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Outstanding Alumni

Success Stories

Marcus Davis, Miami ’16, co-founder and CEO, and Connor Morris, Miami ’17, co-founder and CSO, at Apex Sports [2017 UpTech]

Austin Mace, Miami ’15, co-founder and chief creative officer at SubVRsive. SubVRsive is an Emmy-nominated 360-degree media production and virtual reality company focused on creating impactful VR and AR experiences for brands and agencies.

Michael Markesbery, Miami ’15, co-founder and CEO, and Rithvik Vinik, Co-founder and COO, OROS. Oros designs outerwear warmer and thinner with the NASA technology, Aerogel.  Michael was honored as a 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 for retail and e-commerce. [2016 The Brandery]

Noah Bornstein, Miami ’10, co-founder and CTO at Baloonr. Baloonr provides a platform with tools for real-time anonymous voting, with a focus on enabling groups to identify priorities, reach decisions and define decisions that are free from bias.  [2016 Acceleprise]

Kelsey Pytlik, Miami ’09, co-founder and CEO at Gild Collective [2015 Brandery graduate]

Megan Stengel, Tess Schuster, Bethany Skaff, Mandy Eckman, Miami ’09, Libre Clothing. Libre Clothing is clothing for infusion patients.

Shane Gring, Miami ’09, and his company BOULD have made the finals for a spot at the Unreasonable Institute in Boulder, CO.

Chris Clark, Miami ’08, Founder, Sunflower Solutions. Sunflower Solutions is a solar power technology company that specializes in bringing clean reliable energy to developing areas of the world.

Sam McBride, Miami ’08, chief operating officer, Miami ’08, and Jim Murray, Miami ’07, chief financial officer at RXBar. RXBar is a manufacturer and distributor of protein bars and was sold to Kellogg’s for $600 million in 2018.

Andy Nielsen, Miami ’07, co-owner and president/CEO and Jon Nielsen, Miami ’05, co-owner and chief business officer at Everything But The House (EBTH). EBTH provides an online marketplace for estate sale items from homes across the U.S. that allows users to browse through individual sales or by item categories and place bids on items.

Danny Stull, Miami ’07, Founder and CEO, Be Ohio Proud and My State Threads.The two companies market and sell soft, durably built and 100% guaranteed state pride apparel.

Jeff Probst, Miami, ’07, Co-owner, Blooms and Berries Farm Market. Blooms and Berries Farm Market is a self pick berry, fresh produce and agra-tainment farm.

Liz Snyder, Miami ’06, Co-founder and Owner, Kofenya. Kofenya is a full-scale coffee and espresso bar.

M.H. Powelson and Phil Walker, Miami ’05, Co-founders, Rio-D. Rio-D is a spirit designer and importer of premium cachaca from Brazil.

Charles Lazarra, Miami ’04, Founder, Volio Distributors. Volio Distributors is a boutique wine importer and distributor.

Dustan Fankhauser, Miami ’04, Co-Founder and President, Planet Bulb. Planet Bulb is an online retailer of lighting and ballasts.

Ryan Terpstra, Miami ’04, Founder & CEO, Selerity. Selerity is a low latency, real-time fact aggregation and event data company that caters to sophisticated investment firms.

Kelly Owens, Miami ’03, Founder, of The Merry Martini. The Merry Martini is an online gift and occasion boutique.

Will Housh, Miami ’03, Founder & CEO, HVAC.com. HVAC.com is the world’s first online marketplace focused on connecting consumers, contractors and distributors so they can buy and sell heating and air conditioning products and services with trust, transparency and convenience.

Jonathan Thompson, Miami ’02, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Standard Bariatrics.  Standard Bariatrics raised $1.2 million from CincyTech and Queen City Angels.

Sean Lane, Miami ’02, founder and CEO of CrossChx. CrossChx has developed a biometric technology to prevent medical identity fraud and enable nationwide health information exchange.

A.J. Auld, Miami ’01, President, at Bright Discounts. Bright Discounts is a national fundraising company that builds customized fundraisers through the discount card medium.

Bruce Twersky, Miami ’01, Founder, College Discount Cards. College Discount Cards is a provider of discount shopping cards to college students.

Kamran Razavi, Miami ’01, Founder and CEO, RGM Group. The RGM Group is an interactive media firm focused on serving premium advertisers and publishers

Brian Minick, Miami ’99, co-founder and CEO, at Morphick. Morphick is a developer of cyber security programs designed for protecting global enterprises from advanced cyber threats.

Carisa Miklusak, Miami ’99, co-founder and CEO and Summer Crenshaw, Miami ’03, co-founder and CMO/COO, at tilr. tilr connects workers to jobs via a unique algorithm focused on skills, not titles.

David Woeste (deceased), Miami ’96, founder, BestNest. BestNest is an online purveyor of bird feeders, weather stations, arbors, pond pumps, address plaques, bird houses, pond liner, bird baths and other backyard wildlife and outdoor decor products.

Gerard Lopez, Miami ’96, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Mangrove Capital Partners. Europe’s largest venture capital fund.

Julia Stamberger, Miami ’96, Co-founder and President at GoPicnic. GoPicnic are providers of nutritious high-quality shelf-stable meal solutions.

Nichole Mustard, Miami ’95, co-founder and chief revenue officer at Credit Karma. Credit Karma is a personal finance platform designed to provide credit scores, recommendations and monitor credit.

Mike Fitzgerald, Miami ’92, co-founder and partner at High Alpha, co-founder and board member at Octiv (formerly TinderBox), and former co-founder and EVP Corporate Development at ExactTarget (purchased by Salesforce.com in 2013 for $2.52 billion). High Alpha creates and operates new companies by providing product development, sales and marketing, finance, branding, design and talent development services. Octiv is a provider of a sales-productivity platform to create efficiencies in process workflows.

Dwight Merriman, Miami ’89, co-founder and Chairman of the Board, MongoDB and formerly co-founder and CTO at DoubleClick. MongoDB is a provider of an open source No-SQL database designed for large-scale grid deployments that allows companies to more easily manage and store data.

Stuart Frankel, Miami ’87, founder and CEO, Narrative Science. Narrative Science is a developer of automated business analytics and natural language communication technology designed to amplify the intelligence of businesses. The company's artificial intelligence engine, Quill, automatically analyzes data and creates stories that are contextually relevant and personalized to any audience, enabling businesses to make better decisions

Bob Coughlin, Miami ’83, founder and CEO and Stacey Browning, Miami ’90, President at Paycor [$188 million in revenues] 

Matt Golis, Miami ’95, Co-founder and CEO, YapStone, and founder and CEO, DraftMates. YapStone is an
electronic payments platform that serves global markets [$300 million in revenues]. DraftMates is a fantasy
sports betting and eGaming platform.

Matt Pyatt, Miami ’09, Co-founder and CEO, and Eric Dunigan, Co-founder and President, Arrive Logistics. Arrive Logistics is a freight brokerage fueled by a robust carrier side, best in class technology, and a passion
for customer service. [$300 million in revenues]

Bryan Murphy, Founder and CEO, WHI Solutions (sold to eBay), and Founder and CEO, Tomorrow Sleep. Tomorrow Sleep is powered by Serta Simmons Bedding and delivers a system of innovative sleep products at an incredible value via a direct-to-consumer model.

Farmer School of Business Department of Entrepreneurship

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