49er Foundry Celebrates 10 Years of Student Entrepreneurship

February 21, 2023
Categories: Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, News
49er Foundry 10 year celebration

Several UNC Charlotte alumni and students gathered this week to celebrate 10 years of 49er Foundry and student entreprenuership. The event highlighted Charlotte startup leaders who started their journey in the 49er Foundry and students currenty making their impact through the student idea incubator.

The 49er Foundry, Charlotte’s Student Idea Incubator, was launched as the ‘Greenhouse’ at the Ben Craig Center the 2012-2013 school year. With a mission to empower students to make an impact with their business and social ideas, the incubator is now is known as the 49er Foundry and located in the PORTAL building. The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s co-director Devin Collins kicked off the evening highlighting the teams through the years. Collins, joined by the additional incubator founders Robert Aldrich, Paul Wetenhall and Holly Dimmitt, recognized Charlotte innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the evening.

Some highlights from the those in attendance at the celebration:

2012-2013

  • Jeremy Olson, first official 49er Foundry member, founded Tapity and won an Apple Design Award in 2011. Jeremy is now the Product Manager for Coda.
  • Chad Stachowicz launched Minds Mesh in 2012, and is now Founder of Cloverhound. Chad will be featured in the Charlotte’s Spring 2023 Magazine.
  • Josh Cox launched and is still leading the team at Oxit.

2014-2015

  • Ryan Ruteldge launched eos Nano while a UNC Charlotte student. He has also been involved in launching Antila Energy and Skaffolds. Currently Ryan is the Business Development Director for Joules Accelerator.
  • Bryson Allen launched Smartbrush while at UNC Charlotte. After graduation he was a part of the Ecomdash team, which was located in PORTAL. Byrson is the founder of Moving Mountains Studios.

2016-2017

  • Dreu Dixon founded YouX while on campus and after graduation workied with Lockhead Martin. Dreu is now founder of Sling Shot Effect.

2017-2018

  • Miguel Avila founded Encapture Reality as a student and is now President of his family-owned business Daily View Pools.

2019-2020

  • Adonis Abdullah founded and still heading Home Team (formerly Hot Route Analytics).
  • Fidel Henriquez developed Heben as a freshman and after graduation went on to work in devlopment for Microsoft.

2021-2022

  • Brie’anna Brown graduated and is now leading business and program development at INTech Foundation, founded by another UNC Charlotte alumnus.
  • Emmanuel Wallace and Joshua Gibbons partnered for form Renegade Content Creation and now have offices located in PORTAL.