_PAIGE DEANGELO
DeAngelo, BA communications ’23, is an alumna and owner of Aer Cosmetics, a mascara brand she invented while an undergraduate.
When Paige DeAngelo, BA ’23, first pitched her company, Aer Cosmetics, for a chance at $150,000 in seed funding from Drexel, she wasn’t making her case to seasoned investors — she was presenting it to peers she had been in classes with just a few months before.
DeAngelo, who invented her vegan, cruelty-free mascara tablet that comes in a refillable tube while still an undergraduate, is one of several inventors who have received funds from Drexel’s Innovation Fund. The fund provides early-stage support to research ideas with commercial potential from faculty, professional staff, students and alumni.
_Innovation Fund
Launched in 2023, the fund provides $150,000 in early-stage investment to student, alumni and research-driven startups, acting as a friends-and-family investor for up to four ventures annually. As an evergreen fund, all returns are reinvested to fuel future Drexel-founded innovations.
To compete for the funds, would-be entrepreneurs pitch to students in Drexel’s Venture Capital Due Diligence course in the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship. Students in the course then analyze the startups’ finances, marketing plans, market opportunity and team skills.
DeAngelo’s startup was at a critical moment. A manufacturing issue had caused the mascara tablets to dry out in the tube, hardening around the brush and rendering the kits unusable. DeAngelo had researched a solution but needed funds to fix it.
She fielded hard questions from the class teams, working through financial projections, balance sheets, investor evaluations — essentially learning the same due diligence process that professional investors use.
The course is open to all Drexel students, who then evaluate pitches and their findings about the startup in real time alongside Vice Dean for Educational Affairs Chuck Sacco and Associate Director of External Relations Robert Morier, who developed the class. The instructors break the process down into several components, teaching students what to look for when making an investment and coaching them through the presentations.
“The students are the analysts, Chuck and I are the co-partners, and then we have an external investment committee that ultimately makes the decision,” Morier explains. “But we empower the students to understand that they’re a big part of this.”
A University investment committee makes the final funding decision from the class’s recommendations.
“The Innovation Fund took my business from an idea to a reality very quickly,” DeAngelo says. “I was just a college student running with an idea and surviving on what pitch competitions I could win, but when I received the Innovation Fund award, I had to really sit down and learn how to be a business owner.”
Working with student analysts helped DeAngelo refine her strategy and push Aer forward. The final product now includes an extra bottle of solution to ensure the tablets stay fresh.
“Every day it feels like a new story, new problem, new solution, new everything,” DeAngelo says. “But I love it. I really do.”