Six Penn State student startups have been selected into the 2024 Invent Penn State Summer Founders Program. The Summer Founders Program provides teams with at least one Penn State student founder a $15,000 grant to work on their startup, social good, or nonprofit idea over the summer at Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank.
Since its inception, Berks LaunchBox has made a significant impact on the Berks County community. Over the last five years, Berks LaunchBox has assisted 582 entrepreneurs, taught new skills to 1,100 community members in its Makerspace, offered entrepreneurship classes to 3,800 community members, and impacted 1,042 students (elementary school through college).
Penn State Berks student startup team Streamline Charging LLC has received national and University-wide recognition for its flexible and affordable electric vehicle (EV) charging solution that transforms the charging experience for apartment dwellers and service station customers.
Nathan Bonslaver, Penn State Berks alumnus and cofounder of CarToCamp, worked with Invent Penn State's OriginLabs to develop a new prototype of his car sleeping platform product.
Penn State Berks will host a variety of events during Global Entrepreneurship Week from Monday, Nov. 13 to Thursday, Nov. 16. Events are sponsored by the college’s Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development (CEED) Center and the Berks LaunchBox in downtown Reading. All events are free and open to the public but advanced registration is required for some events.
The Berks LaunchBox will hold a veterans entrepreneurship resource panel webinar from 6:30–7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27. This event is free and open to the public but attendees must register in advance.
A Penn State Berks-led research team built a multidimensional model to measure the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education. The model not only includes teaching entrepreneurial skills, but also addresses the students’ intentions to start a business and their perceptions of the barriers they might encounter when starting a business.
Entrepreneurs will share their challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in a webinar titled “Customer discovery-challenges during the pandemic” from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, via Zoom.
