Launching the Venture

The Dukes Venture Accelerator is a six-week, paid summer internship program designed to take established, scalable student ventures to the next level. Accelerate your startup, acquire customers and de-risk your startup using proven methods all while forming close mentoring relationships with expert entrepreneurs in this competitive program.

Held in the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, this program gives you the tools and skills needed to de-risk your venture and achieve your entrepreneurial goals. You will be working under the supervision of the GCFE team and provided with a budget of up to $1,000 to cover venture expenses.

Meet the 2023 Cohort

• Casino Skate Co - An Americana themed skateboard brand that combines the culture of casinos with great skateboard and clothing designs. The brand creates a fresh new set of designs that should appeal to a wide variety of skaters. 
  Co-founded by Aiden League ('25, Business Management)

• 360 Timber Services - A tree company that provides end-to-end solutions for tree services and wood workers. By integrating traditional tree care practices with mill-working and wood working, 360TS is able to generate additional value from the wood itself and capitalize on opportunities across the wood industry. Read The Breeze's coverage of 360TS.
  Co-founded by Ian Stasko ('24, Business Management)

• Shorty's Food Truck - A food truck that will cater to the needs of the late-night crowd. Serving cheap but quality food, Shorty's strives to be open when and where people want a good and reasonably priced bite to eat. Outside of regular business hours, Shorty's plans on serving at large local events. 
  Co-founded by Jacob Mennes ('24, Engineering/Business)

• Creative Confections by Kayla -  A high-end custom confectioner for a variety of special events. We’ll work with customers to design the perfect dessert for their event, ensuring their needs are met and their vision comes to life. 
  Founded by Kayla Fifer ('25, Hospitality Management/Business)

• Kiana Designs - A flexible solo business that delivers personal designs for any business request. With an astute understanding of client needs, the designer adeptly crafts compelling visual assets, captivating logos and engaging marketing materials, enabling businesses to stand out in their industry. As long as a business has their vision, Kiana Designs can help to bring that into captivating reality. 
  Founded by Kiana Rudacille ('24, Industrial Design/Entrepreneurship)

• Incentive Beauty - Promoting self-care, confidence and organization with eyelash and hair care kits. Organization is key, and our kits are designed with this in mind. Each item has its designated place, ensuring that your beauty routine stays organized and hassle-free. Lash kits are conveniently packed for ease of access and include all essential tools and products. Hair care kits include nourishing products formulated to strengthen and revitalize your hair with the use of silk.
  Founded by Kyana Jones ('24, Business Management/Entrepreneurship)

• Masons jarhouse -  One-of-a-kind decor pieces ranging from hand painted mason jars to wooden home decor. Masons jarhouse was conceived as a result of finding healthy ways to cope with the loss of a loved one. We collaborate with each customer to create unique, personalized designs and decor items. We encourage each customer to give the name of a lost loved one when they place their order, as we include a seed paper heart that grows wildflowers “in memory of.” 
  Co-founded by Makayla Stickley ('24, Business Management)

• Unwoven Apparel, LLC - An apparel business that provides premium printed products, t-shirts and hoodies, bringing the design, quality and exclusivity of name brands at nearly half the price. We utilize a 'print on demand' system, where manufacturing and distribution is enacted immediately at the time of purchase which allows for better designs, more robust marketing, and a laser focus on the future of the organization. Unwoven Apparel is building a college icon to celebrate the college lifestyle and be inclusive to all college students. 
  Co-founded by Ryan Degaraff (’25, Business Management/General Communications) & Taylor Sizemore ('25, Marketing)

• Untitled Kingdom, LLC - A clothing brand that specializes in creating motivational garments that promote a unique lifestyle called living Untitled. This lifestyle promotes understanding that societal labels can be harmful to creativity and inhibit our capability of visualizing success in a multitude of areas. The goal of Untitled Kingdom is to re-define the word "Untitled" and create a way of thinking that promotes authenticity of loving one's self, despite societal titles or categorizations. Our purpose is to create a community, or Kingdom, of people who apply this lifestyle to their daily lives and use our brand as the first step into breaking societal labels on all fronts.
  Co-founded by Tarang Mishra ('25, Political Science)