From pitching ideas to designing a startup, Lehigh students are directly connected to real experiences in California’s hub for innovation through the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation and Lehigh West.
JR Perez ’27, a chemical engineering and Integrated Degree in Engineering and Arts and Sciences (IDEAS) dual major who is building his own startup, heard about LehighSiliconValley (LSV) during his sophomore year. Run by the Baker Institute, LSV is a week-long entrepreneurial immersion program that provides students a gateway experience to testing out entrepreneurship on the West Coast.
During his experience, Perez was able to see Lehigh alumni in careers that he aspired to be in himself. In the entrepreneurial space, envisioning what an entrepreneur does feels abstract, he added. Seeing real-life entrepreneurs from Lehigh led Perez to have a “mental shift” where he then understood becoming an entrepreneur was possible.
“Speaking to Lehigh alumni leaders in the industry was really beneficial for not only meeting people and making connections, but breaking out of my shell,” Perez explained.
He remembers speaking with Marc Tarpenning P’27, venture partner at Spero Ventures and co-founder of Tesla Inc. Having that conversation encouraged Perez to see entrepreneurship as interdisciplinary—engineers can also be business leaders.
After the program, Perez was hooked.
“I loved LSV so much that as soon as I got back, I started looking for other opportunities to get involved in back out in San Francisco,” he said.
The next opportunity was StartUp Academy. Offered through the College of Business and Lehigh West, StartUp Academy is an immersive, 10-week academic practicum and entrepreneurial talent accelerator based in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Perez knew there was no other way he wanted to spend his summer. He interned with Joule Labs, an engineering startup that specializes in autonomous fleet service infrastructure like electrical vehicle chargers.
Through StartUp Academy, Perez took every opportunity to immerse himself in the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem to gain insights for his own startup idea that was brewing. Perez filled his evenings with exactly what it takes to become an entrepreneur: taking action.
“After LSV, I was really inspired to find my own niche and build my own startup,” Perez said. “So during StartUp Academy, I went to a conference every two or three days, talked to different people and then did the research on how they built what they built.”
Every day, Perez spoke to a new person. He learned what not to do sometimes before what he should do, and leaned into the diverse companies and startup culture the area offers.
In the midst of his engineering classes back at Lehigh, Perez was joining different research labs. He credits Lehigh West with helping him identify opportunities that he would’ve missed out on.
“In my different research labs, I began noticing a common thread,” Perez said. “Inventory mismanagement would actually postpone the deadline process. Someone would lose something or something would break, replacing the tool takes 2-3 weeks, and suddenly the entire publication process is off.”
With this observation in mind, Perez iterated an idea, taking it from the lab to manufacturing..
This past spring, Perez won the Baker Institute’s Eureka! Student Venture Program for his startup SmartFlow Inventory, a voice-based inventory management platform specifically tailored for small manufacturers, earned him the 2026 Joan F. & John M. Thalheimer '55 Grand Prize Pitch Competition and a $5,000 award.
After gaining insight through the range of entrepreneurial programs Lehigh offers, Perez continues to mentor students in Baker Institute programs on campus..
“I don’t think any of this would’ve clicked for me if it wasn’t for Lehigh Entrepreneurship and Lehigh West. They taught me how to find opportunities, how to turn problems into solutions,” Perez said. “I always wanted to be an engineer and an inventor, but I didn’t realize I could until Lehigh’s Silicon Valley-based entrepreneurial programming.”
He encourages all students, no matter their discipline, to get involved in entrepreneurship at Lehigh and experience where that one small action can lead.
