Campus Entrepreneurship

A lot of people become entrepreneurs because it is easier than ‘managing’/working with others. The most extreme examples are so called solo-entrepreneurs — those who work by themselves. My research finds that many campus entrepreneurs start out as solo-entrepreneurs. Information Week writer Alice LePlante has a great piece on solo entrepreneurs — profiling a few. [...]

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I read this post, ‘Banking off the Election: Entrepreneurs Get Creative,’ over at the WSJ’s Independent Street Blog. Its about companies producing ‘election’ specific products to try to grow. While the post focuses on high tech offerings, campus entrepreneurs have made T-Shirts, thrown parties, and formed firms in order to exploit events — from homecoming [...]

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I found the pitch for MyFilmU.com over at Vator.tv. It is pretty interesting. It appears the company takes scripts/pitches from students at various schools. Then picks some to produce. Here is a sample of an upcoming show at Montana State University — Textbook. From their about us page.
Founded in May 2006, MyFilmU.com is an online [...]

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Its not just the hoopsters from Chapel Hill that are finding continued success. SizeMeUp.com and its CEO/Founder Melissa Adelman is on a roll. Here is an NPR interview with Melissa and here is SizeMeUp.com on KillerStartups.com.
They are leading the creation of the ‘comparative sizing’ market — a product/tool that is basically a ’size converter’ — [...]

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11:42 AM (MERC) Sameeksha Desai is presenting on a Theory of Destructive Entrepreneurship. This is an investigation into the ‘entrepreneurial growth policies’ that are often put into place in 3rd world and conflict torn countries — trying to formalize their economies. So what role does entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policies play in post-conflict societies.
Really a nice [...]

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Really interesting talk on user innovations in the medical devices industry by Aaron K. Chatterji of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke . He is a great presenter and has an interesting topic to speak on. User innovation is huge (from sports equipment and software to medical devices and clothing) user innovation is [...]

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11:08 AM - Listening to Yang Ling (GMU School of Management) talk about research into the personal values of CEOs and firm performance. This is a really interesting line of inquiry b/c most research on entrepreneurs look at their personalities. As Ling explained, personal values are different from personalities. However, it appears that the variables [...]

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10:20 AM (Mason Entrepreneurship Research Conference)…. I am listening to a prof (don’t know if it is Mary Pat or Ellen) from CSU LA. She is presenting on new media firms in LA. What is new media? Do we even know? She claims this area is a hotbed of activity, but there is little research. [...]

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A few years ago when I wrote my first paper on bplan contests, most folks thought I was nuts. But I knew something was going on. I was aware that contests and prizes were growing. I observed that groups outside of the business school and the university were holding contests. I began to see stories [...]

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I am attending the 4th Annual Mason Entrepreneurship Research Conference (MERC) tomorrow in Fairfax, VA. The conference gets better each year (I presented year 2 on business plan competitions) and I am excited to hear Sankaran Venkataraman (keynote), Sameeksha Desai & Zoltan Acs (on ‘destructive entrepreneurship’), Scott Jackson (on Mass Healthcare Law on Entre), and [...]

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