North Carolina is one of the best states in the country to start a business, and Haley Huie is helping inspire and instruct our state’s up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
After graduating from North Carolina State University with a degree in journalism, Haley headed off to Washington, D.C. and eventually San Francisco, where she gained experience in education and corporate America, and eventually began consulting with founders.
But a visit to Raleigh made her realize it was time to come back home.
“It was sitting here in Raleigh we were, grabbing a drink on Fayetteville Street, and just noticing what a beautiful and vibrant city Raleigh had become,” Haley said. “And we said, ‘Hey, we gotta figure out a way to get back here. We love it here.’”
She found her way back to alma mater. As director of N.C. State’s Entrepreneurship Clinic, Haley is connecting N.C. State students, local small businesses, scaling startups, large corporations and nonprofits.
These Triangle companies reach out to the entrepreneurship clinic for help with developing their businesses, products or services, and N.C. State puts together teams that work directly with both their instructors and that business’ leader.
“They very much learn by doing,” she said, “and I think that's what N.C. State is really scrappy and really great about delivering for each student. We see a lot of value in that. We have businesses that wanna work with us every semester. Obviously, we have a finite number of students, so it's both that direct application of how we can add value to your organization and creating a really strong talent pipeline coming out of the university.”
While she said that the clinic works with a variety of businesses across different sectors and, this semester, the Office of Strategy and Innovation is working with the City of Raleigh to discover how the city’s Accessory Dwelling Units could both increase income for Raleigh residents while creating affordable housing.
“One of the core problems is, do the people who would benefit from this most even know that this is an opportunity? If we want deep penetration in southeast Raleigh, how are we going out in the community to find the people that would really benefit?” Haley said. “So, our students are out actively testing for demand. They're gathering insights. They are helping design some marketing campaigns.”
So different. So, you come to college, what do you do? You probably try to cram right before an exam, or you write a 20-page long paper. This is the opposite. Throw that out the window. We don't use a textbook. we very much are focused on creating value today, And the world changes so quickly.
So, while some students’ college experience includes cramming for exams and writing 20-page papers, Haley said the clinic throws that experience out the window. N.C. State entrepreneurship is focused on creating value in today’s rapidly changing world, and that’s something you can’t learn from a textbook.
“Entrepreneurship is for all,” Haley said. “Entrepreneurship is for beekeepers; entrepreneurship is for computer scientists; you name it. It’s really helpful just as a combination of skills and mindsets because, when I talk about entrepreneurship, I don't mean that everyone must be a founder. I mean that everybody should be able to leverage these skills and mindsets to create some type of value.”
To hear more about leading the next generation of founders, check out this episode of Founder Shares, available wherever you listen to podcasts.
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