Alum Begins New Venture as DifferenceMaker Director

03/18/2025
By Ed Brennen

What’s the one thing that wowed Richard Juknavorian ’98 the most about UMass Lowell students in his eight-plus years as a mentor and judge for the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute?

“I was always surprised by their tremendous creativity,” he says. “I’ve spent most of my career as the ‘execution’ person on projects, so to see their creativity was always impressive. I never would have thought of trying to solve some of the problems that they do.”

After more than 25 years of leading successful startup ventures and product initiatives, many in the digital health care technology sector, Juknavorian is now applying his expertise as the new director of DifferenceMaker, UMass Lowell’s campus-wide program in which students develop solutions to real-world problems.

“I’m excited to get to work and share my experience with up-and-coming student entrepreneurs,” says Juknavorian, who took over the role in January.

A native of Methuen, Massachusetts, Juknavorian earned a Master of Science in health information management from the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. He serves on the college’s advisory board and is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Public Health.

Last year, Juknavorian took on a consulting role as special advisor to Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Anne Maglia, helping professors commercialize their technology and develop new ventures. While he enjoyed consulting, Juknavorian was drawn to the challenge of leading the DifferenceMaker program.

“I had been thinking of going back into industry, but I was at a point where I really wanted to make a pivot into academia,” he says.

In his spare time, Juknavorian hosts two podcasts. On Meeting You Where You’re At, he has interviewed more than 100 women entrepreneurs (including DifferenceMaker winner Sandi DeRuntz); on the recently launched Rare Awareness Radio, he speaks with patients, caregivers and researchers about rare diseases.

Juknavorian sat down to discuss his goals for DifferenceMaker, which has two dozen teams lined up to compete in the April 2 preliminary pitch-off for the $50K Idea Challenge.

How does your experience with health care startups and venture capital benefit students in the DifferenceMaker program?

I take a “been there, done that” approach with the students. I say, “Look, I did these things and they didn't work out so well for me, and here’s why.” Or, on a happier note, “I did these things and they worked out well, and this is how I found opportunities for success.”

I also have a vision that extends beyond the life of the program — to help DifferenceMaker alumni find the resources to turn their projects into actual sustainable businesses. Some of those resources are here in the entrepreneurship ecosystem at UMass Lowell, like with LINC (the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor). But maybe there are opportunities to connect to business accelerators or incubators outside of the university, like MassChallenge.

And I bring an investor’s perspective to the table. As a limited partner with Suncoast Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on seed funding for health care companies, I evaluate promising new businesses and understand what makes a startup attractive to investors. This allows me to help students not only refine their ideas, but also position them for long-term success.

DifferenceMaker at its core is a social impact initiative, but Brian Rist (the program’s namesake) is very interested in creating more opportunities for students to launch sustainable businesses. And that’s something he has challenged me to do. We need to ensure that promising ideas don’t just end with the pitch competition, but have a real chance to evolve into successful ventures.

Do you have any changes in mind for the program?

We are trying to understand how we can reinvigorate elements of DifferenceMaker that had to be put on hold, either because of the pandemic recovery or with the former director (Holly Lalos ’11, ’12, ’24) leaving. I’m interested in bringing back the business competition and the community-based challenges that we used to do with the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. We are also working closely with the new Shah Academy, trying to join forces and co-produce things that are in line with engineering innovation and leadership.

How is artificial intelligence (AI) changing entrepreneurship?

The influx of AI is changing entrepreneurship education. I've seen tools now that will create a business plan or customer validation framework for you. So, I feel like there will be the temptation to rely too heavily on some of those AI tools. We need to embrace AI and use it to augment what we do, but it’s not bulletproof; there are definite inconsistencies and limitations to what these AI-generated platforms can do.

Many of our team projects are centered around AI, especially during this current cohort. And that’s not surprising, because students are inundated with AI right now. Everybody is trying to figure out how to use AI, what to use AI for and where the boundaries are. We need to show students that there are boundaries here, and you should try to stay within these boundaries.

Why should alumni, industry leaders and community members engage with DifferenceMaker?

We know that a lot of people do it because of their affinity to the university, which is amazing. But for others, the first reason to become involved as a mentor or judge is the opportunity to see the emerging trends. Students are on the pulse of what is emerging, like with AI. The second reason is workforce development. Not every student who participates in DifferenceMaker is going to become the next serial entrepreneur; some of them are going to be looking for full-time jobs, so if you are looking to tap into the next generation, this is a great competitive advantage. And then thirdly, this generation of students is so motivated by social impact. If you are trying to understand the trends around social impact, there's a lot here to learn from those students.