Fellows-to-Founders Venture Studio Program
Innovation Fellows
Fellows-to-Founders Venture Studio Program
Innovation Fellows are highly motivated people with a passion for entrepreneurship — a desire to own and drive something meaningful, and to build a business with confidence rather than against the usual roadblocks.
By partnering with DIAL Ventures, Fellows get direct access to the industry: its thought leaders, established supply chains, and potential customers. Alongside that, a monthly stipend and customized training built around what it takes to succeed.
What DIAL provides is personal development, business support, and a condensed path from idea to funding to launch through a repeatable, turn-key process. The end goal is for Fellows to become co-founders of the companies they develop through the DIAL Ventures studio process.
One of the defining advantages of the DIAL model is that we do not begin with ideas — we begin with industry-defined problems. Throughout the discovery phase, Fellows work directly with our partners, alongside producers, agribusiness leaders, researchers, and other industry experts to understand the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of agriculture. Validating opportunities with industry before building companies reduces technical, market, and commercial risk, and increases the likelihood of creating ventures the market is ready to adopt.
By partnering with DIAL Ventures, Fellows get direct access to the industry: its thought leaders, established supply chains, and potential customers. Alongside that, a monthly stipend and customized training built around what it takes to succeed.
What DIAL provides is personal development, business support, and a condensed path from idea to funding to launch through a repeatable, turn-key process. The end goal is for Fellows to become co-founders of the companies they develop through the DIAL Ventures studio process.
One of the defining advantages of the DIAL model is that we do not begin with ideas — we begin with industry-defined problems. Throughout the discovery phase, Fellows work directly with our partners, alongside producers, agribusiness leaders, researchers, and other industry experts to understand the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of agriculture. Validating opportunities with industry before building companies reduces technical, market, and commercial risk, and increases the likelihood of creating ventures the market is ready to adopt.
What a Fellow gets
- Direct access to industry leaders, established supply chains, and potential customers across the agrifood value chain
- A monthly stipend and customized training
- Purdue research support to define markets and understand customer needs
- Connections to investors, program offices, policy specialists, and other entrepreneurs
- Help building the narrative, the pipeline, and the pitch
- Support assembling the team and advisory board, and access to sources of capital
- A condensed, repeatable path from idea to funding to launch
- Co-founder role in the company that comes out of it
How the program runs
Phase One ideation to concept Just under six months. Fellows work with experts in the food and agriculture industry to identify and validate the industry's most important unsolved problems, then develop concepts against them.
Phase TWObusiness buildCoincident with pre-seed funding. DIAL adds critical functional resources — software engineering, product design, marketing, along with legal and human resources as needed — to move the company to product and revenue quickly.
Meet the 2026 Purdue DIAL Ventures Innovation Fellows
Our seventh cohort began in August 2026. Selected through a highly competitive national search, each Fellow brings a combination of entrepreneurial experience, technical expertise, and leadership that strengthens our ability to identify high-value opportunities and build companies addressing agriculture's most important challenges.
Collectively this cohort brings expertise spanning venture creation, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, enterprise software, consumer products, and deep technology. Their experience includes founding and scaling companies, raising investment capital, leading global technology organizations, commercializing breakthrough innovations, and developing products used by millions of customers worldwide. While each brings a distinct perspective, they share a commitment to customer discovery, evidence-based decision making, and building technology-enabled solutions that solve meaningful industry problems.
Collectively this cohort brings expertise spanning venture creation, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, enterprise software, consumer products, and deep technology. Their experience includes founding and scaling companies, raising investment capital, leading global technology organizations, commercializing breakthrough innovations, and developing products used by millions of customers worldwide. While each brings a distinct perspective, they share a commitment to customer discovery, evidence-based decision making, and building technology-enabled solutions that solve meaningful industry problems.
Adam Lazar
Founder & CEO, Asarasi: The Tree Water Company and Nekter Pop
Adam is a patented inventor and entrepreneur whose passion for sustainable innovation has led to the creation of breakthrough consumer products. He began his career developing advanced eyewear and training systems for the U.S. military before recognizing the untapped potential of renewable tree water and creating an entirely new category of maple-derived bottled water. His work spans consumer products, agricultural innovation, and patented wildlife management technologies designed to improve sustainability and resource conservation. Most recently, his probiotic healthy soda brand Nekter Pop launched nationally in more than 1,000 retail locations within four months. Adam earned a B.A. in Management from Hartwick College and an M.B.A. from Norwich University, and previously served as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the Army National Guard.
