Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford — Video

Is this inspirational? Check out his comments on his college career. Wow! People have been inquiring into the motivations of entrepreneurs for years. Do you think the motivation is different for Edu Entrepreneurs?

Nascent 500 BPlan Comp — Ball State

Not only is this a mix of a business plan competition and the Apprentice, but it begs the eternal question — how far can a brand extend. Yes, the 500 refers to the Indianapolis 500 and yes, competition teams present their businesses while circling the famed race track (they are in a limo not an Indy car)…. The business plan participant they profile seems to be pretty sharp and hails from Taylor University. This appears to be an open competition including teams from Michigan and Vanderbilt. From the article,

Free College Classes? Could be an opportunity?

Last month the WSJ offered a story by Anne Marie Chaker about a growing trend among universities — offering free webcasts and podcasts and/or course materials of classes. MIT started the trend in 2003 with its ‘OpenCourse Ware” program and now offers the notes and syllabus to more than 1,500 courses. Here is the Global Entrepreneurship Lab Course from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. There is also a class on Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization.

“Starting last fall, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., began offering eight courses, from Introduction to Philosophy to African American History, and including everything from class plans, links to required readings, lecture notes and homework assignments. The school aims to increase the number of classes offered online to 30 courses over the next two years.

Yale University, meanwhile, has announced it will produce digital videos of undergraduate lecture classes and make them available free to the public. This academic year, it is taping seven classes — from Introduction to the Old Testament to Fundamentals of Physics — to be posted online this fall.

Some smaller liberal-arts schools are following suit. Bryn Mawr College, a women’s school in Pennsylvania, is in the process of selecting course materials to post online, free to the public, beginning this summer. It plans to include classes ranging from psychology and physics to one on the history of Philadelphia.

Some schools that follow the MIT model are focused on making available as many course materials as possible — including class plans, lecture notes, lists of reading materials and even homework. Other schools, including University of California, Berkeley, are simply making lectures available through audio and video files. In MIT’s Introduction to Modeling and Simulation, a science and engineering class, Web surfers can browse through assignments and sample quizzes, as well as suggested project ideas. As with other MIT courses, the syllabus is posted — so you can see the structure of the course and what text and other reading materials are used — but only some lecture notes are available.”

There is clearly an opportunity in here somewhere? It also kills an opportunity (the course note business) that has been around for awhile. In Ann Arbor we had Blue Notes if I remember correctly. They sold course notes to many basic course (Psych 172, Bio 101, etc.). I could easily see the creation of a portal that organizes all of this stuff.

Mark Cuban — Univ of Pittsburgh/Indiana University

Mark Cuban, an edu entrepreneur who not only was active while in school (selling stamps?) and also after graduating from IU by exploiting the campus as a market and also a place to find talent. (He founded Audionet/Broadcast.com with fellow IU alumn Todd Wagner).

His vision and entrepreneurial attitude are obvious in the way he has rebuilt the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. Read a few of his blog postings and you’ll see how big his efforts to improve/change the world one industry at a time (most especially the media right now).

Boomer Business Plan Competition — Santa Clara University

I have been watching this competition since its inception and always consider entering. From the land of the young, technically risky, and forward thinking comes the Silicon Valley Boomer Business Competition. The contest is co-sponsored by the Leavy School of Business and if I remember correctly, it is open to all. There are two categories — healthcare (suprise suprise) and general (travel, leisure, transportation, grand-parenting etc.). Here is a teaser…

“Consider this – as of 2006, in the United States alone, there are more than 108 million people over the age of 45. The 78 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 make up 28% of the U.S. market and own more than 77% of all financial assets. This baby boomer market represents over $2 trillion in annual spending power! By the year 2030 there will be 71.5 million Americans age 65 and older, more than double the number of Americans currently within that demographic. This massive demographic shift means new opportunities for growth, service and profit. This is a business opportunity you can’t ignore.”

Need some ideas: check out AARP, wikipedia’s boomer page, and GrandTimes.

Personally, I’d do something in the vacation home management space.

Exploiting Campus Trends

Just came across an article by Nichole L. Torres on Entrepreneur.com that offers some advice to those who would like to capitalize on the campus as a market place. From the piece,

“College is a time to explore new trends-to wear the hottest fashions, create the newest drink and jump onto the latest entertainment fad. You’re young, you’re free, and as a college student, you’re neck-deep in a plethora of trends just by being on campus–the fashion magazines watch your crew to see what’s going to be hot next season.”

The article goes on to argue that speed is of the essence. To me, if you are looking to make more than just beer money a bigger question is; will this trend go beyond the campus or can I take this to other campuses?

Social Entrepreneurship? – The Skoll Foundation

There has been much talk in recent years about Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Foundation, founded by Jeff Skoll (eBay’s first employee and first president), stated mission “is to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs.”

What is a social entrepreneur? According to the Skoll Foundation website,

“Entrepreneurs have always been the drivers of progress. In the business world, they act as engines of growth, harnessing opportunity and innovation to fuel economic advancement. Social entrepreneurs, like their business brethren, are similarly focused; they tap into vast reserves of ambition, creativity and resourcefulness in relentless pursuit of hard, measurable results. But social entrepreneurs seek to grow more than just profits. Motivated by altruism and a profound desire to promote the growth of equitable civil societies, social entrepreneurs pioneer innovative, effective, sustainable approaches to meet the needs of the marginalized, the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised. Social entrepreneurs are the wellspring of a better future. “

Is this really entrepreneurship? I have my own opinion, what is yours?

The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship — FSU

I am working down in Tallahassee, FL this week with some of their great leaders. While here, I have learned about the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at Florida State University’s College of Business. The JMI offers mentoring, entrepreneurial roundtables, and tips for entrepreneurs. Anybody out there ever used this resource?

Entrepreneurship Programs — ASU

Check out this piece describing a cool program being built at ASU; The Edson (no not Edison) Student Entrepreneur Initiative “provides funding, office space and training for teams of students across the university, from any discipline, to explore their innovative ideas for business products and services in partnership with faculty, researchers and entrepreneurs from the academic and private sectors.”

Here is a link to the program’s site.

Wall Street Journal Interview with Facebook Founder — Harvard

Mark Zuckerberg is 22 years old and leads 200 employees as the CEO/Founder of Facebook.com; the company he founded while at Harvard about 3 years ago. If you are a college student you likely use it. Nice interview, by Andy Kessler of the WSJ. with him, though I remember articles like this back at the height of the internet craze in the late 90s. Here is one interesting snippet…