Meet two Wolfpack women who are innovative entrepreneurs

March is Women’s History Month and Friday, March 8, is International Women’s Day.

In celebration, we’d like to introduce five women in the Wolfpack who’ve launched and led startup companies based on NC State research — all of whom graciously agreed to share their insights and perspectives as researchers and startup founders.

Editor’s Note: The following interview responses have been edited for clarity, concision and adherence to NC State University editorial style guidelines.

Ashley Brown

Ashley Brown, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and the co-director of the Comparative Medicine Institute at NC State, co-founded Selsym Biotech.

Who is a role model that has inspired you in your career?

Several role models have inspired me, and continue to inspire me, throughout my career. One that stands out is Dr. Fran Ligler, who is a “serial inventor.” The breadth of Dr. Ligler’s inventions and her knowledge about the patent process have been extremely inspiring to me.

How do you think we can encourage more women to pursue entrepreneurship?

I think the key is ensuring there’s support and a network for women entrepreneurs.

What drew you to entrepreneurship and encouraged you to form a startup company?

The opportunity to commercialize lifesaving technologies is both what drew me to entrepreneurship and what excites me about forming a startup company. I have also been interested in making the technologies we develop in the lab into viable products.

Seema Nandi

Seema Nandi, CEO of Selsym Biotech, earned her doctorate from NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill’s Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.

How do you think we can encourage more women to pursue entrepreneurship?

I think visibility within personal networks is really important. I’m not sure I would have truly considered this type of role as a real career possibility if I hadn’t had the example of other colleagues and friends in my professional and personal circles pursuing entrepreneurship roles, but being able to see them lead by example helped make this seem like a tangible and achievable option for my career.

What drew you to entrepreneurship and encouraged you to form a startup company?

I didn’t always envision entrepreneurship as a part of my career, but I became drawn to it over the course of my time in the Biomedical Engineering program. As part of my dissertation work, I was able to take part in the development of innovative technologies that had the potential to really impact patient care and outcomes in the hemorrhage control space, and the more I learned about the opportunities for spinning technology out of university labs to develop them for commercial use, the more excited I became by the chance to translate our synthetic platelet technology out of the laboratory and into the clinic where it could have a significant positive impact for patients.

What advice would you give to researchers who want to form a startup company?

Take advantage of all the resources and incubator systems offered through their tech transfer offices and other institutions that support startups. It can feel very daunting to come into the startup world with a purely technical background, but there are so many opportunities available in our immediate vicinity that can help get you set up for success and help you gain a lot of the critical skills and background knowledge to operate in that space.

The preceding is an excerpt from the full article originally published in the Office of Research and Innovation News.