 to 1992), a co-founder of the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, and a founding member of the National Consortium for Life Science Entrepreneurship Programs, “Rudy” was a name not only known and beloved by the University of Maryland community but nationwide.

Rudy was an extraordinarily giving individual. Within the Dingman Center, he launched the Dingman Center Angels, a Maryland-based angel investment group that provides funding to early-stage companies. The Rudy Awards, named after Rudy, were created to honor members of the Dingman Center community who embody his entrepreneurial and generous spirit.

“Rudy was an incredible role model who never stopped working to impact student lives through entrepreneurship, and worked tirelessly to support the Dingman Center and the Smith School,” says Brent Goldfarb, Dean’s Professor of Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of the Dingman Center. “Rudy was effective because he celebrated everybody’s talents. He was such a great human being. Any interaction with Rudy was a privilege. I hope his inspiration will live on in all of us.”

As a pioneer within the field, Rudy was a role model for many students, but also had some of the strongest impacts on those who worked alongside him.

“Throughout my years at the Dingman Center, Rudy was always available to listen, encourage and offer relevant advice,” said Holly DeArmond, former Managing Director of the Dingman Center. “I loved hearing him say ‘hey kid’ every time he arrived in my office, or I called him on the phone. Rudy made me and countless others feel appreciated, supported, and qualified.”

Rudy was an innovative businessman with a gift for seeing the potential in all entrepreneurs regardless of their age or background. Even outside of accomplishments within the industry, Rudy was known for his genuine and kind demeanor. He was a man who loved getting to know people and always made everyone in the room feel heard and appreciated.

“We are forever grateful for Dr. Lamone’s contributions to establishing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the Smith School that has grown into a thriving and vibrant ecosystem in every school and college across our campus,” said President Darryll J. Pines. “His legacy, including the Dingman Center, will last for generations.”

Rudy Lamone delivering a speech at the 2018 Rudy Awards.

SINCE ITS INCEPTION , the Dingman Center Angels network has invested more than $26.6 million in 200 transactions, with some impressive exits to date. This year, members invested in 8 new companies and deployed approximately $2.9 million in capital across various new and follow-on investments. The angel network is an important tool to engage our alumni community and connect students to the startup ecosystem.

DINGMAN CENTER ANGELS

Investments for the 2022-2023 Season

Astek Diagnostics

Astek Diagnostics is a medical device company, formed in 2020 to commercialize a novel technology for detecting bacterial infections in urine.

Channel Program

Channel Program is a vendor platform for connecting IT Service Providers with vendors and arming both sides with the tools, deliverables, and partnerships necessary.

Elite Gaming Live

EliteGamingLIVE (EGL) is a competitive gaming league for grades 3-12 utilizing esports as an avenue to cultivate the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.

Emporia Research

Emporia Research uses AI-powered search to connect growth minded market researchers to the exact professionals they need for any B2B market research project.

Hungry Harvest

Hungry Harvest is a farm to doorstep produce delivery service on a mission to end food waste & hunger.

Linshom Medical

The Linshom Respiratory Monitor improves patient safety by providing continuous, uninterrupted, critical respiratory information through innovative monitoring technology.

Link Labs

Link Labs specializes in scalable, end-to-end asset visibility for manufacturing and logistics operations.

Predict Health

Predict Health helps healthcare organizations grow their Medicare, consumer, individual, group, and patient populations by using AI and data analytics.

“I've been involved with Dingman since I was a freshman in 2010—and it's funny how things have come full circle with some Dingman Center Angels funding Hungry Harvest's most recent round early in 2023! Many members of Dingman have a strong bias towards Terp alumni and local-based companies which made them a perfect fit for us. Our plan is to expand our fast-growing lines of business: Wholesale—sales of our produce to institutions like restaurants and food service, and Food as Medicine, where hospital systems pay for Produce Prescriptions of healthy fruits and vegetables for patients.”

—Evan Lutz: CEO & Co-founder of Hungry Harvest

BOARD OF ADVISORS

MUCH OF THE Dingman Center’s strength of vision can be attributed to the innovators on our Advisory board. The time, treasure, and talent that these members contribute are essential in helping our Center achieve its mission; supporting students in their entrepreneurial pursuits, and strengthening our entrepreneurial ecosystem through our ambitious strategic pillars.

Harry Alford, III ’07 | humble ventures

Harry is the Co-Founder of humble ventures, a DC-based venture development firm that drives innovation forward in partnership with startups, investors, and established organizations.

Bill Boyle '81, Board Chair | FiberGate, Inc.

Bill founded FiberGate, Inc., a Washington D.C. metro area provider of dark fiber services. He ran the company for 17 years and successfully exited in the fall of 2012. Currently, Bill invests and works with startup companies through the Dingman Center Angels.

