Towson University Introduces New Startup Accelerator

Press release from Towson University:

April 29, 2020

Committed to venture creation, Towson University continues to provide new opportunities for entrepreneurs with the StarTUp Accelerator.

Sponsored by the Division of Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research (SPAR), the StarTUp Accelerator is an intensive eight-week, cohort-based fellowship where start-up businesses take residency and work in a collaborative space to accelerate their ventures.

The inaugural cohort—four ventures from the community and two student-run—will receive
$10,000 equity-free stipends as well as mentorship, founder-centric programming and exposure to successful ventures that are alumni of this model.

There will also be a StarTUp Accelerator Showcase, where each venture gives a five-minute pitch to an audience of senior TU administrators, potential investors and clients, TU alumni and community members.

Introduced by TU’s new executive director of entrepreneurship Patrick McQuown, the StarTUp accelerator was one of his first priorities when he arrived on campus on Feb. 1.

“When I got hired, the plan was to start an accelerator,” McQuown says. “An accelerator is a lot of energy in a very short period of time. So you get to see who is really going to go far, and who's maybe not. So everybody was pretty excited about that.”

Towson University already provides support for entrepreneurs through the TU Incubator, which focuses on small business idea development. With the StarTUp Accelerator, TU can now help entrepreneurs who are already in the market and ready for growth.

They also get to join a community of fellow entrepreneurs there to help as well as have 24/7 access to mentorship from McQuown, other members of the SPAR team and ventures that are alumni of similar programs.

McQuown, a student entrepreneur while at George Washington University, is excited to mentor to these budding entrepreneurs. In fact, he likes to tell everyone that he has the best job on campus.

“I like to say that I'm not an instructor in the sense of ‘hey, do this and this and this, and then this,’” McQuown says. “But I will tell them that they’re walking down a path. I'm going to shine a flashlight. I'm going to tell you what to avoid. And it's up to you, as the entrepreneur, to take the right path.”

A rendering of the National Guard Armory in downtown Towson, which will be the future
home of the StartUp Accelerator's startup ventures.

The inaugural StarTUp Accelerator cohort

StoCasticEric Hamrock and Dr. Scott Levin

StoCastic is transforming the delivery of health care through ground-breaking products and
services that harness large-scale electronic health record (EHR) data to give care
teams real-time predictive insight for smoother, more affordable care. Our products
are rooted in data science and operations research developed at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Halal Beauty CosmeticsAdeel Afshar

Halal Beauty Cosmetics is a 100% halal-certified consumer cosmetics brand helping Muslims both look and
feel beautiful without compromising on their faith. Their products contain no pork
or alcohol, thereby meeting the demands of millions of Muslims around the world.

Advanced Athletic Analytics

Tyler Kapp, 2022 Applied Mathematics FCSM and Elizabeth Goode, Department of Math FCSM

Advanced Athletic Analytics provides players, coaches and teams with optimal strategic decision-making, player
performance and roster management metrics to foster winning organizations. The metrics
are available not only for pre-planning before sporting events but are accessible
in real-time competition as well.

Lockbox AdventuresBen Ferry

Lockbox Adventures is a challenging, puzzle-solving game where players get a locked box without a combination.
Players must solve a series of puzzles to reveal the combination and gain access to
their prize.

The Shark Market

Drew Anawalt, 2020 Marketing CBE; Jake Guy, 2020 Sports Management CBE; Cullen Joyce,
2021 Sports Management CBE; Tommy Parker, 2021 Mass Communication COFAC and Ben Hollingsworth,
2021 Information Sciences FCSM

The Shark Market is a sports betting platform. Creating a new and unique sports betting
game, Shark Market allows users to feel the thrill of sports betting and compete against
friends while also saving their money in the process.

SmartBridge HealthHua Wang

SmartBridge Health connects patients, caregivers and survivors with top cancer doctors for remote phone
consultations, expert second opinions and clinical trial navigation. We offer a seamless
experience that saves time and money and leads to better health outcomes and happier
lives.

Adeel Afshar is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois, where he received
a degree in chemical engineering and physics. It was then he started his first business,
a solar energy venture in Ghana.

His latest venture, Halal Beauty Cosmetics, is a 100% halal-certified consumer cosmetics brand. He came up with the idea to
help out his mother, a Muslim immigrant from Pakistan who is a licensed cosmetologist
and didn’t want to use makeup that went against her religion.

A native of Chicago, Afshar moved to Baltimore as part of Venture for America, a nonprofit
whose mission is "to revitalize American cities and communities through entrepreneurship"
by training recent graduates and young professionals to work for startups in emerging
cities.

After struggling to find an entrepreneurship community in his hometown, Afshar was
excited to not only find a more accepting city in Baltimore but to also be part of
cohort like the StarTUp Accelerator.

“We’re all here to support one another, and it’s really been eye opening,” Afshar
says. “One of the really important things for me is becoming involved with the entrepreneurial
community. The most valuable aspect is the other members of this cohort and how I
can help them and how they can help me.

“If I can connect people with other fellows or if I can provide my own skills, it
will be a worthwhile experience for me and the other cohort members.”

Tyler Kapp is a junior at Towson University studying applied mathematics and computer science. He began his college career at Providence College and played on the hockey team.

After an injury prematurely ended his hockey career, he wanted to find a way to stay
connected to the sport he loves. So after transferring to TU, he partnered with mathematics
professor Elizabeth Goode to create Advanced Athletic Analytics.

Kapp is part of one of the two student-based ventures in the cohort. While he’s confident
in the company’s mathematics and computer science component, he’s hoping McQuown will
help with the business and marketing aspect of the venture.

“We felt entering this cohort would be an asset for us and provide us with those skills,”
Kapp says. “We really want a plan of attack before we go to market. We’re trying to
figure out the best business strategy and using the all the advice Patrick has to
offer. Having someone with experience with start-ups is really valuable for us.”

The StarTUp Accelerator cohort has already contacted each other through video conferencing.
The ventures were supposed to start residency on the TU campus on June 1, but due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, the official start date has been postponed.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland, BTU-Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore.

This press release was produced by Towson University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.