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Year 2 of Spark CU is here, and with a brand new energy.

Spark CU is an incubator that takes aspiring entrepreneurs and turns them into real time founders. Through weekly workshops and preparation for programs like New Venture Challenge, all six founders last year saw their business idea come to life.

That inaugural class was run by founding Managing Director Sam Benton, who's now handing off the reins. This time, however, it's to two managing directors, Rom Erez and Yigit Sarac.

Now the program is ready for more. With multiple directors at the helm, Spark CU aims to expand its outreach while making its workshops and programming more thorough.

Meet the Team

Both Sarac and Erez bring deep experience in Leeds and CU's broader campus community, making them well suited to lead Spark CU into its second year. They’re bringing their backgrounds and enthusiasm to elevate the incubator.

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Sarac studies finance, accounting, quantitative finance, Italian and economics at Leeds. Beyond his studies, he has served as a course assistant for multiple classes, works as a Peer2Peer mentor, and is a member of the CU Investment Banking Club. He has tapped into his roots by becoming the Founder and current President of the ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ Turkish Student Association.��

His ties to entrepreneurship lie within his family, where his grandfather started a machinery business that his mother's side of the family still runs. Sarac sees Spark CU as a great "demo" for his future. Its project based nature is a variation of what he's used to in traditional finance and consulting tracks. He's looking forward to expanding the program's reach and setting the right atmosphere for the cohort's growth this year.

Studying finance and data analytics in the Leeds School of Business and part of the Dean’s Leadership Fellows, Erez has the perfect blend of entrepreneurship, technical, and soft skills. Growing up in Silicon Valley, he put those skills to use by starting his own online business in high school, and has later experienced working in global venture backed technology companies, most recently at an AI startup in New York.��

Erez is the current president of TAMID at Boulder, a global club which connects business students with the startup ecosystem, and is also a Peer2Peer mentor at Leeds. He's looking forward to building and supporting a tight-knit cohort where founders help each other while driving success in the New Venture Challenge.

New Era, New Perspectives

Beyond their resumes, Sarac and Erez share a clear vision for what makes an incubator work. Both are looking for founders who are genuinely committed, and who see this as a passion.

"Whether they're able to commit, I think even being able to say that is really important,"��said Sarac. "It's at least a short term promise that you hear during an interview, and it's one of the first indicators we get from applicants."

Although each founder will be focused on building their own business, they'll be doing it in an environment built on collaboration. The two MDs emphasize that the incubator will only be as successful as the founders' willingness to work with each other.��

"I want them to have a very tight-knit community where they're able to rely on each other and get help from each other, and hopefully become friends,"��said Erez.

This semester, both MDs are focused on growing Spark CU's reach. Applications opened August 1, and the pair plan to promote the program through multiple tabling events at Leedsapalooza to bring in a wider applicant pool. Sarac and Erez are also launching LinkedIn and Instagram accounts for Spark CU, giving the program a social media presence it didn't have in its first year.

Beyond recruitment, Sarac and Erez want to build on what worked in Spark CU's first year while continuing to push founders into the New Venture Challenge. They want to see them advance through each round and walk away with real funding and mentorship.

Ultimately, the two see Spark CU as a community they hope will outlast their own time as MDs. If they succeed, this year's founders will walk away with new entrepreneurial skills and a network built to carry them forward.

Building Something Lasting

As heads into its second year, Sarac and Erez are stepping into their roles with a clear sense of what got them here in the first place. For both, entrepreneurship is something they've lived through their families and their own ventures long before they ever applied to lead the program.

"Entrepreneurship is having the drive,"��said Erez. "It takes a lot of drive, commitment and self-motivation. I think that's the most important trait for someone.”

Sarac echoed that sentiment, but pointed to what keeps someone going once the drive is there.

"Being able to see what you've created at the end is what keeps you going the whole way, even if it takes a very long time,"��said Sarac. "To know that you're leaving a legacy to something, to somewhere, is the most important thing to me.”

With applications now open and the first tabling events on the calendar, Sarac and Erez are ready to bring that same mindset to Spark CU's next class of founders, and to build something that lasts well beyond their own time as MDs.