Teams from three student-led startups will be spending the summer developing their business ideas in the NC State Andrews Launch Accelerator. And each startup has $20,000 to help fund development.

The startups (company information provided by NCSU) are:

  • Simplify Cosmetics

Simplify Cosmetics was started by Cortney Cox, a new Poole College alumna who graduated in May 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a concentration in entrepreneurship.

Her first product is Simplifeye, a solution that makes it easier to apply eye liner in the popular cat eye style. That also was the initial name of her startup. The new name reflects Cox’s goals for her company: to develop a brand and line of products that will help women with their daily beauty routine and support female empowerment.

Cox is originally from Tewksbury, N.J.

  • AssureWear

AssureWear, originally named SnapSafe, was started by a team of students in the NC State College of Engineering and College of Sciences. This team is in the process of developing a suite of personal safety products, the first being a wearable band that when activated will alert emergency services of the wearer’s location and that the wearer needs assistance.

Team members are David Tillack, a rising senior majoring in mechanical engineering with a minor in business administration and concentration in entrepreneurship; Brendan Boyle, a rising junior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences who also is an EMT and an avid coder; and Stephen Scheuerle, a rising senior majoring in aerospace engineering.

Tillack is from Raleigh, N.C.; Boyle, Woodbury, Minn.; and Scheuerle, Mooresville, N.C.

  • Rhythcor

Rhythcor was started by a team of engineering students in the NC State Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. This startup is developing a solution related to the high incidence of heart attack-related deaths among firefighters.
The four initial team members are Travis Murray, bachelor’s in computer engineering and electrical engineering; Jack Dodd, bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and electrical engineering, entering the master’s in computer engineering program; Alex Bless, bachelor’s in mechanical engineering; and Brian Graham, bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. Tyler Murray, a Poole College rising senior in business administration and Travis Murray’s brother, joined the team in 2017.

Travis and Tyler Murray and Alex Bless are from Asheboro, N.C.; Jack Dodd is from Cooleemee, N.C.; Brian Graham is from Huntersville, N.C.

The accelerator program is in its second year.

“We’re focused on stimulating entrepreneurial thinkers to frame potential ventures that are ambitious, well-constructed and compelling,” said Robert “Chip” Andrews III, who with his wife Lyn established NC State Andrews Launch Accelerator. “At this early stage they usually haven’t effectively tested their business model with the appropriate targeted customer markets. They have organizational issues for a new startup, and they don’t have meaningful presentations developed for potential customers, investors or lenders. The grants and the accelerator are designed to leverage their talents and their concepts so they may move on to actually launch a startup.”