At Emory, young innovators are turning ideas and experiences into businesses that solve real-world problems — with support from programs that help these entrepreneurial Eagles take flight. 

While an undergraduate student at Emory, Shashwat Murarka 23C noticed that delivery drivers always asked how to find the door to his apartment. He began to wonder: What if there was an easy way to help the drivers find you?

The question started him on a journey of discovery. He talked to delivery services and consumers, researched geospatial data and even became a delivery driver himself. His solution to this persistent problem? Use the delivery person’s phone to map the path straight to the customer’s door.  Now he just needed to figure out how. Murarka credits the university’s liberal arts curriculum with helping him get started.

“At Emory, you get a great mix of tech talent and business talent,” he says. “Plus, you’re in history or biology classes with people who look at problems differently from you, and you learn how to connect with them.”

Emory’s commitment to entrepreneurship also helped. Murarka participated in entrepreneurial accelerator programs offered by The Hatchery, Emory Center for Innovation and Goizueta Business School, where he learned how to shape his idea into a business plan, iterate and test his prototype and then pitch his business to investors.

Just two years after graduation, Murarka is the CEO of his own company, Doorstep, which just raised $8 million in seed capital. Doorstep is a mobile app program interface that maps the path to the customer’s door and stores it for the next delivery person. The goal is to help companies deliver packages more accurately, saving time and money caused by missed or failed shipments. Eventually he wants to use delivery intelligence to help emergency services and drones reach people faster. “I think we can help save people’s lives,” he says.

Murarka often relies on the Emory alumni network when he needs support. “A major part of my success is the confidence the people at Emory gave me,” he adds. “Every time I questioned what I was doing, I was encouraged to stay on my path.”

His startup journey shows how Emory’s entrepreneurial ecosystem helps a student idea become an investable company. But Mururka is not alone. Across campus, others are taking their own ideas and transforming them into innovations with the potential to impact many lives. 

For Raphael Nelson 25Ox 27B, Isabel Horne 25Ox 27C and Helen Khuri 26C, entrepreneurship began with personal challenges — and a desire to transform them into opportunities for others.

Nelson and Horne developed The CaseBot, an AI-powered platform that helps students practice and master business consulting case interviews through realistic simulations and personalized feedback. The idea began at Oxford College’s SideHustle 1.0 program and grew through The Hatchery’s Summer Accelerator, where they refined their product and business plan.

Their success led to selection as the first recipients of the Palladin Fellowship, a partnership between The Hatchery and Palladin Technologies, founded by Emory alumnus Brandon Ward 10MBA. For Horne, the experience has been transformative. The fellowship connects them directly with experienced entrepreneurs who understand how to build and scale a venture. “That kind of access is incredibly rare — and incredibly valuable,” she says.

In the same Summer Accelerator cohort, Khuri found her entrepreneurial drive during recovery from a mysterious illness that required her to wear medical compression garments. The products relieved her symptoms but eroded her confidence. “I felt like my identity and confidence were stripped away,” she says.

Determined to change that, Khuri launched Smush, a women’s compression-wear brand blending medical-grade functionality with comfort and style. An art history major, she drew on her creative background for design and branding. Through The Hatchery’s incubator program, she learned how to launch a business, manage finances and scale production — all while staying debt-free. With grant support and mentoring, she produced her first line of compression tights and began shipping orders this year. “Smush makes my sickness worth it every day,” she says. “It reminds me how many women I’m helping — and how many are helping me.”

Like Khuri, Anthony Vargas 24Ox 26C turned a medical issue into inspiration. After having a brain cyst removed at age 14, he struggled to find protective headgear he could wear while playing basketball. He settled on a rugby helmet, but it was hot and uncomfortable — and other players bullied him.

“That’s how it started for me,” Vargas says. “In entrepreneurship, you come across a problem and you fix it.”

He created the first prototype, now called Safe Squeeze Headgear, for a high school science fair project. The next year, his Oxford College basketball team captain dared him to compete in the OxVentures Shark Tank competition. He came in second and walked away with a new community, including alumni judges who believed in his product.

One of those judges introduced him to The Hatchery, where Vargas joined the 2024 fall incubator and the 2025 TechStars Emory Founder Catalyst, a 10-week pre-accelerator supported by The Hatchery and the Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation that helps startups prepare for investment.

“These are intense programs,” he says, “but they’ve been some of the best experiences of my life.”

The programs introduced Vargas to entrepreneurs, taught him how to pitch his product and helped him build a network — while also tackling his biggest hurdle: imposter syndrome. “It’s important to build your confidence,” Vargas says. “They reminded me that taking the risk and sacrificing my time to build this qualifies me to do what I’m doing.”

Vargas soon hopes to introduce his product in the fast-growing flag football market, where headgear is already part of the culture. Now he’s focused on product design. His goal is to create an off-the-shelf, modular helmet that kids can customize.

“I know what it feels like to have to wear headgear,” he says. “I want kids to want to wear it, not have to wear it.”

You can support innovative programs that get their start at The Hatchery here.