UndergradVC — Campus Startup Intelligence

Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEE&I)

North Carolina A&T State University's entrepreneurship ecosystem is anchored by the Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEE&I), the university's hub for entrepreneurship programming located in the Resurgent Building in downtown Greensboro. Led by Director Sean Johnson (appointed 2023), the center coordinates a growing portfolio of programs including the WBENC Entrepreneur Incubator ($150K+ seed grants across 7 HBCUs), HBCU Founders Initiative Pre-Accelerator (8-week), R.E.A.L. Entrepreneurship (10-week business plan course), I² Academy: Idea to Innovation (pre-accelerator), and Aggie Innovation Lab (Launch Greensboro partnership, pilot 2026). The Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization manages tech transfer (Director: Pritesh Kasliwal), and the inaugural Tech Transfer & Commercialization Fellow (Michael Curry, PhD, appointed 2025) supports research-to-commercialization. An NSF I-Corps HBCU Fellows program provides up to $5K for customer discovery. The university hosted TMCF's The Pitch competition (March 2026, 100 students) and has partnerships with Forge Greensboro makerspace and NC IDEA Foundation.

Key Details

Central Hub: Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEE&I)
Location: The Resurgent Building, 1806 East Market St, 3rd FL, Greensboro
Leadership: Sean GL Johnson (Director, CEE&I); Pritesh Kasliwal (Director, IP & Commercialization)
Seed Funding: WBENC Incubator ($150K+ across HBCUs), I-Corps ($5K)
Flagship Events: TMCF The Pitch (hosted March 2026), WBENC Pitch Competition
Partners: Launch Greensboro, Forge Greensboro, WBENC, HBCU Founders Initiative, NC IDEA, SpiceLAB Enterprise
Tech Transfer: Office of IP & Commercialization; Tech Transfer & Commercialization Fellow (Dr. Michael Curry)
Academic: BS in Business Administration with entrepreneurship concentration (Deese College of Business and Economics)
Students: ~13,500 total; largest HBCU in the US
Email: ceei@ncat.edu

Assessment

Tier 2 (medium confidence) — Developing ecosystem anchored by CEE&I as a centralized hub with a growing portfolio of pre-accelerator and training programs. Strong community partnerships (Launch Greensboro, Forge Greensboro, WBENC, HBCU Founders Initiative). CEE&I has been operational since ~2020 with a full-time director appointed 2023. The Tech Transfer & Commercialization Fellow role (2025) signals growing commitment to research commercialization. However, there is no dedicated incubator/accelerator building on campus, no large-scale pitch competition (>$50K), no student venture fund, and funding amounts are modest. The ecosystem is still in a growth phase with promising foundation.

Featured partner placement

North Carolina A&T State University

At a glance

Research verdict

Programs to explore

Accelerator

HBCU Founders Initiative Pre-Accelerator

I² Academy: Idea to Innovation

NSF I-Corps at NC A&T

Incubator

WBENC Entrepreneur Incubator

Entrepreneurship Center

Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Tech Transfer

Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization

Known startups and winners

RemRx Treatment Technology

North Carolina A&T State University

Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEE&I)

Key Details

Assessment

News & articles

News & articles(1)

Aggie Innovation Lab - North Carolina A&T

Official sources(7)

Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation - North Carolina A&T

HBCU Founders Initiative Pre-Accelerator - North Carolina A&T

"I² Academy: Idea to Innovation - North Carolina A&T"

NSF I-Corps at North Carolina A&T

Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization - North Carolina A&T

R.E.A.L. Entrepreneurship - North Carolina A&T

WBENC Entrepreneur Incubator - North Carolina A&T