Sean Combs — Howard University

I recently noticed that Sean Combs (P Diddy, Puffy, etc.) was a campus entrepreneur  when he attended Howard University in DC. I thought I saw it while checking out StartupNation.com’s new Dorm Room Based 50 rankings (entry open until 3/15).  Some cool background from the wikipedia entry on Sean Combs;

While enrolled at Howard University, he gained a reputation as a party promoter, showing an early penchant for marketing and promotions. In a display of his tenacity, he would also travel back and forth between Washington, DC and New York juggling his classes and his internship with Uptown Records.

Tivo Alert — Elevator Pitch on Donny Deutsch

Just noticed that the Big Idea with Donny Deutsch is having an elevator pitch show tonite (28 Feb). No doubt it will play again multiple times (probably over the weekend). Here is the elevator pitch section of the show’s site.

Calling all entrepreneurs! If you’re looking for an angel investor, our new segment “Elevator Pitch” could give you the chance of a lifetime! We’re talking about REAL DEALS for REAL MONEY. We’ve connected budding entrepreneurs with willing investors to see if their Big Ideas have what it takes to make it to the next level.

Petroleum Discovered by Campus Entrepreneur?

  Last week, while traveling, I had the opportunity to read John Steele Gordon’s, An Empire of Wealth. The book is a sweeping economic history of the US, from pre-colonial times through the internet. Really a great read.

Turns out the entire petroleum industry was created by a group of campus entrepreneurs in and around Darmouth and Yale. These are old skool campus entrepreneurs!

From p. 169 of An Empire of Wealth; An Epic History of American Economic Power,

In 1853 a Dartmouth College graduate named George Bisell (picture above) happened to be visiting his old school when he saw in a professor’s office a bottle of rock oil that had come from western Pennsylvania. He knew that the stuff was flammable and suddenly conceived of the idea that it could be turned into an illuminant. He organized a small group of investors and asked one of the country’s leading chemists, Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., of Yale, to look into the possibilities. Silliman reported that the rock oil could easily be fractioned into various substances, including kerosene, by heating it.

The book goes on to discuss the ephinany that lead to Bissell’s employment of a derrick for drilling and eventually (27 August 1859) to the world’s first oil well in Titusville, PA.

Here are the wikipedia links to Bissell, Silliman, and Edwin Drake (the man hired by Bissell to drill for oil in Titusville and thus the first human to strike oil).

A Reality Show of a Startup

According to the Independent Street Blog over at the WSJ, high-def channel MOJO has been airing a reality show, called Startup Junkies, about a Seattle tech firm raising VC funds. While most new ventures never go after or receive VC, my hunch is there is a lot to learn from watching the process. I don’t think I get MOJO, but I am going to look into what is available online — here is the show’s page at MOJO.

Its National Entrepreneurship Week

This week is the 2nd Annual National Entrepreneurship Week in America. It is a ‘celebration of the heritage of entrepreneurship in America and new opportunities for a new generation.’ There are activities going on around the country and countless opportunities to learn; many of them at universities and colleges. Here is a link to the week long summit schedule (you can watch much of it live on the web).

Mark Cuban & Campus Monopolies

Mark Cuban has a great post on the regulation/management of college athletics (the NCAA). In it, Cuban questions the current model that defines college athletics and player development.

At some point, hopefully someone will spend the time to put together sports alliances completely outside traditional high school and college ruling bodies that will allow students to be passionate and work hard for their dreams both on the court and field and in the classroom. Which is exactly what happens overseas in most sports.

It got me to thinking of all of the monopolies that can be found in the campus environment (from tenure and publishing to testing agencies and financing options). While I couldn’t begin to offer ways to break the iron grip of the NCAA, I am confident that many of the monopolies that exist are just asking to be broken; meaning lots of opportunities for campus entrepreneurs.

Yales Got it Going On!

I began researching the subject of campus entrepreneurship for two reasons; 1) entrepreneurs and their ideas (especially campus entrepreneurs) are fascinating and fun to learn about and 2) my belief (based on observed behavior of campus entrepreneurs) that the campus offers many assets and institutions that can be leveraged by entrepreneurs for advantage.

Some school leaders agree with my second reason and are starting to organize to assist campus entrepreneurs (see ASU for example). This blog was recently introduced to the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute and its Yale Startups website. From their mission:

While Yale has long been known for new company startups arising out of University research and faculty ideas, it has now increased its efforts to systematically encourage and promote the ideas of its student population, including events and programs that address best practices in the fundamentals of new venture formation.

Here is a list of some of their student ventures.

TIC America’s Business Plan Contest

  Just received a notice about the Young Entrepreneurs Talent & Innovation Competition of the Americas. According to their website,

2008 the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) will host the second edition of the Talent and Innovation Competition of the Americas (TIC Americas), an opportunity for young people worldwide to develop and present their business ideas to a diverse international audience.

These initiatives will develop the extraordinary business potential of innovative young entrepreneurs and scientists, in collaboration with sponsors globally and from the thirty-four Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS).

 

YABT, a private sector affiliate of the General Secretariat of the OAS, offers opportunities to reinforce young entrepreneur programs through corporate marketing campaigns visibly and tangibly to:

• Connect with the future of business in the Americas and globally and the extraordinary potential that enterprising young entrepreneurs embody
• Be recognized globally and in the context of the OAS as leading young entrepreneurs and corporate citizens of the Americas.

Here are the rules.

Social Venture Campus Entrepreneur — UVA, George Mason

Received this email from a social venture campus entrepreneur, Dean Davastar:

I’m an MBA student myself at Mason and I’ve been running a social entrepreneurship firm for about two years and am about to officially finalize opening a branch at George Mason University. We started at UVA and we work towards global prosperity and multicultural understanding. We’re called Komak. You can find us at komakus.com.

BTW, komak means ‘help’ in Farsi.

Happy President’s Day — Oval Office Entrepreneurs

Just for fun, here is a little feature from Entrepreneur Magazine profiling Presidents that were also entrepreneurs, “George Washington built a whiskey distillery on his Mount Vernon property the year he left office. By 1799, Washington’s distillery was one of the largest in the country, producing 11,000 gallons of whiskey annually.”

Apparently Herbert Hoover (who took office as the Depression was revving up) was an early turn around specialist, “After graduating from Stanford, Hoover became a mining engineer and started a consulting firm in 1908. With offices in London, San Francisco, New York, Paris and Petrograd, Hoover helped turn around underperforming mines around the world, then took a share of the profits.”