Acoustic Shield, a startup developed by community members at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, was just selected to receive a $5,000 grant from VentureWell. Accoustic Shield is an indoor gunshot detection system.
Acoustic Shield was one of the 50 E-teams, or multidisciplinary teams of students, faculty members, and industry mentors, chosen by VentureWell for their grant program. Acoustic Shield is the first Startup Aggieland E-team to receive a VentureWell grant. The grant rules require that the student co-founders of an E-team company must use some of the funding to attend a workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts to help the learn to evaluate the market opportunity for their innovation. All remaining funds can be used for further development of the product.
Acoustic Shield was co-founded by Luke Neese, a philosophy major with a pre-law focus, Virginia Neese, a nutrition major, and Liang Ge, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering. Luke and Virginia met Liang at 3-Day Startup, a program designed by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Mays Business School and hosted by Startup Aggieland.
“Startup Aggieland – and Texas A&M University, for that matter – provides an experiential educational environment where you are responsible for what you get out of it,” said Luke Neese. “Your future is truly in your hands.”
“We have the opportunity to meet 49 other student startups from all over the country and learn something from each of them [because we received the VentureWell grant],” noted Virginia Neese. “I am excited to represent Texas A&M and to pursue this leadership opportunity. At Acoustic Shield, we are passionate about saving lives. The Stage 1 Grant and VentureWell Workshop will undoubtedly help us do that in the right way.”