136 - Inside FSU’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem with May Wang

InNOLEvation® Mindset Host Mark McNees sits down with May Wang, Student Program Coordinator at FSU’s Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, about how she supports student entrepreneurs through co-curricular opportunities such as mentoring, workshops, competitions, and grant funding. They break down the two-semester InNOLEvation® Challenge, including its stages, AI-driven planning tools, open workshops, finalist banquet, and the use of outside judges. May shares 2024–2025 activity numbers (300+ students mentored, 100+ events, 2,000+ participants), highlights programs like Ideathon, microgrants (over $50,000 awarded; up to $5,000 each), Mentor Night, Market Wednesday tables, and the Entrepreneurship Expo. She also introduces StartupTree and the new InNOLEvation Marketplace directory. They discuss resilience and coachability, and May explains iGEM’s structure, FSU’s recent gold medals, and efforts to streamline commercialization pathways. 00:00 Meet May Wang 00:42 What Student Programs Do 01:57 InNOLEvation® Challenge Overview 03:04 Stages Tools And Workshops 05:20 Finals Banquet And Judges 07:06 Podcast Origin Story 10:47 Year Round Programs By Numbers 11:46 Ideathon And Community Outreach 17:06 StartupTree Opportunity Hub 20:24 Microgrants And Free Funding 23:38 Competitions Prize Money 25:45 Market Wednesday Tables 26:47 Mentor Night Networking 28:49 FSU Funding Support 29:47 Entrepreneurship Expo 33:32 Resilience And Feedback 40:34 Pitching Skills And Badges 43:11 Innovation Marketplace Launch 45:41 iGEM Program Overview 50:47 Building Commercialization Pathways 53:56 Advice And Closing Thoughts