As UP/Start finale looms, MICA opens Creative Entrepreneurship Innovation Lab on Wicomico Street

The Ratcliffe Foundation particularly emphasizes entrepreneurship in non-traditional fields: skilled trades, arts, design, aquaculture and environmental sciences to name a few.

Monetary gifts from the Ratcliffe Foundation have supported students and alumni from two aforementioned fellowship programs: the Ratcliffe Environmental Entrepreneurship Fellowship (REEF) program at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) in Downtown Baltimore; and the UP/Start Venture Competition, which arose out of The Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship (RCCE) at Maryland Institute College of (MICA) in the Bolton Hill neighborhood.

The UP/Start Venture Competition, in which ventures compete for $105,000 of funding, focuses on incubating and building creative business ventures within the MICA community. IMET’s REEF program, meanwhile, enables environmental science graduate students to put their research toward solving real-world problems. REEF does this through workshops with local entrepreneurs, lessons on important topics such as intellectual property and customer discovery and a final pitch competition — just like UP/Start.

The contributions of charitable foundations like Ratcliffe allow MICA, whose pandemic-influenced financial problems have forced restructuring measures, to forge ahead with the eighth iteration of its UP/Start Venture Competition.

“The Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship & UP/Start are both 100% grant funded by a $5 million grant from the Ratcliffe Foundation and will not be impacted by MICA’s financial position,” MICA’s Interim Director for Creative Entrepreneurship Stacy Stube told Technical.ly via email.

Pitch & Mix

On March 10, participants from both Ratcliffe Foundation-backed fellowship programs returned to an in-person format for Pitch & Mix at the Rita Rossi Colwell Center (formerly The Columbus Center). If you’ve ever wondered what happens in that massive building with the tent-like roof on Pratt Street, then you haven’t completely missed your chance to explore your curiosities as IMET —  just one of the multifunctional Coswell Center’s constituent functions — will host an Open House on May 6.

RSVP for the IMET Open House

At Pitch & Mix, the fellows presented three-minute pitches for solutions to creative problems in the marine and environmental technology industry or the creative arts sector. This group included founders Ellis Edwards of e-Sprouts, a venture that seeks to give children a digital gateway into botany and real-life horticulture; and Natasha Fray of Nocrastination, an app that will aim to help its users prioritize tasks. They and their six fellow cohort members all prepared for a live finale event on April 11.

Ellis Edwards, founder of e-Sprouts. (Courtesy photo by Andrew Copeland)

Stube urged entrepreneurs at all levels of experience to participate in this UP/Start Finale & Cohort Celebration, which is set to take place on April 11 at MICA’s Falvey Hall. She particularly encouraged those considering applying to MICA’s UP/Start program in the fall to attend, emphasizing the importance of stepping outside of one’s comfort zone.

“The best advice I can give is to show up even when you are scared and nervous,” she noted. “You just never know the opportunities that might exist if given a chance to fly.”

RSVP for the UP/Start Finale Event

Meet the eight UP/Start Competition finalists and founders:

• ORA The Brand | Elana Wallach ’23 (Fiber BFA)
• e-Sprouts | Ellis Edwards ’22 (Animation BFA)
• Endless Dolls | Kendra Bray ’23 (Business of Art & Design, Entrepreneurship MPS)
• Chimaera | Angela McQuillan ’22 (Business of Art & Design, Entrepreneurship MPS)
• Darling City | Laura Akromas ’23 (Business of Art & Design, Entrepreneurship MPS)
• Baldridge Studios | Natalie Bates ’22 (Business of Art & Design, Entrepreneurship MPS), Addison Baldridge
• Oopsduck | Gabriel Chez ’22 (Interactive Arts BFA), Chloe Azcuy ‘24 (Interactive Arts BFA), Matthew Grand ‘24 (Graphic Design BFA), Alex Rosales
• Nocrastination | Natasha Fray ’23 (Design Leadership MA/MBA)

CEINNOV explained

The Ratcliffe Foundation’s $5 million donation has created continuous opportunities for fellows and participants involved in programs led by MICA’s RCCE; one example is the Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network (BCAN) which recently celebrated femme founders during Women’s History Month. Past BCAN founders fellows, Bianca Jackson of BrickRose Exchange (also a Baltipreneur) and Abisola ‘Yele’ Omoyele of Yele Stitches will attend tomorrow’s UP/Start Finale as part of the additional networking opportunities UP/Start fellows can access during the finale reception.

