Diverse Education
- In the mid-1990s, Amir Pirzadeh had an idea for improving sawmills. But he struggled with how to turn a technical innovation into a profitable business.
That changed in 2007 when Pirzadeh, an MBA student at Fayetteville State University, and classmates won a business competition — the Opportunity Funding Corporation’s (OFC) Venture Challenge. Three years later, Pirzadeh saw his idea, a machinery company called Smart Saws Inc., grow to $444,000 in gross sales.
By making the machinery more efficient, sawmills can produce more lumber from fewer trees. The process has come a long way from the idea Pirzadeh had 15 years ago.
“It really came together in 2007,” says Pirzadeh, who now operates his company full time. “Before then it was more of a technical idea.”
