Lulu, Red Hat founder donates $250,000 to NC State eGames

Bob Young, the Raleigh entrepreneur who founded the online self-publisher Lulu and co-founded Red Hat, is making a $250,000 gift over five years to the eGames student business startup competition at North Carolina State University.

In recognition of Young’s gift, the annual competition will be called “The Lulu eGames” for the next five years. The event brings together talented student entrepreneurs in an Olympics-style competition for new venture ideas.

“Companies like Lulu are constantly looking for talented engineers and NC State has a national reputation for turning them out,” Young said. “It’s important for us to earn the respect of those students, and I can’t imagine a more enjoyable way to interact with them than through this event.”

Students competing in the The Lulu eGames vie individually or in teams for medals and prizes totaling up to $30,000. Competitors create new venture business plans as well as designs and prototypes of new products. The 2012 competition is underway with the final round scheduled for April 30.

Previous eGames competitions have featured hi-tech motorcycle boosters, temperature-sensing bathmats, antibacterial children’s apparel and many other student-created products. In addition to designing and engineering their entries, students learn the marketing, business planning, financing, and other skills entrepreneurs need to be successful.

Young is the founder and CEO of Lulu, an online self-publishing company with headquarters on Hillsborough Street near NC State’s North Campus.  The company lets users self-publish, print and sell print-on-demand books, eBooks, photo books and calendars. He previously co-founded Red Hat, the open source software company headquartered on NC State’s Centennial Campus.

Young also sits on the advisory board for the NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative, which was created in 2008 as part of a university-wide commitment to nurture entrepreneurial thinking and activities that blends engineering, the sciences, education, business, design, the arts and humanities. The Entrepreneurship Initiative launched the eGames in 2009.

“Bob gets it, and his willingness to invest in the eGames really means a lot to me,” said Dr. Tom Miller, McPherson Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering Entrepreneurship, executive director of the Entrepreneurship Initiative, and director of the related Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at NC State. “He is very well-known in the Triangle community, and the fact that he’s paying special attention to this event means others will be as well.”

Young graduated from the University of Toronto in 1976. He also owns the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and serves as the league’s vice chairman.