Late last week I interviewed Dana Lande, the founder and CEO of Dayna Designs and DaynaU — companies that design and manufacture silver and natural gemstone jewelry. She founded the companies while attending the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.
Her story is fascinating and I was able to record it on my iPod (there will be more to come on the audio soon). In the hour or so that I talked with Dana, she confirmed many of the suspicions I have regarding the benefits of launching businesses within the socioeconomic confines of the university. Moreover, she offered some other interesting thoughts that will help us as we refine this idea of ‘entrepreneurship on and around the campus.’
Here are some topics we covered:
- The benefits and availability of talent on the campus – ie Dana enlisted the help of her entrepreneurial finance professor when she needed more capital
- Business plan competitions and the usefulness of them — Dana did participate in a few
- The campus as market — Campus demand helped Dana differentiate her jewelry products and break away from the pack
Campus Entrepreneurship 
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