Adam is a patented inventor and entrepreneur whose passion for sustainable innovation has led to the creation of breakthrough consumer products. He began his career developing advanced eyewear and training systems for the U.S. military before recognizing the untapped potential of renewable tree water and creating an entirely new category of maple-derived bottled water. His work spans consumer products, agricultural innovation, and patented wildlife management technologies designed to improve sustainability and resource conservation. Most recently, his probiotic healthy soda brand Nekter Pop launched nationally in more than 1,000 retail locations within four months. Adam earned a B.A. in Management from Hartwick College and an M.B.A. from Norwich University, and previously served as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the Army National Guard.
Gurkern Sufi
Bioinformatics entrepreneur — AI, genetics, and precision agriculture
Gurkern works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, genetics, and precision agriculture. A trained Bio-informatician from UC Davis, Gurkern has developed a career in multi-stakeholder environments holding leadership positions in academia and civil service in addition to founding a biotech startup focused on precision embryo gene editing and IVF automation. He's drawn to agriculture for its scale, the idea that even small innovations can move an entire food system. Based in Sacramento, known as America's Farm-to-Fork Capital, he's traveled six continents and speaks four languages. As a Purdue DIAL Ventures Fellow, Gurkern spends the coming weeks working alongside producers and industry experts, searching for the problems worth building around.
Gurkern works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, genetics, and precision agriculture. A trained Bio-informatician from UC Davis, Gurkern has developed a career in multi-stakeholder environments holding leadership positions in academia and civil service in addition to founding a biotech startup focused on precision embryo gene editing and IVF automation. He's drawn to agriculture for its scale, the idea that even small innovations can move an entire food system. Based in Sacramento, known as America's Farm-to-Fork Capital, he's traveled six continents and speaks four languages. As a Purdue DIAL Ventures Fellow, Gurkern spends the coming weeks working alongside producers and industry experts, searching for the problems worth building around.
Joe Entelisano
Founder, Fulton Street Labs
Joe is an entrepreneur and product leader with more than a decade of experience building technology platforms that improve complex, real-world operations. His career spans Amazon, Wonder, and TaskRabbit, where he developed software to optimize warehouse operations, food logistics, and marketplace services at scale. Today he leads Fulton Street Labs, an AI venture studio focused on agentic AI products, and co-founded FieldSim, an agriculture simulation company commercializing technology licensed from Idaho National Laboratory. Joe is drawn to agrifood because it combines operational complexity with meaningful societal impact — the industry's fragmented data, diverse stakeholders, and dynamic operating environment create exceptional opportunities for AI-enabled innovation.
Joe is an entrepreneur and product leader with more than a decade of experience building technology platforms that improve complex, real-world operations. His career spans Amazon, Wonder, and TaskRabbit, where he developed software to optimize warehouse operations, food logistics, and marketplace services at scale. Today he leads Fulton Street Labs, an AI venture studio focused on agentic AI products, and co-founded FieldSim, an agriculture simulation company commercializing technology licensed from Idaho National Laboratory. Joe is drawn to agrifood because it combines operational complexity with meaningful societal impact — the industry's fragmented data, diverse stakeholders, and dynamic operating environment create exceptional opportunities for AI-enabled innovation.
Dr. Venkat Maroju
Technology executive and digital agriculture leader
Venkat brings more than three decades of experience building and scaling technology-driven businesses across global enterprise transformation, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and agrifood innovation. He served as CIO of Bose Corporation's Automotive Division and as CEO of SourceTrace, where he grew a digital agriculture platform serving more than two million farmers across 30 countries before leading a successful exit. He is passionate about harnessing AI, data, remote sensing, and traceability technologies to build more transparent, resilient, and profitable food systems. Originally from Jangaon in Telangana, India, his educational path includes engineering studies at Osmania University and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, doctoral work in the United States, and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Venkat brings more than three decades of experience building and scaling technology-driven businesses across global enterprise transformation, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and agrifood innovation. He served as CIO of Bose Corporation's Automotive Division and as CEO of SourceTrace, where he grew a digital agriculture platform serving more than two million farmers across 30 countries before leading a successful exit. He is passionate about harnessing AI, data, remote sensing, and traceability technologies to build more transparent, resilient, and profitable food systems. Originally from Jangaon in Telangana, India, his educational path includes engineering studies at Osmania University and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, doctoral work in the United States, and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Become an Innovation Fellow
DIAL Ventures recruits a new cohort of Innovation Fellows ahead of each studio cycle. We build every cohort from varying professions, industries, educational backgrounds, and personal histories — great entrepreneurs don't fit a single mold.
What we look for
Leadership and drive
Innovation and creativity
Intelligence and critical thinking
Collaboration and teamwork
Communication and empathy