Maurice Boissiere ’89 | DataTribe

Maurice is the Chief Customer Officer of DataTribe, a cyber foundry that invests and co-builds cybersecurity ventures. He has more than 20 years of product leadership experience at early-stage ventures and is an Adjunct Professor at UMD.

Charles G. Carr '85 | RSM

Chuck is a Partner at RSM, the leading U.S. provider of audit, tax and consulting services focused on the middle market. He primarily serves technology and life science clients, as well as numerous restaurant/hospitality clients. Chuck has assisted many companies with their IPO process.

Jon Chapman, MBA '07 | EverFi

Jon is the president and co-founder of EverFi, a K-16 digital education program driving social change through teaching critical life skills such as personal finance, health and wellness, digital living, energy and student loans.

Ish Dugal ’05 | Golden Arc Capital

Ish is the Founder and Managing Partner at GoldenArc Capital, a Silicon Valley based private investment firm. Ish has 14 years of venture capital and private equity investment experience and has invested in 15+ high growth ventures with 3 IPOs and multiple M&A exits from his portfolio.

Stephen B. Ferber '90 | Golden Gate BPO Solutions, LLC

Stephen is CEO & Managing Partner of Golden Gate BPO Solutions, LLC, which he founded in 2006 in conjunction with Paxys, Inc. and Advanced Contact Solutions, one of the largest outsourced providers of contact center and BPO solutions in Southeast Asia.

Matthew Fishlinger '07 | Gramercy Risk Holdings, LLC

In 2014, Matthew formed Gramercy Risk Holdings, LLC with his father, William Fishlinger, former CEO and Chairman of The Wright Insurance Group. Gramercy provides financial,

operational and legal resources for both domestic and foreign property and casualty insurance entities.

Harry Geller '81 | Serial Entrepreneur

Harry is an entrepreneur whose career has spanned a broad range of successful startup companies. Geller has launched, owned and managed fourteen multi-million dollar businesses, primarily focused on the fields of logistics, food services and real estate.

Jeff Grinspoon '90, MBA '95 | VWG Wealth Management

Jeff is Managing Director, Partner at VWG where he works with business owners and executives formulating business succession plans, managing liquidity events and executing wealth transfer strategies.

Jennifer Hsin ’98 | CNF Investments LLC

Jennifer is a Director and CFO at CNF Investments LLC, where she is responsible for sourcing and managing portfolio companies with a focus on SaaS and techenabled businesses.

Gloria Jacobovitz, Ph.D. | Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Gloria is an entrepreneur, angel investor and technology manager. She has over 20 years of experience in research, technology based startups and entrepreneurship, as well as Fortune 500 companies worldwide.

Thomas Parsons ‘93 | Parsons Ventures, Inc.

Thomas formed Parsons Ventures, Inc. and purchased B&R Associates in 2012, an automotive equipment company. Tom has established himself as a respected leader in the automotive equipment industry,

having been named to several manufacturer distributor councils, and he is a board member on the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association (WANADA).

David Quattrone, MBA '05 | Cvent

David is Co-founder and CTO at Cvent, for which he designed and supervised the development of Cvent's original beta product as well as all of Cvent's subsequent product releases, upgrades and redesigns.

Pam Rothenberg | Womble Bond Dickinson

At Womble Carlyle, Pam founded and leads the firm’s Impact Economy team. Providing both cutting edge strategic consulting and a full-breadth of legal services, Pam’s team helps companies and entrepreneurs “grow their competitive advantage, with Impact.”

Michael Schwab | D&H Distributing Company

Michael began his D&H career in 1989 as an outside sales rep. in the Philadelphia area. Over the years, he has overseen D&H's staff of product managers, growing the department from two to more than 50 representatives. Michael became copresident in 2008.

Manpreet Singh '03 | Singh Capital Partners

Manpreet is the CIO of Singh Capital Partners, an investment office based in the Washington, DC area managing the wealth of the Singh families. The company directs investments into venture capital, real estate, and growth equity.

Ralph P. Sita, Jr., CPA ’84 | Cybrary

Ralph is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cybrary, a crowdsourced Cyber Security and IT career

development and training platform. Prior to starting Cybrary, he founded a CPA firm that operated for over 22 years.

Kathryn Stewart | Cranbrook Capital

Kathryn is Founder and Managing Director of Cranbrook Capital, which provides seed and early stage capital to emerging tech-focused companies. The firm has invested in Apio Systems, CircleUp, Canvas, Homesnap, GoTenna, Passive Capital Management and SalesWarp.

Polly Vail | Turnstyle Partners

Polly is a consultant who develops strategies and implementation plans for clients on branding and business development. Her past clients include the International Lyme Disease Society and GeniusRocket, where she served as business development director and president.

