Entrepreneurs Panel Discussion

We are pleased to announce that the Entrepreneurs Panel Discussion of Spring 2015 will be held on April 15 at 12:00pm in Commons 331. Listen to four successful entrepreneurs talk about their successes and struggles as they build their businesses. 

Dr. Kimberly Brown is the Founder and CEO of Amethyst Technologies, LLC, a company located at bwTech@UMBC Accelerator and Incubator. Amethyst personnel are changing the world by developing quality programs for clinical trials, global health, biodefense, and drug development in the U.S. and Africa. In 2007, Kimberly Brown purchased the rights to a government contract at Walter Reed from her employer of nine years. Amethyst began with 1 employee and now has 25 employees who support 15 U.S. Army Divisions worldwide and numerous commercial clients in critical areas including emerging infectious disease research, health systems strengthening in Africa, laboratory records programs, and quality assurance for drug development. They are integrating innovation into FDA compliance with “green labs”, “green jobs”, and a non-profit affiliate with a focus on health, education, and economic empowerment.

As a recent graduate from the UMBC Mechanical Engineering program, Joseph Hyman founded MoJoe Brewing Co., a technology company that specializes in mobile brewing solutions. MoJoe Brewing Co. has patented and developed the first personal mobile coffee maker, a mobile device that brews hot beverages on-the-go. Having been dependent on caffeine throughout his undergraduate career, Joseph quickly recognized the opportunity in 2010 when he and a classmate brainstormed the concept for a mobile coffee maker. With significant funding challenges, Joseph is using his knowledge of growing lean start-ups to lead a team of students and young engineers to their product launch this spring. Joseph encourages college students to innovate through entrepreneurship by keying in on the “painful” problems they experience each day and capitalizing on the abundant resources a liberal arts college provides. 

Patrick Rife has always followed a creative thread throughout his life. Although relatively new to entrepreneurship, Patrick's early work as an artist and musician greatly influence his entrepreneurial pursuits. For him, being an entrepreneur goes hand in hand with creating a vision that fulfills his primary goals while providing a valuable product experience and positively impacting community. As a lifelong Baltimore resident, Patrick counts having a direct impact on Baltimore as one of his chief most important pursuits. Patrick regularly publishes content on his companies’ blogs speaking on branding, innovation and marketing as well as producing business podcasts in that same vein. 

Maneet Sarai founded SeeFuture in January 2013 with the mission of providing job seekers an inside track to employment. Instead of making employers vet candidates by resumes, SeeFuture allows them to vet candidates via their own employees, candidates motivation and human interaction. Companies create private talent communities based on their candidate criteria (Universities, Majors, GPA, Certificates, Veteran Status etc). From there candidates apply to get in, once in they are placed into a private talent pool where they are paired with mentors and have access to company learning materials. The platform monitors candidate activity within each community and uses it to rank them on job openings. Prior to starting SeeFuture Maneet was an IT strategy consultant at Accenture and a software engineer at SAIC. He also teaches web development courses at CCBC