The Raftcliffe Foundation’s gift — and its intended and continued mission to address the changing needs of students and MICA alumni in the new creative economy — additionally facilitated the opening of RCCE’s Creative Entrepreneurship Innovation Lab (CEINNOV) at the Baltimore Innovation Center, which is located in the 1100 Wicomico building between the Pigtown neighborhood and Carroll-Camden Industrial District. Stube said in an announcement that many great ideas never come to fruition because people often succumb to fear when opportunities are not pursued;  CEINNOV thus was established to provide the necessary resources and opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality.

To learn more about the UP/Start Finale and how CEINNOV might allow students to transition from the classroom and directly into the market, Technical.ly conducted email interviews with Stube, Edwards and Fray. The interviewees discussed the program, including their personal experiences and the challenges they faced, as well as their thoughts on the final event and what possible opportunities lie ahead. Here are some of the respondents’ key takeaways:

Show up

Stacy Stube, who directs UP/Start, encouraged prospective future program applicants to lead with passion and use social impact as a guide toward profitability. She also advised hopefuls to take their creative problem-solving skills out of the studio and into the world, as they could be instrumental in redefining a system that needs a fresh perspective. According to Stube, it’s important to show up and be open to opportunities — even if it feels intimidating.

“Trust that process, but bring it to the surface by taking it out of the studio and into the world,” she said. “You just never know you might redefine a system that is on shaky ground and needs your fresh eyes and open heart to see its future made new.”

Stube, who herself participated in venture and accelerator programs, is fully aware that impact-driven entrepreneurship takes mindful planning and practice to test and rebuild systems continuously. She noted in a release that CEINNOV will serve as a hub for MICA students and alumni to soft-launch their creative entrepreneurship ventures. The center also aims to prevent venture competition dropoff following programs like UP/Start.

Don’t do it later

“I had always used productivity tools such as Monday.com and Asana — but writing down what I had to do was never going to actually make me do it,” Fray said. “I would wait until the last moment until the looming deadlines and the fear of getting in trouble would force me into action. My work still got done, but it took a toll on my mental and physical health due to forcing myself to get a week’s worth of work done in one night.”

Natasha Fray, founder of Nocrastination. (Courtesy photo)

That’s how Fray, a former art director at IBM, became the founder of Nocrastination, where she leverages her journey to help people with ADHD stay productive. Her experience with cognitive behavioral therapy helped her understand the importance of having an accountability partner to stay on task.

The first phase of her business involves pairing clients with such a partner to provide the human element as a motivating factor. The next phase requires building an app that will provide digital discipline, as well as sync with calendars and productivity tools to highlight deadlines and limit distractions. Frey said that preparing for the UP/Start Venture Competition already helped her make an impact in the ADHD community and restore a sense of accomplishment, pride and lack of stress in the work process.

Technology and plants

Edwards’ passion for technology and plants led her to the idea for e-Sprouts, which she didn’t initially have the resources or know-how to make possible. However, her passion was infectious and she made it through the selection process to become a finalist. Before being accepted into the UP/Start program, Edwards had taken the Entrepreneurial Mindset course at MICA.

“The course assignments required that you have a business idea, and I had no ideas,” Edwards said. “However, something within me completely shifted once I learned that starting a business is not just about making money. It is about finding an opportunity to positively impact the world.”

“e-Sprouts cannot start as an oak tree, it must first be an acorn,” she added. The UP/Start program aimed to provide her with the resources, mentorship and support necessary to turn her acorn into a seedling.

Come to the Tuesday event to see if this tree, among the others Edwards’ cohort peers will pitch, has sprouted yet.

RSVP for the UP/Start Finale Event