Over the years, LaunchNET Kent State has become synonymous with entrepreneurship within the university community. The organization helps students, faculty and staff, and alumni transform ideas into viable businesses, innovative collaborations and successful projects. In the spring of 2023, with support from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, LaunchNET was able to extend its microgrant programming to provide financial resources for alumni business owners. The organization offered grants of $500-$3,000 to alumni entrepreneurs with Ohio-based, for-profit businesses that had annual gross revenues of $200,000 or less.
“We are looking forward to seeing what projects and dynamic uses our alumni entrepreneurs will have for these new funds,” said Zach Mikrut, director, LaunchNET Kent State. “LaunchNET advising is interested in economic development, and microgrants are a tool for helping entrepreneurs to move on their goals quickly.”
Tiffany Roper, ’07, M.Ed. ’12, is a two-time alumna and recipient of one of the microgrants for , her events, personal styling and public speaking business. During the COVID quarantine in 2020, Tiffany realized that something was missing from her life. Her passion, which had always been a hallmark of her personality, just wasn’t there, and it got her thinking about what she wanted to do and who she wanted to help. And out of that quiet introspection, her entrepreneurial spirit was ignited.
She founded her first business Eat Speak Love in 2020. This nonprofit aims to amplify the voices of women and minorities in business. Since then, Tiffany has created Oh Snap Photo Lab, a mobile photo booth rental business; Thrift Theory & Style, a personal styling company; and Tiffany Roper: On The Mic!, a speaking engagement business. She and her husband also own 1st Time Shine, a mobile detailing company.
“When you’re passionate, when you’re competent and when you go full-force with everything you love, people can glean off your energy,” Tiffany said. “The last three years of my life have been the best for myself personally, as a leader, as a woman in business. It’s been nothing short of amazing.”
Though she’s not utilizing the degrees she earned at Kent State in a traditional sense, Tiffany believes that the skills she developed through her psychology and community counseling studies courses and her professional background have imbued her with an empathetic spirit and uncommon ability to listen to others, both invaluable skills as a business leader.