news & events

Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank supports entrepreneurs by derisking their startups and helping them turn ideas into viable businesses. The LaunchBox services are at no cost and are accessible to Happy Valley community members, as well as Penn State faculty, staff, and students. Through recent support from the College Township Industrial Development Authority (CTIDA), Happy Valley LaunchBox is now able to reach more State College community entrepreneurs through an Idea TestLab program specifically designed to support them. “At Happy Valley LaunchBox, we believe in empowering entrepreneurs from all walks of life. Whether you're a current business owner looking for the next step,...

Six teams of Penn State student startup founders recently wrapped up what turned out to be an impactful summer for their businesses.  Invent Penn State’s Summer Founders Program, which provides each student team with a $15,000 grant to work on their startups over the summer at Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank, concluded with a final “Demo Day” on Aug. 7. In addition to the grant, teams gained access to regularly scheduled business accelerator programming, a network of 100+ advisers, and hands-on learning opportunities at Pennsylvania businesses.   During “Demo Day,” teams showcased how much traction their startups have gained over the course of...

When the College of Engineering opened its brand-new Engineering Design and Innovation Building (EDI), Kate Myers and Tyler Henderson saw a unique marketing opportunity. Myers, the creative director at the College of Engineering, knew that her colleague, Henderson, had extensive experience in shooting drone footage, including indoors.  “We thought the best way to showcase the building when it opened would be an indoor drone flight. So Tyler started to custom-build the drone,” Myers said. “The only problem was that we wanted to capture the drone video before students returned and the building was mostly empty. We decided to go all in and staged...

Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank, in partnership with The Penn State Brand Academy, offered an all-new content creator-focused Digital TestLab accelerator program this spring. The Digital TestLab: Content Creators Cohort delivered social media and personal branding education specifically designed for content creators in the Happy Valley region. Justin Leusner, founder of TDAY Sports, and Omar X. Easy, assistant athletics director for The Brand Academy, co-coached the inaugural cohort. “In the past, we focused our Digital TestLab programming on website conversion and digital ads,” said Elizabeth Hay, Jack White Family Director of Happy Valley LaunchBox. “But with content creation becoming a...

Penn State student startup Saveware is using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the sales tax refund process for businesses and tax firms. Saveware was founded by Braeden Davidson, a sophomore in the Smeal College of Business, and Ryan Jai Hokimi, a junior in the College of Engineering. “We can retroactively go through past invoices and use our algorithms to determine where clients overpaid,” Davidson said. “We then produce a refund claim that we ultimately will submit to the Department of Revenue.” Last summer, Davidson interned at a firm that specializes in sales tax refunds. As he manually searched for overpayments from clients,...