Briana Gardell

I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from Lehigh University. 

I graduated with highest honors from Lehigh University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in business information systems and a minor in entrepreneurship. 

Lehigh offers a scholarship for a free 5th year of education if students receive above 3.75 GPA. I used this scholarship to earn a Masters of Engineering degree in Technical Entrepreneurship. I graduated in May 2015. 

I developed and patented hand thrown paintballs called Goblies. Goblies was successfully funded on Kickstarter in July 2015. Check out the product on Goblies.com.

I am the founder and CEO of Mezzimatic LLC. The flagship product is Goblies. 

In November 2014, I won the grand prize in the Eureka Venture Competition Series at Lehigh University for my product Goblies and my company Mezzimatic LLC. 

This award granted me $12,500 in winning ($5,000 cash and $7,500 in kind). I was able to use the "in kind" winnings for office space for year 1 at Ben Franklin TechVentures and Integrated Product Development teams.  

This photo is from the award winners photo shoot.

In 2013, I traveled to Slovenia with a group of students and faculty as part of the Martindale Student Associates Program.  Our itinerary composed of presentations from government officials, executives and scholars on various subjects such as healthcare, energy, human rights, religion, the political system and the economy. We also had the opportunity to visit, Lake Bled, Skocjan Caves and the salt pans.

Photos from the trip

As part of the program, over the course of the next year each student writes a paper that will be published in a journal titled: Perspectives on Business and Economics. The Slovenia edition (Volume 31) was  published in November 2014. My article is titled Information and Communication Technology: A Catalyst for Economic Growth. 

Do you like curly fries or thunderstorms? 

Researchers were able to predict to a high degree of accuracy individual traits like IQ by analyzing Facebook Likes. The best predictors for high intelligence included thunderstorms and curly fries. 

I enjoy reading and learning about business intelligence. I learned different data analysis techniques and used XLMiner (Excel BI add-on) in my business intelligence class in college. I also researched  business intelligence softwares through my position as Information Process Lead at Bracalente Manufacturing Group. 

Research Article

Analyze your Facebook Likes: www.youarewhatyoulike.com 

I was president of University Productions, Lehigh's student run programming board, for two years during college. The organization planned and ran concerts, comedy shows, movies, off campus trips and additional entertainment events. In this position I learned how to manage people and inspire change. I restructured the organizational chart and grew the club from 13 to 18 student leaders. One of the changes was to split the Special Events committee that traditionally ran the movies and planned additional events with its remaining budget. I split that group into Movies and Special Events because I knew if more time was allocated to the remaining movie budget we could run more creative, organic events. The Special Events committee went on that year to win the excellence in programming award for its Halloween Festival. 

I was honored with two leadership awards for my work in this position: 

Contribution to Student Life Award (2013)

James J. Duane III Student Life Leadership Award (2014)

I graduated with a Masters in Engineering in Technical Entrepreneurship from Lehigh University in May 2015. 

The program aims to equip you with a diverse set of skills and a well rounded knowledge of entrepreneurship while giving you the opportunity to work on your own venture. 

My experience in the program inspired and helped me develop my idea for hand thrown paintballs, Goblies. I launched the product on Kickstarter after I graduated from the program. 

 Check out the program: www.lehigh.edu/~innovate/index.html

I wrote my first business plan when I was a freshman in high school for my introduction to business class. The business was a Venetian themed restaurant, complete with river and gondola. I have been interested in entrepreneurship ever since. I received a minor in entrepreneurship during my undergraduate career at Lehigh. Now, I am pursuing a Master of Engineering in technical entrepreneurship. 

I grew up in Freehold, New Jersey with my mom, dad and younger sister, Kaela. 

At one point growing up we had four pets that had a name starting with the letter P: a dog named Peekaboo; a cat named Precious; a gerbil named Pepper and a goldfish named Pumpkin. 

In April 2014, I attended the Epicor Insights conference in Las Vegas as an employee of Bracalente Manufacturing Group. During the conference I learned about latest technology being used to help businesses manage the flow of their information. I really enjoy applying entrepreneurial thinking to this field. While at Bracalente Manufacturing Group, I worked to develop new systems for managing the flow of information from the shop floor to the executive team. 

One of my favorite things to do is to watch stand up comedy. 

This led me to become a comedy director for Lehigh's programming board, University Productions, during my sophomore year at college. In the position, I started Lehigh's first stand up comedy competition: Lehigh Laugh Off. The event is now a staple event on campus every year. 

These quotes embody the way I view leadership. 

"So the job of the CEO—of any senior business leader, for that matter— is to connect all the dots and then act as a catalyst. It's to give initiatives special status and funding and personally monitor them on a monthly or quarterly basis."

Harvard Business Review: How GE is Disrupting Itself by Jeffrey Immelt, Vijay Govindaraja and Chris Trimble

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein

I love reading books about business. I listed my favorites below. 

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Reverse Innovation by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble 

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg 

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan 

I created an Arduino based prototype for a device that pours pasta in to a pot when the water boils and then sets a timer that will go off when the pasta is done. I worked on this project with Sylvia Okoye in the Technical Entrepreneurship masters program at Lehigh University.