Greetings from the College of Southern Nevada!
Several years ago, CSN Business Professor Kevin Raiford started a business incubator program at the college to help students start their own businesses.
Raiford is very familiar with the business world. Before joining CSN, he worked in executive positions with Johnson & Johnson, Whole Foods, Snapple Beverages and Hewlett-Packard.
Raiford says he left the private sector to pursue teaching so he could make a bigger impact on his community. He has recently been ranked in the top five professors in the nation by ratemyprofessor.com.
Since it began, his business incubator program has been a tremendous success. Twenty seven business have come out of the program.
One of them, Revive Brand Co., was recently honored in a statewide competition for college student-run businesses.
Revive Brand Co., which makes and sells backpacks, hats and other “streetwear,” took second place in the Donald W. Reynold’s Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan competition. Congratulations to student team members Cesar Santos, Amanda Appling, Jonathan Santos and Medin Gebrezgier.
“I am so delighted to be a part of this wonderful CSN team,” Raiford said. “It was a pleasure being the advisor representing all the work the entire faculty continually puts into our students.”
The Governor’s Cup pits teams from colleges and universities across Nevada against one another to determine which have come up with viable business models. The goal is to encourage the state’s talented students to act on their ideas and produce the next generation of businesses. CSN’s team was the only finalist from a community college.
Revive Brand Co.’s second place win brought with it a check for $15,000 for their company.