Lavin Partnership Program Creates Second Chance

The executive director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, Alex DeNoble, presents Merino with a certificate of honorable mention.

David Merino was a successful entrepreneur who did business as an artist and designer for over 30 years. 

In 2014 disaster struck. 

“I became extremely ill and lost my mobility,” he said. “The effects of the illness affected my organ function and my nervous system. For a very long time, I was cognitively impaired and confined to a wheelchair.” 

His illness not only impacted his health and mobility, it also affected his ability to make a living as well. “These changes were very difficult for me because I remembered the highly active, contributing person I had been, but now I had trouble even managing basic things,” said Merino. “For several years afterward, I felt I’d reached my peak and had nothing left to create or that no one would be interested in what I had to contribute.” 

“Self-Imposed Exile”

Merino’s situation deteriorated to the point where he was “in a self-imposed exile” with no prospects or social life. But that situation changed in the fall of 2021 when he was on the internet exploring options to supplement his income. He discovered the San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program, which caught his attention. 

The San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program was made possible through the combined efforts of the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies and the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. The program was created to provide resources and information to disadvantaged San Diegans who want to grow or initiate successful business ventures. 

“I thought ‘well — entrepreneurship and adversity — I think I fit that bill’,” said Merino. “So, I applied and was granted a scholarship to attend.” 

Students and faculty from the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center worked with clients in the San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program in a variety of ways, including helping with training, consulting, assisting clients in finding resources, and the tracking and monitoring of the client’s start-up business at the end of the program. 

In Merino’s case, he had experience as an entrepreneur, but he needed help with re-establishing a business that would conform to his skillset and health issues. “I needed something I could do from home, that did not require a lot of mobility, that had flexibility in terms of workflow, and that I already had a frame of reference with,” he said. “I had followed the additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, industry for 10 years. As a designer, I identified how the technology would have been helpful to my design projects, so it went from an interest to a hobby, and now, it’s become a business for me.” 

Starting All Over Again

Merino’s new company, Palladium 3D, uses 3D printing technology to help designers, architects and entrepreneurs generate prototypes of their product ideas. He launched his business at the end of 2021 with the help of numerous people involved with the San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program, including the executive director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, Alex DeNoble, and Aiden Grayson, an SDSU senior management major and a member of the Lavin Entrepreneur program. “Alex DeNoble has the kind of vision, perspective, engagement and acumen that only the best creators possess, and his handprint on the program’s bootcamp is very evident,” said Merino. “Also, I was paired with an SDSU student, Aiden Grayson, who has a technical background and has been invaluable in providing insight and progress to some of my technical issues. He knows some of the contemporized technical bridges we can use to achieve my goals, so his input has been much appreciated.” 

“My work with Dave has been a unique and exciting challenge,” said Grayson. “I found myself wearing multiple hats in order to translate Dave's business ideas into a robust strategy. Under Dave's direction, we have been able to combine my technical and entrepreneurial background with his own experience to create a market entry strategy, a database of local competition/partners, a website backend, and a budgeting plan. I have also provided tutorials for Dave so he can create his own systems after I graduate from SDSU.” 

Currently, Merino is working with his first client who is in the early stages of producing a new type of computer monitor. He is also in the process of building a website, raising capital and creating a client development strategy. But he believes none of it would have been possible without SDSU’s Lavin Entrepreneurship Center’s participation in the San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program. “I thought my life was over — I thought I had peaked — but the truth is, I now have a new beginning,” said Merino. “The opportunity I was given to work with both programs was a wake-up call about how important it is not to fear pushing our boundaries - and for that wake-up call, I am incredibly grateful.”