Two startup accelerators at the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University have new leadership.
The Arrowhead Center named Brooke Montgomery as the new director of Studio G, a student business accelerator. Montgomery will also be the director of the American Indian Business Enterprise Center. The business accelerator for Native American-owned businesses in New Mexico that provides resources including funding opportunities and training, according to an NMSU release.
Montgomery is an entrepreneur herself, and Studio G is where her business received initial support. The program works with students and recent alumni from various colleges throughout New Mexico, its website says.
In 2014, a relative of Montgomery's went into the hospital with pneumonia, according to the news release.. He was placed on a "high-flow therapy oxygen machine" with water being flushed up his nose "at a high-pressure rate," Montgomery said in a statement. In an effort to develop a filter for the machine, she turned to Studio G for guidance.
Staff provided guidance on how to start a business, as well as connections that aided with searches for previous patents, the release says.
Those experiences led to the founding of Pivotal Biotech, a company developing respiratory therapy equipment. She is founder and CEO of the company, and "has secured $346,000 in funding," according to the company's website.
Montgomery was hired as deputy director of Studio G in January 2019 and patented her second medical device the next year, the release says. Now as director at the accelerator where she got her start as an entrepreneur, Montgomery hopes to strengthen networking among Studio G’s student entrepreneurs across the state. She is also focused on the enhancement of "co-curricular" learning programs — those that include activities or experiences that complement the curriculum.
"Students gain a great deal from getting out of the classroom and into industries, by networking with professionals and talking to customers,” Montgomery said in a statement.
“While Studio G has been recognized internationally for the strength of its existing network of advisers, we believe there is further opportunity to enhance this network by expanding industry expertise," she said.
