FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A specialty bakery, a green living consulting firm and a smart power strip to wirelessly coordinate home automation are the first ‘client companies’ of the Fairfield University Accelerator and Mentoring Enterprise that aims to help idea makers become successful entrepreneurs and business owners.
The promising entrepreneurs behind those business ideas were introduced at a ceremony for the new business incubator, also known as FAME (www.fairfieldame.org) held on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at the FAME Suite. An effort to nurture start-ups and foster economic development, the endeavor is a collaboration of Fairfield University’s Charles F. Dolan School of Business, the Town of Fairfield Economic Development Department, and Kleban Properties.
“Welcome to the Connecticut innovation ecosystem,” Catherine Smith, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, said at the standing room only event.
FAME aims to offer innovators the tools they need – from guidance to funding to prime downtown office space – to turn their ideas for promising new products and technologies into realities.
The clients are:
Daphne Dixon, of Fairfield, Conn., who founded ‘Conscious Decisions,’ a socially responsible business venture, to educate the public on sustainable and eco-friendly living practices.
Nicole Juliano Peranick, of Stamford, Conn., a graduate of the Dolan School of Business and the French Culinary Institute. Her idea “With Love From The Cupboard, Inc.” is a ‘baked to order’ dessert purveyor that unlocks old world, secret family recipes.
Jamie Ramerini, of Fairfield, Conn., a 2013 graduate of the Dolan School who works for Merrill Lynch, and School of Engineering senior Diego Mamani collaborated on BluStrip by Watt U Control, an electronics design firm with a low cost home automation solution. The device had its origins in the University’s student Business Plan Competition.
Those attending the opening included Fairfield University President Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J.; Donald E. Gibson, Ph.D., dean of the Dolan School; Michael Tetreau, First Selectman of Fairfield; Albert Kleban and Ken Kleban; state Sen. John P. McKinney; Rep. Kim Fawcett; Rep. Brenda Kupchick; aides to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy and U.S. Congressman Jim Himes; Chris Bruhl, of The Business Council of Fairfield County; and Paul Timpanelli, of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council.
Fairfield University is a Jesuit University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions.