(Pictured above: Standing Left to Right: Director John Bradley Jackson, Dan Black, and Karl Freels. Sitting Left to Right: Madeline Varela, Cecilia Rodriguez, Mary Tariq, Kathy Chao, Genesis Kelley, Mauren Tschopp, and Dr. Deborah Ferber.)
Launching a business is hard to do but a group of women student entrepreneurs from Cal State Fullerton are taking on that challenge with the help of CSUF Startup Incubator mentors and through a partnership with donors to the program. Their business, called Nifty Zone, Inc., aims to solve a problem that every woman has to deal with at some time or another.
The students, have been working on an innovative female garment concept since last fall and have made some significant progress along the way. They have been coached by Dr. Deborah Ferber and Maureen Tschopp, who have walked them through the process of launching a new business and giving them guidance.
In cooperation with the donors and their coaches, the team has conducted multiple focus groups, helped design the product, and have been in discussions with manufacturers. The team has also gone through the process of setting up their legal entity and have developed a capitalization table for their company with each of them having a stake in the company.
“Dr. Deborah Ferber and I are very proud of the work we did and the advice and mentoring we gave the team. We taught the girls that a successful business is built on a solid foundation with hard work and persistence. The girls all have talent and vision to become successful entrepreneurs and we will see great things for them in their future.”
Maureen Tschopp, Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and CSUF Startup Coach.
Kathy Chao, Dan Black, and Karl Freels are pictured above and they are donors to the CSUF Entrepreneurship program and to the university in general. They are passionate champions of entrepreneurship and innovation, especially when it comes to Cal State Fullerton.
There will definitely be more information to come about this team. Keep an eye out! And, if you have a great idea for a startup and are looking for a team of innovative Cal State Fullerton students like these please reach out to us at csufentrepreneurship@fullerton.edu for information on how we can help.
CSUF Entrepreneurship
We are dedicated to helping the next generation of entrepreneurs develop the skills that they need to compete locally and globally. The CSUF Entrepreneurship program does many things,