Lewis Sheats, longtime assistant vice provost for entrepreneurship and executive director of the entrepreneurship clinic at N.C. State, has been hired as director of the Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship, part of the Richard A Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University.
While Sheats, who's been at N.C. State for two decades, will be doing some work in St. Louis to round out 2021, he officially starts his new post Jan. 10.
Prior to his tenure as an educator, Sheats was an entrepreneur in his own right, founding Interstate Logistics. He was also a founding member of GPS device firm Securus. Triangle Inno asked Sheats if he had any parting advice for entrepreneurs – and, of course, he does.
“When it comes to entrepreneurship, it always goes back to know your customer,” he said. “Talk to them. You’ve got to get out of the office. You’ve got to get out of the lab. You’ve got to get in front of customers and get that feedback so you know what you’re doing.”
For new entrepreneurs, he said the best advice is “do it and don’t just talk about it.”
“That’s what will differentiate you from the rest of the world,” he said. “That entrepreneurial mindset. You have to actually do something about it.”
