Thank you to all of our awesome supporters! With all of your help, we reached our goal of $10,000 in less than 17 hours on Friday. That's a record for Launch UMD! Expect a cool thank you timelapse to be uploaded soon.

If you want to see the Shell in action, we're hosting a public Demo Day on Friday, Dec. 5 from 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM. RSVP at startupshell.org/demoday. At Demo Day, Startup Shell members will present their ventures, demo their products, and discuss their progress to fellow members, investors, friends and family. For those of you across the country, there will be live streaming. More details to come as the event approaches.

Hey Shell family. We've been overwhelmed by the positive response to the Shell's Launch UMD campaign. That's why we've decided to announce two stretch goals: $20,000 and $35,000.

Stretch Goal #1: $20,000

With the additional $10,000, the Shell will be able to fund more specialized equipment and studio space for our startups. These funds will go toward creating a pop-up photography and print studio for both our creative startups' use and our members' use in staging professional photoshoots of their products and team. This funding will also go toward subsidizing members' travel to national technology conferences and expos, in order to better network with industry leaders and showcase their work across the country.

Stretch Goal #2: $35,000

Here, we're dreaming big. An Innovation Fund of $35,000 will enable us to accept more members per batch, which means more students will be able to work out of the Shell and share our resources to build their ventures. We also will be able to host more public dinners with industry leaders at the Shell. With our projected use of our current funding, we can only accept about 25 students per batch. With this stretch goal of $35,000, we hope to increase that number in the coming years as the entrepreneurial ecosytem at UMD grows.

We wanted to give you an update from our very first Demo Day on Dec. 5, 2014. We had over 20 of our teams present their ventures to an audience that filled the Shell. It was a huge success, and we will be hosting an even bigger Demo Day in late spring 2015. We'll be posting photos from Demo Day soon on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/StartupShell), so stay tuned! Big thanks to the Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for providing the catering.

We've also started a series of Shell Interviews that highlight what our members are currently working on. Read about Brett Potter, who is building the fastest consumer 3D printer on the market, and Kyle King, who is developing a faster, cheaper, and more accurate blood test using microfluidics.

Brett: https://medium.com/startup-shell/readybox-the-fastest-consumer-3d-printer-ever-3cf162d15ff4

Kyle: https://medium.com/@ciaomack/kyle-king-designing-a-better-blood-test-4951d530a699

More interview posts to come in the following weeks. As always, thank you so much for your support of the Shell, and have a great week!

Hey Shell Family,

Thank you for being awesome backers throughout our campaign. We raised $12,579 from 47 donors over the past month. The funding you have helped us raise will go directly toward helping student entrepreneurs work on their businesses, network with mentors and peers, and build a stronger entrepreneurship community at the University of Maryland. Expect thank you cards in the mail soon, and enjoy the holidays!

Best,

Jeff + Mackenzie, Co-Directors