Do you know there are 15 mentors at 1789 ready to talk to students about ideas, help them navigate innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities on campus and guide them through

· building prototypes

· completing secondary market research

· considering social impact

· incorporating

· branding

· visualizing data

· seeking funding

Many of the mentors have their own personal experiencing founding a company or working for a startup. Some are faculty members. Some are staff. Some are graduate students. All are available to you virtually and remotely! All students interested in innovation and entrepreneurship are welcome at 1789 and encouraged to email these mentors to set up a time to chat, seek feedback on their idea and get their questions answered.

Patrick Kastian is an analyst at Innovate Carolina and has over seven years of experience in market research and business development across a wide range of industries. Whether you just started working on your idea, have already built your first prototype, or are ready to start marketing your product, Patrick can help guide you through the next steps in your startup process.

Mirah Alix is a sociology graduate student at UNC with a passion for social enterprise and environmentally responsible business. She received her Bachelor’s in Sociology and Communications with a minor in Business from Vanderbilt University in 2018. Following graduation, she spent a year in the San Francisco Bay Area as a Category Specialist for Walmart eCommerce, managing pricing and inventory for a multi-million dollar product assortment while negotiating marketing partnerships with high profile vendors. She’s worked with Social Enterprise Alliance, building social media analytics dashboards and streamlining their membership leads pipeline. In other domains, Mirah is excited about systems-thinking and human-centered design, sparked by her volunteer project that developed a career-readiness curriculum for refugees in Nashville.

Kimi Yingling is the Student Engagement and Events Manager at Innovate Carolina. She can help you navigate the plethora of resources related to innovation and entrepreneurship that exist at Carolina. She manages the 1789 coworking space, recruits student mentors, advises multiple student clubs, hosts the annual Student Startup Meet and Greet at Launch Chapel Hill and preps a team for the ACC InVenture Prize each year.