From Students to Startup Founders: How FORGE Ahead Ignited the Entrepreneurial Journey of GRAV Innovations

When they came to FORGE at Roy Place in downtown Tucson, three University of Arizona Eller College of Management students discovered a startup world they never knew existed. Students Armen Demirjian, Evan Zavitz, and Newton Ryan were part of Eller’s McGuire New Venture Development Program and excited about a new concept they were developing. The three came to tour FORGE at Roy Place with their class program. They found a robust ecosystem for supporting entrepreneurs just like themselves.

During the tour, they met Brian Ellerman, Founding Executive Director of University of Arizona FORGE, Eric Smith, Executive Director for the University of Arizona Center for Innovation, and Liz Pocock, CEO of Startup Tucson. They learned about a vast ecosystem of local programs for startups. They felt that FORGE, an organization for Finding Opportunities and Resources to Grow Entrepreneurs, could be valuable in growing their new venture.

“A big part of what we are creating here at FORGE are collaborative spaces for cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset that pairs resources from across campus with innovative community partners and industry experts,” said Ellerman.

“It was great to hear that there was a startup community in Tucson,” said Ryan. “We knew we wanted to be part of that.”

Their startup, GRAV Innovations, had been on Ryan’s mind for a while. As a gaming enthusiast, he wanted a different type of mouse that could reduce movement allowing for more precise, fine-tuned motor control. Ryan presented both his mouse concept and a social media app to the NVD program.

“There were a lot of hands up for the computer mouse, not so much for the social media app,” said Ryan.

In the NVD program, Ryan connected with his future co-founders Evan Zavitz and Armen Demirjian.

Those are exactly the kinds of connections and opportunities that the NVD program aimed to provide. “The Eller College is more than a business school—it’s a catalyst, said Karthik Kannan, Dean of the Eller College of Management. “A catalyst like this propels students to launch ventures bigger than any classroom could ever hold.  We’re proud that our NVD program brings students together to spark inspiration and catapult them into reality,” 

The team had complementary strengths, with Ryan leading product development, Zavitz providing marketing efforts and Demirjian supplying product design and marketing skills. With their shared passion for gaming, they knew they had the right background to develop and produce an innovative mouse.

The team sent out surveys and gathered data throughout the gaming community. With the feedback they gathered, they validated their idea and developed better versions of their concept. They learned there was a real need for a device to improve how people interact with technology. Within 6 months, they had an early prototype, but taking their project from academic exercise to investable company was challenging.

“Transitioning from a very structured academic environment, into the much more dynamic world of business, was a bit jarring,” commented Zavitz. “As emerging professionals, we were also working to find a balance between our daily responsibilities and our entrepreneurial ambitions, leveraging our experiences and learning to bring our product to market.”

A FORGE Venture Advisors Residency helped make that transition less jarring. FORGE Venture Advisors is a venture accelerator providing startup founders with guidance from industry mentors, office space, conference and meeting rooms, help with promotion, coaching on preparing pitch presentations, introductions to investors, events, and interview opportunities with media. The program is free for participants but can require a time commitment of up to a year. GRAV was accepted into FORGE Ahead and discovered a valuable partner in growing from students to startup founders.

For GRAV, the connections with mentors were invaluable. “FORGE has been instrumental in giving us access to experienced mentors that have been in our shoes. They consistently helped us get to where we needed to go more efficiently,” said Zavitz.

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The GRAV team also enjoyed opportunities to show the GRAV Mouse directly to the public. The team ran a demo booth at a Venture Valley gaming tournament, hosted at FORGE at Roy Place, where they connected with gaming enthusiasts and industry professionals and took part in media interviews about their product.

They also showcased their work and connected with other startup founders at the FORGE Ahead Grand Re-Opening event.

“It re-ignites the fire,” said Ryan. “It's nice to get your product in front of people and have them try it out. Especially from those that are active in the startup community and that take immediate interest.”

Even with all their passion for the product, the GRAV founders recognized that entrepreneurship can be difficult.

“We faced challenges regarding our depth of knowledge,” said Zavitz, “Having frequent opportunities to audit our progress with Brian and the mentor team revealed additional insights into where we could bolster our skills and continue learning - that was helpful for me.”

Demirjian agreed. “While being on the startup journey, the most important lessons I learned revolved around networking and developing my entrepreneurial mindset,” he said. “I was consistently exposed to new ideas that helped with increasing my efficiency and enabled me to be a more effective problem solver.”

FORGE Ahead helped the team learn to adapt to new roles. "I always felt like a researcher of some sort," said Ryan. "I felt like I was constantly learning something that I didn't expect to learn when I woke up that day, whether having to build a financial model or create testing software for our mouse, which was out of my wheelhouse. But somehow, I learned how to do it that day."

After finishing the FORGE Ahead program, the team is excited about what comes next for GRAV and have already launched another venture.

“Building on the momentum out of FORGE, we plan on sharing the GRAV journey with our following by launching our product on crowdfunding apps,” said Ryan. While working on GRAV, the founders also launched a second company, Roasted Origins Coffee Co., a subscription-based coffee company with over 40 different blends and flavors. When the team presented some AI tools they use at GRAV Innovations to the Support + Share group for student founders, FORGE Mentor in Residence John Achoukian asked about creating an AI-driven company.

“We explored a range of different possibilities and decided on combining our passion for AI with our love for coffee. We’re excited to see what happens and are grateful for the connections at FORGE that made it a possibility,” said Ryan.

The journey from students to entrepreneurs has been exciting and the team is thankful for everything they gained from the University of Arizona to get there. “I like being in that environment where you're taking an idea and trying to create something out of it,” said Ryan. “I've learned a lot just by being in FORGE Ahead. It’s helped me become more efficient and better in my process.”

"The experience for the GRAV team, from the McGuire Center to FORGE, demonstrates how an entrepreneurship curriculum and the UA entrepreneurship ecosystem can be a powerful vehicle for students to pursue innovation early in their professional careers, said John Sharp, Director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the Eller College of Management. “This is especially true for GRAV, who are pursuing an innovative and complex idea." 

“The FORGE Ahead program helped me develop more confidence in my business acumen,” said Demirjian. Reaching out and leveraging the experience of different entrepreneurs was very impactful in helping me develop and direct my curiosity within business - especially as it related to the challenges we had to overcome with our venture.”

“My aspirations for attending university weren’t strong in high school,” admits Zavitz, “I always felt more connected to the idea of working on projects that I’m passionate about and with people who share that same drive and determination. Finding a group of like-minded individuals through the NVD program was an exceptional joy and finally made me feel like I found a home at UA. FORGE has only furthered that experience of connection and has opened a lot of doors - continuing that growth journey for me.”