Max Weiner ’96 | Max Weiner Jewelers Max is an Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor and Gemologist who works mainly in second-hand jewelry markets buying and selling Diamonds, Watches, Coins and precious metals.

New Members (2022-23)

Elana Fine ’97 | VWG Wealth Management

Elana is the chief operating officer of VWG Wealth Management, where she oversees VWG’s financial management, client services operations, human resources, professional development, compliance and marketing. Before joining VWG, Elana served as the executive director of the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

Steve Freishtat ‘81 | Next Day Blinds

Steve is the founder and former CEO of the Next Day Blinds Corporation, a leading window blind manufacturer and retailer. He retired from Next Day Blinds upon its acquisition in 2019. Currently, Steve is a speaker and presenter for Vistage Worldwide, a leading CEO peer advisory organization, where he conducts CEO workshops.

Ngozi Irondi-Azubike ‘82 | OBAN Corporation

Ngozi is the founder of two companies, each acquired after 10 years of successful growth. Currently, she is COO/EVP of OBAN Corporation, a management consulting firm providing professional services to governments.

Steven Krein ‘92 | StartUp Health

Steven is the CEO, Cofounder & Managing Partner of StartUp Health, whose mission is to solve the biggest health challenges of our time. StartUp Health invests globally in a large diversified portfolio of seed and early-stage digital health and biotech startups.

Newly Elected (2023-24)

Abby Malchow, MBA ’17 | Amazon

Abby Malchow is the Sr. Business Development Manager of Small Business Partnerships for Small Business Empowerment at Amazon which helps drive the success of small businesses and underserved business populations (including minority-, women-, and veteranowned businesses).

COMMUNITY, DONORS & SPONSORS

WHETHER IT IS TIME , talent or treasure, the Dingman Center network gives back in immeasurable ways. Much of this support goes to producing highly experiential venture creation programming as well as seed funding student-run startups. This year we distributed over $250,000 in non-dilutive seed funding to student entrepreneurs participating in our programs. Thank you to our donors and corporate sponsors for your generous support.

Honor Roll of Donors

Mr. Kurt R. and Mrs. Jeanne Aarsand

Mr. Harry C. Alford, III

Mr. Thomas C. Alford

Ms. Adriana Avakian

Mr. Christopher Ballenger and Mrs. Vidya S. Ballenger

Dr. J. Robert Baum

Ms. Tsega T. Belachew

Ms. Hillary Shenk Berman

Mr. Andrew T. Bewick

Mr. Maurice X. Boissiere, Jr.

Mr. William J. Boyle

Mr. Charles G. Carr

Mr. Jonathan H. Chapman and Mrs. Kirsten Chapman

Mr. Daniel J. Connors, Jr. and Mrs. Diane Leslie Ty

Mr. Phillip C. Cooke

Mrs. Holly N. DeArmond

Mr. Ishdeep S. Dugal and Mrs. Priya A. Dugal

Mr. Stephen B. Ferber and Mrs. Melissa Ferber

Mrs. Elana R. Fine

Mr. C. Martin Fisher

Mr. Jon M. Forster and Andrea S. Forster

Mr. Steven I. Freishtat and Mrs. Sheryl Freishtat

Mr. Harry L. Geller

Dr. Brent D. Goldfarb

Mr. Kunal Gupta

Dr. Deborah J. Hemingway

Ms. Sara E. Herald

Mrs. Kendall N. Holbrook

Mr. Bryan E. Houlton

Mrs. Jennifer K. Hsin

Mr. Tyler Hudson

Ms. Ngozi E. Irondi-Azubike

Dr. Gloria R. Jacobovitz

Mr. Vladimir Jirinec

Mr. Dhivyan A. Karunakaran

Mrs. Claire D. Knight

Mr. John A. Kristianson

Mr. Neal R. Kursban

Mr. Chester Luby and Mrs. Joan Luby

Ms. Abigail E. Malchow

Ms. Ellen J. McGeoch

Mr. Ryan M. Miller and Mrs. Carleigh N. Miller

Mr. Jack B. Moody

Mr. Borel N. Natemzem

Ms. Monica A. Oves

Mr. Thomas B. Parsons

Ms. Pamela S. Privette

Mr. Thomas J. Ryan, Jr.

Mr. Thomas J. Ryan, Jr.

Mr. Brandon A. Schwab

Mr. Michael J. Schwab and Mrs. Debbie L. Schwab

Lakhbir Singh, Ph.D.

Mr. Manpreet Singh

Mr. Sehej J. Singh

Mr. Ralph P. Sita, Jr.

