Innovation can take root anywhere, whether it's in a lab at a tier-one research university or a coworking space within a booming West Texas border city. This year's Inno Under 25 class proves that — and then some.
Each year, Albuquerque Business First and New Mexico Inno look for young startup founders, novel researchers or other folks working to advance the state's growing innovation ecosystem. Through a public call for nominations and our own individual outreach, the editorial team selected five individuals for this year's group of Inno Under 25 honorees. To qualify, those chosen had to be 25 years old or younger as of Oct. 13, 2023 (the date of this publication).
While previous iterations of our Inno Under 25 awards have picked people based primarily in and around the Albuquerque area — which is not surprising as the Duke City is by far the state's largest city — Business First looked a bit farther south for this year's class. A couple of our honorees base their work in the Borderplex region, which spans from El Paso, Texas, to Las Cruces, and another has pioneered research at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.
But don't worry. Albuquerque — and the University of New Mexico, specifically — is still well represented.
You can read all about those five honorees in the Oct. 13 print edition of the the paper, or in the coming days online.
You need a minimum of 120 credit hours to secure an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico. When Tina Memarian finished her degree in May of this year, she had over 180.
That 30% increase is a testament to just how much Memarian did while at New Mexico's largest university. She completed a dual bachelor's of arts degree in chemistry and international relations, helped lead the university's Professional Sales Association and Iranian Student Association and worked for the University of New Mexico (UNM) Rainforest Innovation's technology transfer office.
But in all that, Memarian said some of her favorite courses — and she took a lot of them — were film and entrepreneurship-related. Finishing the required courses for her chemistry degree early on allowed her to take more of those types of classes, and many others.
"I just wanted to learn as much, like build upon my skills. I think that's more important than the degree itself," Memarian said. "I just wanted to network and meet as many people as possible and just learn."
She also got the chance to study abroad in Ecuador and participate in an internship this past summer with the U.S. Department of Energy, where she worked in technology commercialization. It was similar, she said, to some of her work with Rainforest Innovations.
"Going through the process of commercialization again was a good opportunity," Memarian said. "It reinforced a lot of things."
And then, while a first-year student at UNM, she became involved with the university's Innovation Academy, a program that's part of the Anderson School of Management with the tagline "Creativity is Our Only Curriculum." While her first time pitching an idea for a company through the Innovation Academy didn't land Memarian a spot as a finalist, that wasn't a deterrent. Later, in another competition, she took first place.
Shortly after returning from a trip to Europe, Albuquerque Business First caught up with Memarian to learn more about her experience and what's drawn her toward creativity and innovation.
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Albuquerque Business First: Coming up with an idea and pitching it to people sounds quite difficult. What have you learned from doing that in different capacities through the Innovation Academy?
Tina Memarian: There are a couple logistical things. Making sure your tone is upbeat, that you have a lot of energy. If you're excited, and you can translate that energy to the person you're presenting to, then they can pick up on it. The second thing is to know your facts, know your product. You just have to know so much information. When J.K. Rowling was writing about Harry Potter, she had to know everything about Harry Potter, like who his parents were, who is friends were, what food he doesn't like. Same thing with a product. If you have an idea to sell something, you have to know everything about it. I see a lot of it as storytelling. It's conveying that value.
With entrepreneurship and innovation, what has drawn you into this field? Why do you want to do entrepreneurship and innovation-related things? Originally, what I liked about it was the more scientific, more technical side. I had been the entrepreneurial lead for a stroke treatment company. After that internship, I realized that I like the more consumer-based side of it. Not really on a business-to-business level but on a consumer level, where you actually get to talk to people and see what their normal day looks like or how you can make it better. However the entrepreneurial scope of that might impact their lives.
So, that's how you've leaned into it now? I guess because I like talking a lot. Or really understanding how people come to the decisions they've made, like what advice do they have. I guess my personality has changed a lot, too. If you ever travel and stay in hostels, you meet a lot of people. Getting them to open on an individual scale and asking a bunch of questions, that's what I enjoyed about seeing that there are so many things people do or have done.
You've done a ton. You've taken 180 credits, you've traveled to a lot of different countries and had different internship experiences. Do you know what you want to do as a career out of all these different experiences? Have they guided you in a certain direction? I feel like there's not one specific thing I could tell you right now. Being able to be creative and innovative and having authority over my own personal decisions, while also being able to meet people and learn from other people in the community. The world is so big and there are so many opportunities that I feel like it's worth it to explore and try a lot of things on my own or with other people. I would want my career to hold the characteristics of having creativity and individuality, and inspiration and storytelling. And somehow combining that with entrepreneurship, but more on a person-to-person scale. A dream encompasses being my own boss in some sort of way, entrepreneurial spirit and the storytelling aspect, whether it's related to film or not. Just the ability to present and share a story or presentations or anything like that. Whatever the future holds, we'll see.
