Tag: startups

Got an idea for a business? Bounce it off some experts at the monthly IdeaBounce®, sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Watch this video to see what happens at these events that are free and open to the public.

This month’s IdeaBounce® is at 6 p.m.,Thursday, Oct. 17 at the Art Media Institute at 858 Hodiamont Ave, 63112, just north of the Loop and a 5-minute walk from the Delmar MetroLink Station.  There is ample FREE PARKING on Hodiamont.  Look for the green, blue, and red balloons!  Register to attend at ideabounce.com and the Skandalaris Center will send you a reminder with directions to the Art Media Institute.

IdeaBounce® takes place every 3rd Thursday of the month at different locations on and off campus. Judges at this month’s event include:
·         Thomas Adams, Missouri Foundation for Health, Program Officer,
·         Reshma Chamberlain, Muzio
·         Francis Creighton, Pulse Therapeutics
·         Cathy Dunkin, Standing Partnership
·         Paul Heirendt, Art Media Institute

Prior to the IdeaBounce®, at 3:30, there will be a “Skills Session” presentation on “Market Research,” by Mindy Jeffries, President/CEO of Stealth Creative. Mindy will help answer questions including:  Is there a customer need for my idea? How do I get customers involved in product design? Who is my competition?
Mindy’s session will finish at 5:30, and after a short break the IdeaBounce® will start at 6PM.  You are welcome to attend the Skills Session, the IdeaBounce®, or both.

Despite the startup boom here in St. Louis, many entrepreneurs still dream of going west to Silicon Valley, the birthplace and home of so many famous tech startups. According to a news release from the Washington University Tech Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital (wute.vc) student group, an alum is making it possible for student ‘treps to spend some time in the valley.  Here’s the scoop:

“Blake Marggraff, a rising junior at Washington University in St. Louis, has taken his real-time crowd polling startup Packsay to San Francisco this summer for an unprecedented opportunity.

He will be the pilot participant in a new startup accelerator open to all Washington University undergraduates, called wu-start@OpenDNS. Students accepted to this program are invited to house their startups in the office of San Francisco technology company, OpenDNS.

In addition to free office space, students will have access to successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for advice and counsel. The program will be administered through wute.vc, a Washington University organization aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus.

This program was developed by OpenDNS founder and CEO David Ulevitch, who graduated from Washington University in 2004 with a degree in anthropology. In addition to supporting the university’s entrepreneurial efforts through programs like wu-start@ OpenDNS, Ulevitch serves on the Washington University Alumni Board of Governors and the San Francisco Regional Committee for the university’s $2.2 billion Leading Together campaign.

OpenDNS is the world’s largest, fastest-growing DNS service provider. Through innovative uses of DNS, the company provides free parental controls, phishing protection, and other advanced services for consumers and network administrators. OpenDNS also provides an enterprise service, which includes malware protection, delegated administration, and block page bypass, in addition to DNS and Web content filtering.

Contact: Desmond Duggan, Director, wute.vc”

Photo credit: IntelFreePress, Bar at Buck’s, Hangout of Silicon Valley Venture Capital Dealmakers

Jack Dorsey says entrepreneurs have to take risks, experience failure, and learn from their mistakes in this excerpt from our exclusive interview conducted by MBA’14 Kasey Joyce. Dorsey was on campus April 5 in advance of the Clinton Global Initiative University.

Sadly, the trip is over and I’m back at school now but with the trip still fresh in my mind, I can’t help but reflect on the amazing places we saw and the people we met. While the whole trip was an incredible experience and I could go on and on about the cool startups we went to, etc, my favorite aspect of the trip was experiencing the Israeli culture, something you really can’t understand or grasp without going to the country. This was embedded in the places we went and the people we met and really stood out for me. You could really sense the determination and creativity, something truly unique to Israel.

Besides the culture, I thoroughly enjoyed going to the startups and listening to their ideas. One of my favorites was Wibbitz, which I know many of my classmates really liked as well. Besides the startups but on the same note, I thought that the Zell program was an incredible idea, and while there may be many similar programs elsewhere, the success of this program is outstanding. The whole entrepreneurial spirit and industry we witnessed has really made me consider what I want to do going forward.

It was also the Zell program and the dinner the night before with many of the current Zell students that made me wonder what the best way to go about education is. With all of the students, they went to the army first, and after the army they went off on their own ventures and involved themselves with that they enjoyed, eventually figuring out what they wanted to do in life. So when it came time for school, they knew what they wanted to do and focused on that. It seemed to be very efficient and a stark contrast to the model we have in America, but not at all saying what we do is bad.

Apart from the business aspect of the trip, it was nice again to the see the sites in Jerusalem and the old city. While I have been to Israel once before to see all of the sights – and most of the places we saw on this trip did overlap with my previous trip – I took away a lot more this time and it was a good refresher of what I had forgotten. I thought it was a good mix of business and history, and it helped to remind us of the contrast between the rich history of the country and the thriving business sector, both of which are pushing and pulling at each other and working to define what Israel is.

Overall, the trip was an incredible experience and there were countless things I took away from it. It really piqued my interest in Israel and I can’t wait for the next time I can go there.

Marc – Class of 2016, Olin Business School – NY

Students will travel downtown to T-REx, home to entrepreneurial startups in the historic Railway Exchange building for the new MGT550X course. The experimental elective is a collaboration between Olin and Wash U’s engineering and law schools. Students will work in consulting teams with companies on projects ranging from marketing to revenue modeling.

Companies participating in the inaugural semester include:

• Food Essentials
• Makaboo
• MedPreps
• IDC Projects
• Tunsespeak
• Observable Networks
• BusyEvent
• Graematter

Read more about the course in Olin News.

Forget about selling sea shells at the sea shore this summer! Apply now for a summer internship with a St. Louis startup and a stipend!

Students interested in hands-on entrepreneurial experience can meet and greet founders of startup ventures who are looking for summer interns at upcoming events sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Entpreneurial Studies Feb. 7 and 8.

Companies and students must apply by Feb. 1 to be invited to the Ideabounce events in February where ventures will give brief presentations followed by networking with internship applicants.  The Skandalaris Center will fund 25 summer internships at startup ventures. Student stipends are $5,000.

Other opportunites with growth companies, Answer.com and companies in San Francisco are also available with stipends funded by the individual ventures

For more details on the Skandalaris Summer Internship program and application forms click here.