SPRING 2024 | 37 BOX E Meet the entrepreneurs in Lehigh Ventures Lab whose ideas could change the way people date, bank, protect their dogs from ticks, and more. Story by Stephen Gross TiCK MiTT A t 8 years old, Olivia Abrams ’21 was diagnosed with Lyme disease, an illness that she said had manifested in arthritis in her knees as a young child. She remembers missing classes in first grade because she had found it too painful to walk. Ever since, she and her family have been more mindful of ticks, which carry the disease, than perhaps most people. And as a family that always owned large dogs, they found keeping ticks out of their house was no easy task. Abrams and her father wondered if the towels they were using to clean up dog drool could also be helpful to remove burrs, leaves and insects, including ticks, from their dogs. While Abrams was still a student at Lehigh in 2018, she and her father began working with a tick scientist they knew to develop a tick-removing glove that can be used on both people and pets. TiCK MiTT officially launched in March 2023 and has since been featured nationally on “Good Morning America” and “The View”. “Our product fits in a lot of different categories,” Abrams says. “Obviously a huge portion of it is pets, but it’s also designed for gardeners, hunters, hikers, campers, golfers, people who are spending a lot of time outdoors where they may encounter ticks. … It’s a very diverse product because a lot of people need tick prevention. The population of ticks is only increasing, and the amount of cases of Lyme disease and other tick-related diseases is also only increasing.” Abrams is getting an assist from Lehigh Ventures Lab, a new Lehigh startup accelerator that supports founders who are working full-time to launch and grow early stage ventures. Lehigh Ventures Lab, housed in the Business Innovation Building, provides entrepreneurs and startup companies with direct mentorship; content; access to students who could potentially become future interns, employees or even co-founders; and office space. A joint partnership between the College of Business and the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation, the lab officially launched at Lehigh in 2023. Lehigh Ventures Lab has 11 active AUDREY TAPPAN
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