UVA’s rich startup environment continues to thrive, strengthened further by the innovative of ideas of students in McIntire’s Entrepreneurship Minor.
One such student in the pan-University program, Evan Nied, was recently highlighted for his venture by business education website Poets&Quants in its “2024 Most Disruptive Business School Startups.” Nied’s launched OK Energy, a semi-ironically branded, youth-oriented energy drink based on a discontinued soda product from the early 1990s.
Crediting McIntire Professor Eric Martin and his Capstone Course for providing him with the requisite time, communication, and latitude necessary for moving OK Energy forward, Nied would eventually stake out his first claim of the expanding energy drink market: In the company’s first quarter they sold out of their first round of more than 7,000 cans distributed into 40 outlets.
“The local startup ecosystem has been spectacularly helpful and has enabled me to meet new individuals who are interested in starting companies across industries,” says Nied. “UVA’s investment into entrepreneurship is clear with the creation of new buildings focused just on entrepreneurial growth. The support of UVA vendors to stock OK Energy has also been essential to our success.”