Riley Csernica is something of a Clemson wunderkind, having earned three separate Clemson degrees in the space of five years. She is a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur who runs Tarian Orthotics, a Mount Pleasant, South Carolina-based medical device company she co-founded in 2013.
While earning her bachelor’s in bioengineering, Riley served as one of the six co-inventors of the Tarian Shoulder Stabilizer, which began as a class project. After graduation, she decided to work alongside co-inventor and former classmate Chelsea Ex-Lubeskie to co-found a company to commercialize the device. At the time, their idea of the Tarian pro Shoulder Stabilizer was nothing more than a crudely-designed prototype. However, after working alongside athletic trainers and with orthopedic surgeons and their patients, Riley and Chelsea uncovered an effective and revolutionary design that was unlike anything on the market.
Riley decided to enroll in Clemson’s MBA in entrepreneurship and innovation program to gain the business knowledge needed to effectively launch and run the company. Before the end of the program, she had applied for and earned a $50,000 National Science Foundation grant which they used to help prototype and test the device, and also successfully applied for patent status. Currently, the company sells their shoulder brace to professional and amateur athletes across the country. The success of the shoulder brace has allowed them to focus on R&D for other devices, and Tarian is currently developing a unique, 3-D printed ankle brace which will launch soon.

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By Clemson

Creating a business from Nothing is entirely possible