Penn State President Eric J. Barron will discuss the University’s student entrepreneurial success during the next episode of WPSU Penn State’s “Higher Education in Focus” at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 23 on WPSU-TV and WPSU-FM.
Barron and WPSU-TV’s Patty Satalia will welcome a pair of Penn State alumni and entrepreneurs -- Matt Brezina and Chris Fanini -- during the 30-minute program. The group will discuss Penn State’s recent IST startup week, which took place April 13-17, the alumni’s success stories and the Penn State Summer Founders Program, which will provide student teams $10,000 each to work on startup projects. Brezina and Fanini also will share their advice for budding entrepreneurs.
A 2003 graduate with a degree in electrical engineering, Brezina is co-founder and chief executive officer of Sincerely, a gifting network where customers can mail gifts and cards through mobile devices. Brezina, a Schreyer Scholar alumnus, also co-founded Xboni, an email software company that made users’ inboxes and address books smarter by creating social profiles that are instantly searchable.
Fanini, who graduated in 2012 with a degree in information sciences and technology, co-founded Weebly and currently serves as the San Francisco-based company’s chief technical officer. Weebly serves more than 20 million customers and provides assistance in creating websites, blogs and online stores.
“Higher Education in Focus” will air throughout the academic year and feature a variety of guests discussing University-related topics. In addition to the WPSU broadcasts, “Higher Education in Focus” will air on WITF-TV in Harrisburg and WQLN-TV in Erie at a later date. For more information and to watch archived episodes, visit wpsu.org/infocus.