Mr. Rohan M. Sridharan

Mrs. Laura R. Steeg

Mrs. Kathryn K. Stewart

Mr. Benjamin D. Taragin

Mr. Charles J. Thomas and Ms. Karen U. Thomas

Ms. Mary Blair (Polly) Vail

Mr. Adam B. VanWagner and Ms. Jamie L. Yaniga

Mr. Patrick F. Walsh

Mr. Paul P. Walsh

Mr. Max L. Weiner

Mrs. Rebecca D. Winner

Mrs. Jessica L. Zeiser

Giving Day 2023:

We would like to thank our donors for the support we received on Giving Day 2023. A special thank you to our 2023 Giving Day Champions: Harry Alford '07, Audrey Awasom ’18, Sehej Singh '20, and Jonathan Schneider '20. We were able to raise more than $37,000 for our Center during this one-day fundraising event.

Corporate Partners

Gold | $10,000–$19,999 Silver | $5,000–$9,999

Bronze | Up to $4,999

STAFF, FACULTY & COMMUNITY

THE CENTER’S activities helped lead the University of Maryland to a #7 ranking in The Princeton Review’s annual survey of Top Schools for Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education.

Dingman Center Professional Staff

Mike Hoffmeyer, Managing Director

Brent Goldfarb, Academic Director and Dean’s Professor of Entrepreneurship

Tsega Tadesse Belachew, Director of Venture Development

Stan Smith, Director of Venture Investments

Lottie Byram, Assistant Director of Community Programs

Haley Mates ’14, Events and Marketing Manager

Alex Onufrak ’21, Venture Programs and Operations Coordinator

Isha Kamara ’20, Outreach and Programs Coordinator

Publishing Team

Haley Mates ’14

Michael Hoffmeyer

Graphic Design

Jennifer Paul ’93

Photography

Ross Lewin (HoCo Photo)

Icons courtesy of the Noun Project:

COVER: mortar board by Stephen Borengasser; lightning by Trevor Dsouza; arrow by The Impekables

PAGE 2: speech bubble by Alex Podolsky

PAGE 7: Idea by Icon Master

PAGE 10: candles by Iconographer

PAGE 15: people by Anastasia Latysheva

Adobe Stock Images:

COVER: lightbulb by gorynvd, yellow sticky notes by Jan Engel

Faculty Affiliates

Bill Bentley

Drew Bewick ’88

Maurice Boissiere ’89

Gilad Chen

Constance Ford

Steve Freishtat ’81

Sara Herald

David Kirsch

Oliver Schlake

Neil Schulman

Evan Starr

Subrahmaniam Tangirala

Zeluis Teixeira

Le-Marie Thompson

Legal Advisors

Dan Connors ’82

Jon Forster ’86

Jay Levine

Juliana Neelbauer, JD ’12

Minh-Quan Pham, Ph. D. ’99

Stephen Plotnick ’96

Corinne Pouliquen ’89

Aneesha Sehgal

Josh Udler, MBA ’00

Venture Mentors

Athena Abbott, MBA ’91

Janice Burg-Levi

Paul Capriolo ’06

Claire Cochrane ’11

Mac (McKeever E.) Conwell II

Theresa Daytner

James Fayal ’12

Jasmine Snead Ferguson ’18, MBA/MPP ’21

LaKisha Greenwade, MBA ’11

Henrik de Gyor

Joe Houghton ’22

Aaron Hovey, MBA ’22

Jennifer Hsin ’98

Ngozi Irondi-Azubike ’82

Faluna Johnson

Ben Khakshoor ’18

Neal Kursban

Monique Maley

Tunde Ogungbade

Joel Plotkin

Raj (Rajesh) Rai, MBA ’01

Mike Ravenscroft, MBA ’21

Martin Sanders, MBA ’21

Kapil Sharma

Evan Shubin

Cee Smith

Adam Stettner

Kathryn Stewart

Benjamin Taragin ’19

Zeluis Teixeria

Jonathan Thomas

Natalie Urban ’19

Polly Vail

Adam VanWagner ’11, MPS ’15

Joseph Ward

Francie Wasser

Max Weiner ‘96

Valerio Zanini, MBA ’06

Pitch Dingman Competition Coaches

Maurice Boissiere ’89

Paul Capriolo ’06

Claire Cochrane ’11

Mike Ravenscroft, MBA ’21

Student Workers

Michelle Hunt ’23

Patrick Ibanez ’24

Grace Lee ’23

Navid Masloom, MBA ’23

Madison Mazer ’23

Karla “Abby” Oseguera ’24

Takiya Roberts ’25

Dominic Sims ’24

Robert H. Smith School of Business

Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

2518 Van Munching Hall College Park, MD 20742

rhsmith-dingman@umd.edu

www.rhsmith.umd.edu/Dingman

FACEBOOK: /dingmancenter

TWITTER: @UMD_Dingman

LINKEDIN: Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

BLOG: dingmanblog.com

INSTAGRAM: @dingmancenter

TIKTOK @dingmancenter