Ibanca Anad

Update: An Indiegogo campaign went live yesterday to help bring BioMetrix’s athlete monitoring sensor to market in 2016. The founders are bootstrapping the initial product development but will use the $10K or more they hope to raise crowdfunding to polish the technology and user experience.  Here’s their video, but read the full story (originally published July 15, 2015) below for context of the founding story and product’s initial development. The two quickly became friends and bonded over their similar situations. Late night conversations led to a clarifying revelation: Their injuries could have been avoided. They realized that, had their performance been...

At the end of their sophomore year of college, Duke students Shelly Li and Arun Karottu made an observation that would change the course of their lives. As the semester came to a close, they noticed their friends throwing away end-of-life electronics in the dumpster. Among piles of empty ramen noodle containers and stacks of discarded class notes laid cell phones, laptops, cameras, and speakers that, too, were destined for the landfill. This moment was just a glimpse for Li and Karottu into the larger problem of electronic waste recycling in the United States. Out of the roughly 384...

One of the most dangerous assumptions that any startup can make is that the consumer behaves rationally.  Over the past few decades, the field of behavioral economics has determined that humans often make decisions that don’t align with their personal interests. In instance after instance, research shows that traditional predictions about human behavior fall short of reality. For entrepreneurs undertaking a pursuit already wrought with risk and uncertainty, the irrationality of consumers becomes yet another obstacle on the road to success. That’s where the Center for Advanced Hindsight (CAH) at Duke University comes in. This fall, the center launches a one-of-a-kind incubation...

Being a student-entrepreneur in college can be a daunting challenge, especially at Duke.  In an environment of academic competition, social obligations and fierce resume-building, choosing to dedicate a large chunk of one’s time to a venture that may very well fail is a decision not many opt for. Luckily, for those that wish to journey into the field of entrepreneurship during their undergraduate years despite the noise, Duke offers an opportunity like no other: The Cube. Similar to most colleges, Duke’s social landscape includes fraternities and sororities. But a unique aspect of Duke’s social scene are Selective Living Groups (SLGs),...

Being a student-entrepreneur in college can be a daunting challenge, especially at Duke.  In an environment of academic competition, social obligations and fierce resume-building, choosing to dedicate a large chunk of one’s time to a venture that may very well fail is a decision not many opt for. Luckily, for those that wish to journey into the field of entrepreneurship during their undergraduate years despite the noise, Duke offers an opportunity like no other: The Cube. Similar to most colleges, Duke’s social landscape includes fraternities and sororities. But a unique aspect of Duke’s social scene are Selective Living Groups (SLGs),...

Over 300 students, professors, and local entrepreneurs gathered at Duke University’s Gross Hall on Monday, March 30th to attend a very special discussion by a very special guest.  “This man hardly needs an introduction,” said moderator Dr. Eric Toone of Duke’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative as he opened the sold-out event. Of course, to many in the audience, the cofounder and former CEO of PayPal, early investor in Facebook, creator of a fellowship which pays university students to drop out and start companies, challenger of U.S. government and incredibly successful venture capitalist (yes, this is all one person) is a common household...