Who is an Entrepreneur?
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHXQM4tsEL0
There's low tech and high tech. There is the entrepreneur that may operate a small chocolate shop, there is the entrepreneur that may operate a chocolate fountain manufacturing company.
There's serial and multiple of the individual that is starting start-ups in series, where they build one and have some success build the next thing and go in turn, or there is the ones that are in parallel of individuals that are doing multiple ventures at the same time. They're startups that are individuals that are initiating the creation of somethings, others may inherit a business. Others may buy an existing business. And there're franchises that blend some of those elements as well. For our purposes, all of these are entrepreneurs.
Now the level of risk, the level of profit potential, the path of their experience is going to differ, but we interpret entrepreneurship very broadly, they would fall into any of these scenarios. So i can talk with you about a few students that I've worked with in recent years. One is Anthony Castellanos with Squarespace, a software entrepreneur. Computer science major, 2004 started Square Space, 2005, graduated from his undergraduate studies here at the University Of Maryland.
Built a product to really serve his own needs. He wanted a tool that would enable him to build websites without having to code, not having his own coding skills. And it was a tool that he built that allowed others to build websites as well.
So in the ten years since then, he's built this to a 350 person company and actually launched a Super Bowl ad in 2014, at $4 million. So by the time that you can afford a $4 million Super Bowl ad, you're doing pretty well for yourself. And it's a company thea we'll talk about a little bit later in the term as well. We also see students do non-tech things. We see student do landscaping businesses. And this was an individual that started his landscaping business at 12 years old. He began to hire his first employee when he was 14, and has over ten employs now that are working for him, and was able to build this into a venture such that he finished his undergraduate studies, and step down and was generating more income from this business, than any other company that he had received a job offer from. We (INAUDIBLE) solutions, so this is an emergency warning system, that sits at the center of the campuses, of large governmental facilities, and it has a platform of services where it provides emergencies. Or other emergency protocols that need to be enacted at a campus, or in a large setting. Even a corporate setting, where alerts are sent out to this beacon that the company developed, as well as to email and cell phones and other platforms as well. This was a product of two students, one an engineer, one a business major, that saw a need for a product, built it, and launched it, in a hardware and services platform.
We also have a number of students that is, that are involved in services industries. So, with this, it's a branding company, a marketing company. And, so, what LOOKTHINK does is, they would work with individuals that have a solution. They need to bring a new website to market, they need to bring a new app to market, there's an online media campaign they want to develop. Started with one marketing major, that had an idea for a solution. Built it, scaled it to over 30 employees, with in a few years of completing his undergraduate studies.
So we want to think about companies that we know, big companies that we know. Which of these do you think are the oldest?
Well if you chose Apple, you're correct. Apple started in 1976. All of these other companies, enormous global companies, have started since then. And we see company start for different reasons.
We see a number of companies that started in the late 70s and early 80s, that were driven by a technology opportunity, that being the PC, and the home computer. And so, when you see technology changes, bring themselves to market, there are new companies, and new opportunities that come around that. Here is an example with the PCs, here is an example with internet. And you'll see a burst of other companies start as technology opportunities present themselves. What we also want to recognize here, is that a number of these companies were started by very young individuals, Apple, Facebook, Google, Dell, Yahoo.
The lower half of our screen, all started by college students.
All started by college students, which didn't have the experience, didn't have the relationships, didn't have the money, but they found success anyway. And we'll talk about how to do that in our course as well.
So when we think about how the entrepreneurs, to include some of those that we've just highlighted, build these global powerhouse companies, it didn't start with a business plan.
It didn't start with a business model canvas.
It did start with the opportunity itself. And so that's why, we're going to spend our time in the course really digging into opportunity analysis, really thinking about the entrepreneur, thinking about you and your entrepreneurial mindset, and your entrepreneurial motivations and behaviors. What industries interest you? What markets interest you? What value innovations can you develop and what opportunities can you identify? And when we start with that as our grounding, and when we start with that as our framework, we can then advance towards the end of the course, as well as the, our follow on course in the entrepreneurship specialization of the course and innovation for entrepreneurs, and dig into the business model canvas.
What that gives you the opportunity to do is really to think about your ideas in the context of a business, and give you the beginnings of a business plan. The business plan we'll spend a lot of time with in our third course, as we look at entrepreneurial finance and new venture of financing, and we'll also spend some time on that within the capstone of our entrepreneurship specialization.
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Well if you chose Apple, you're correct. Apple started in 1976. All of these other companies, enormous global companies, have started since then. And we see company start for different reasons.
We see a number of companies that started in the late 70s and early 80s, that were driven by a technology opportunity, that being the PC, and the home computer. And so, when you see technology changes, bring themselves to market, there are new companies, and new opportunities that come around that. Here is an example with the PCs, here is an example with internet. And you'll see a burst of other companies start as technology opportunities present themselves. What we also want to recognize here, is that a number of these companies were started by very young individuals, Apple, Facebook, Google, Dell, Yahoo.
The lower half of our screen, all started by college students.
All started by college students, which didn't have the experience, didn't have the relationships, didn't have the money, but they found success anyway. And we'll talk about how to do that in our course as well.
So when we think about how the entrepreneurs, to include some of those that we've just highlighted, build these global powerhouse companies, it didn't start with a business plan.
It didn't start with a business model canvas.
It did start with the opportunity itself. And so that's why, we're going to spend our time in the course really digging into opportunity analysis, really thinking about the entrepreneur, thinking about you and your entrepreneurial mindset, and your entrepreneurial motivations and behaviors. What industries interest you? What markets interest you? What value innovations can you develop and what opportunities can you identify? And when we start with that as our grounding, and when we start with that as our framework, we can then advance towards the end of the course, as well as the, our follow on course in the entrepreneurship specialization of the course and innovation for entrepreneurs, and dig into the business model canvas.
What that gives you the opportunity to do is really to think about your ideas in the context of a business, and give you the beginnings of a business plan. The business plan we'll spend a lot of time with in our third course, as we look at entrepreneurial finance and new venture of financing, and we'll also spend some time on that within the capstone of our entrepreneurship specialization.
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