Libre concept takes flight

Libre's four founders display samples of their clothing line.

Miami’s Institute for Entrepreneurship helps students hatch business ideas that are commercially viable. One such fledgling business is Libre LLC, formed by four recent Miami grads. The company designs and produces comfortable clothing for dialysis and chemotherapy patients, clothing that allows access to the body for treatment.

Libre’s executive team is composed of Megan Eckman, Tess Schuster, Bethany Skaff, and Megan Stengel. MBA student Mark Robinson recently caught up with Schuster to learn how the company began and where it is headed.

Q: Tell me about creating Libre and the inspiration behind your company.

A: Libre was created as a group project for our senior entrepreneurship capstone course. Megan (Stengel, president) presented the idea to our class and we all thought it was great...from there our group was created. As we worked on our business model we felt that it was an opportunity which incorporated a large amount of corporate social responsibility into our focused passion. We then decided to stop looking for jobs and to turn our dreams into a reality.

Q: What are some of your short and long term goals as you continue to build your business?

A: The original intent in starting the company was to come up with a better solution for dialysis patients than cutting holes in their clothing. That is still our intent today; but now we are also working on clothing for various infusion patients and for children. Our short term goal is to carry out our proof of concept and go national. We have many long term goals: one is to reach as many dialysis patients as we can to ease the treatment process just a little bit each day.

Q: How did the Farmer School and the entrepreneurship program influence your education and – now -- your career?

A:The Farmer School and entrepreneurship program have given us the necessary vision and tools to start our business. We have been introduced to wonderful mentors, many of whom are deeply connected to Miami. Through this program, we had the opportunity to learn lessons that text books can't teach; it was hands-on and very practical. We have continued to stay in touch with our professors and they are still actively consulting with our team today.

Content maintained by External Relations