Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2025 James “Chip” Hanlon Volunteer Mentor of the Year: Brian Sullivan
There are a million ways for startup founders to fail and only a handful of potential paths to success.
That’s the stark reality that Brian Sullivan imparts to the founders, whom he counsels as a volunteer mentor to University of Pittsburgh faculty and student innovators
“If (the founder) doesn’t commit to it, they will fail. If they can’t raise money, they will fail. If they can’t do the basic blocking and tackling to keep moving forward, they will fail. You have got to do all this stuff, and you need to have put a nail in every slot of the horseshoe,” he said.
But he swears he is not a doom-and-gloom guy. While there is never a guarantee of ultimate success, he said that founders who are willing and able to get the timely help they need to overcome obstacles increase their odds exponentially.
For his willingness to share his time and expertise to help numerous Pitt innovators navigate the uneven terrain of innovation and entrepreneurship, Sullivan has been selected as the 2025 James “Chip” Hanlon Volunteer Mentor of the Year by the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE).
Democratizing Entrepreneurship
Sullivan said that as someone who grew up in a modest single-parent home and was the first generation to attend college, he likes mentoring people who haven’t previously been exposed to entrepreneurial concepts and mindsets.
“One of the reasons I mentor is to democratize the idea of entrepreneurship and the ability for people to start and grow businesses,” he said. “I try to provide that helpful, in-your-corner perspective,” he said.
Like a parent helping a child ride a bike, he said, as they gain skills and confidence, he begins to become less hands-on and serve primarily as a sounding board.
“Everybody comes to innovation and entrepreneurship with insights, whether they are technical, clinical, or operational. But then they all also have things that they don’t know they don’t know, and that’s where a mentor can play a role in guiding them on their journeys. It’s emotionally rewarding to see people begin to be successful and know you had a role in that,” he said.
One of his most recent mentoring engagements has been with Anna Li, a student at the Pitt School of Medicine, and the founder of Korion Health, who, as the daughter of immigrants, fits the mold of the type of entrepreneur Sullivan enjoys helping the most.
Li, who is this year’s OIE Student Innovator of the Year awardee, was introduced to Sullivan last year while participating in the accelerator program at LifeX, the independent life sciences acceleration, incubation and capital formation company created by Pitt. Korion is developing an electronic stethoscope to permit people to monitor cardiac health from home. Li credits Sullivan with helping her get the company’s quality management system in place.
More importantly, Li said, he helped give her the confidence to persevere.
“I had terrible impostor syndrome as I started out this journey. Brian has been so proactive in helping me believe in myself,” she said. “He is a holistic mentor who brings such humanness and kindness to the table. I adore Brian and am so grateful for his support.”
Sullivan said that successful entrepreneurs must also be healthy human beings, so he takes extra care to ensure the founders he mentors are eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising.
Paul Petrovich, director of New Ventures at the Innovation Institute, part of the OIE, said Sullivan’s human touch and rock-solid technical acumen made him an easy choice for Mentor of the Year.
“Brian’s thoughtful guidance and steady support have shaped some of our most promising early-stage innovation teams … from cancer therapies and mental health tools to a bio-resorbable nerve stimulator for pain relief,” Petrovich said. “His clear advice has inspired confidence in countless innovators. We’re proud to name him Mentor of the Year, a testament to the deep respect he’s earned across our community.”
Trading the California Vibes for Pittsburgh Community
After earning his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, Sullivan headed west to California, where he obtained his PhD, then put down roots working in the defense industry.
When the opportunity arose to come back home to lead a semiconductor startup in Pittsburgh, however, he jumped at the chance. Although the startup ultimately was not viable, he had become ingrained in the Pittsburgh innovation ecosystem and now can’t see himself ever leaving again.
Sullivan estimates that he has engaged with approximately 15 different Pitt innovators through his roles with the OIE and LifeX.
He began in the NSF I-Corps commercialization program (formerly First Gear), where Pitt innovators with promising discoveries from their research can begin to explore their commercial potential by interviewing prospective customers and other stakeholders.
Sullivan said he began to focus on teams with medical device and rehabilitative and assistive technologies and is now an adjunct professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, where he focuses on teaching commercial translation of lab discoveries.
He credits the OIE, and entrepreneur in residence Priya Amin in particular, for curating a cross-functional collection of volunteer mentors that can be custom-paired with Pitt innovation teams needing specific guidance in areas from operations to marketing to product development and more.
“When I see somebody like Priya come in with a tailored approach to matching mentors with the needs of the company, that’s something I’m happy to be a part of,” he said. “The new Community of Innovators program is also an exciting way to build the ecosystem.”
Back in the game, Sullivan himself has reentered the startup arena, this time with a new social media platform focused on “emotionally intelligent” interaction, and working on an SBIR to accommodate people on the autism spectrum. He has created the company as public benefit corporation (PBC), a for-profit entity that also creates a positive impact on society.
He is tapping into the Pitt and regional innovation ecosystem that he has been helping to build over the past decade-plus.
“We were able to gather a group of people here in Pittsburgh to build the basic platform,” he said, adding that he is collaborating with a program at the Pitt School of Law while exploring collaborations with other parts of the university. And he was a mentee in a program for which he previously served as a mentor, bringing his experience full circle.
“I am benefitting from the Pitt ecosystem from a collaboration perspective,” he said. “My own story is still being written, and it’s increasingly centered on Pitt. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people and grateful for this honor.”