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Alumni Entrepreneurs

Reid Tileston celebrating after the successful defense of his thesis
Reaching the summit: Becoming the nation’s first PhD graduate in Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition
As he reaches the end of his educational journey, Reid Tileston reflects on his view from the mountaintop—and aims impossibly higher.“I want to be the world’s best teacher of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA),” he said. “And I want to inspire my students to have the confidence to do hard…
Michael Rosenfield
The bug stops here: how a CWRU alum left Google to build an AI startup
Every time a software team releases an update, there’s a new risk of something else breaking. CWRU alum and entrepreneur Michael Rosenfield (CWR ’17), saw the problem firsthand at Google—and watched engineering teams manually check that nothing had gone wrong after every change.His San…
Pavan Kota
A CWRU alum is speeding up infection testing
After studying the limits of blood cultures, Pavan Kota (CWR ’17) built a company designed to deliver results in hours instead of days
Satya Moolani
Studying, upgraded: CWRU alum Satya Moolani builds a better way to power through flashcards
Millions of students use digital flashcards to prepare for exams. Satya Moolani (CWR ’22, MGT ’22) has built a better way to flip through them. A handheld Bluetooth device designed to work with the popular digital flashcard platform Anki and others, StudyRemote lets students review study…
Brandon Mark
How a CWRU dentist is expanding dental care across Canada
A conversation with alumni entrepreneur Brandon Mark, DMD (DEN ’21)
Emily Dickens
Alum advances sustainability through battery innovation
Emily Dickens (CWR ’19, MGT ’20, GRS ’20, engineering) has built her career around a central question: how can engineering innovation accelerate the transition to a more sustainable energy system—and reach the market at scale? As chief commercial officer of Octet Scientific, a Cleveland-based…
Halle Tecco
How CWRU alum Halle Tecco is building new models for women’s health
Halle Tecco (CWR ’06) is the co-founder of Cofertility, a startup working to make egg freezing and fertility care more accessible. Earlier in her career, Tecco launched Natalist, a women’s health products company that was acquired in 2021, broadening the availability of at-home fertility and…
Vineet Erasla
From CWRU engineering to cardiac diagnostics—building breakthrough technology
How hands-on learning shaped a founder’s approach
Michael LaFramboise
The next generation of defense technology: Michael LaFramboise’s thoughts on entrepreneurship in defense
Michael LaFramboise (CWR ’18) is the CEO and co-founder of Aurelius Systems, a San Francisco-based defense startup developing autonomous laser systems to shoot down drones. Their flagship product, Archimedes, is a cost-effective, scalable robotic turret that combines advanced sensors, AI, and high…
Ya-Ting Liao
Advancing fire safety from Earth to the moon
Ya-Ting Liao Associate Professor, Faculty Director of the UL Fire and Combustion Laboratories, Case Western Reserve University 2023-2024 Veale Faculty Fellow Area of Focus: Studying fire dynamics and combustion phenomena through numerical modeling and experimentation, with applications…