Opportunities for your ideas
September 29, 2008
Two important opportunities if you haven’t already seen them:
Alexis Siemons posted news of the Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition (a global search for the most creative and inspiring ways young people are changing our world) at Phillypreneurs. This was the first I had heard of this competition, so thanks for spreading the word to young entrepreneurs, Alexis!
And then, there is Google’s Project 10^100, which is “a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.” This initiative has received much press coverage, but still, if you haven’t heard about it, you have the link now. Applications are due by October 20.
Startup Weekend State College on Facebook
September 26, 2008
Spread the word! RSVP for Startup Weekend State College on Facebook and forward the invitation to your friends. (Don’t forget to officially register, too…)
Free Trip to Boulder for Tech Talent
September 25, 2008
Perhaps more than any other location outside of Silicon Valley, Boulder has transformed itself and has fostered a growing startup community. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and other locations that aspire to become active entrepreneurial hotspots, would do well to follow much of Boulder’s lead.
In yet another innovative approach to attracting top notch talent and marketing the area to tech rock stars, Boulder-based startups have come together to pool funding and bring 100 developers to town on an all-expenses paid recruiting trip. Based on the site, many of the up and coming Boulder ventures are participating to interview the prospective recruits and show off the community.
Seems like a fantastic approach, and perfectly timed to attract talent weary of a wild and unpredictable Wall Street!
ignitePhilly and DreamIt News
For those of you not following the growth of the entrepreneurship community in Philadelphia, ignitePhilly 2 was held this past Tuesday. There is a great summary here.
Based on that synopsis of the speakers’ presentations, it’s clear that there were a lot of great talks and ideas. Two particularly interesting speakers:
Steve Welch from DreamIt: the next DreamIt program will be (or include?) “Hacker Track”, which will address the problem DreamIt noted that was there were a lot of great ideas, without the technical developers to implement them. Steve mentions that this Hacker Track will allow hackers to apply and they’ll be teamed up (I’m assuming) with teams with business skills, but in need of technical assistance. You can watch Steve’s presentation here. Steve’s point about needing to focus on ideas that bring value, as businesses that survive long term bring value to society is a critical one and well put in his closing.
Also, the synopsis gives a summary of the ideaBlob team (from Advanta) - apparently, there will be an “BlobLive event” in Philadelphia on 10/22. Haven’t seen the video of this presentation yet and the synopsis wasn’t terribly detailed, but based on everything else from Ami Kassar’s team, I’m sure that this will be an exciting event.
Unfortunately, I was traveling this past week and was unable to attend, but I very much hope that I will be in town for the next ignitePhilly event. I’m also looking forward to taking part in more of the entrepreneurial community activities happening in Philadelphia. It’s exciting to see such exciting community growth in Philly!
Invention to Venture: Penn State
September 19, 2008
The details are out for the first of two Penn State entrepreneurship events in October: Invention to Venture
Date: Saturday, October 11 2008
Time: 8:40 AM to 4:00 PM (Registration & Breakfast starts at 7:30AM)
Location: Alumni Hall, HUB Robeson Center, University Park, PA 16802
Cost: $10 for Students, $30 for Faculty/Staff/ Alumni, $50 for Business Community & Others.
*Participant guide, breakfast and lunch are all included in the fee.The Pennsylvania State University will host a one-day workshop on Saturday, October 11, on the basics of technology commercialization & entrepreneurship.
The workshop is intended for undergraduate and graduate students, Faculty/Staff as well as community members. Presentations will focus on technology entrepreneurship, opportunity assessment, venture capital, marketing, intellectual property, business plans, and related topics.
Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari Inc, Serial Entrepreneur, Named “50 men than changed America” by Newsweek), Todd Bacastow (Venture Capitalist with FirstMark Capital), Brad Bogolea (Co-Founder, I-Conserve) Matt Allison (Co-Founder, BrioBody), Aaron Fleishman (Co-Founder, Mashavu: Networked Health Solutions for the Developing World) are some of the confirmed speakers.
“Invention to Venture” is being held in cooperation with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
To learn more about this event and to register online, visit www.psu-i2v.com
Contact: Khanjan Mehta: khanjan@engr.psu.edu
Download Flier (PDF): I2V Flier
Heekya featured in The Daily Collegian
September 12, 2008
The Daily Collegian covered David Adewumi’s Heekya venture earlier this week. The article provides a solid overview of Heekya and the site’s aims.
It was also good to see the first press mention of ISTBuilding.com. I’m looking forward to an invite to Heekya, so that I can try out what David & team have been building all summer!
Quick Link: The LaunchBox Digital Experience
September 8, 2008
Ahson Wardak blogged today about his thoughts around the LaunchBox Digital program in Washington, DC. This is the same seed stage “incubator” that Penn State’s David Adewumi & team participated in with their venture, Heekya. Ahson covers some of the major perks to one of these programs, including the mentorship, the connections, and of course, the seed funding. In particular, it’s interesting to hear how LaunchBox helped Ahson’s venture make connections and get meetings with various folks around DC. I know that Heekya made a trip out to the West Coast to do investor presentations there - I would be curious if Ahson did the same thing and if LaunchBox opened as many doors there, as well.
In short, a good overview post for anyone who’s interested in these seed stage programs!
DreamIt Ventures Funding Day
September 4, 2008
DreamIt Ventures held its first Funding Day today. Tech Crunch provides a synopsis of the ventures which pitched. DreamIt is the Philadelphia-area seed fund program, similar to Y Combinator and TechStars, which ran for the first time this summer.
The comments posted on TechCrunch have been fairly harsh and critical of the DreamIt companies. From speaking with one of creators of the DreamIt program, as well as a founder of one of the DreamIt companies, I can say that there are certainly very admirable motivations in developing DreamIt and the founders seem to be as qualified as any others going through these type of seed funding programs. Time will tell whether the ventures can raise the funding required for growth while remaining in Philadelphia. Hopefully, for the sake of the founders in the program, as well as for PSU entrepreneurs seeking funding within Pennsylvania, the closure rate will be comparable to that of similar programs.
Access to follow-on funding and mentors are the two key reasons why a seed stage venture would take part in one of these programs. Watching the closure rate for follow-on funding will be one indicator for how seriously PSU entrepreneurs should consider DreamIt for its second class next summer. The DreamIt blog discusses the weekly mentors from the summer - an interesting assortment of Philadelphia-area business leaders.
Thus far, based on the DreamIt blog, one company has already received funding, from Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Ben Franklin was the funding engine that helped Penn State’s Diamondback founders grow their venture.
(My Google alert led me to another site, Phillypreneurs, covering Philly area entrepreneurship. This page states that there are other companies in the DreamIt class which didn’t pitch as part of Funding Day.)
Harbaughs give $250,000 to create entrepreneurship lecture forum
September 3, 2008
From Penn State Live:
Harbaughs give $250,000 to create entrepreneurship lecture forum
Penn State alumnus and fund-raising volunteer Earl K. Harbaugh and his wife, Kay Harbaugh, have given $250,000 to create the Harbaugh Endowment for Entrepreneurship in the College of Agricultural Sciences. The endowment will fund the Harbaugh Entrepreneurship Forum, which will bring successful entrepreneur leaders to the University to meet with students and faculty and to participate in a biannual lecture series focusing on current and future opportunities for national and international economic investment and growth in the food and fiber business sector.
Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/34178/nw1
