Creating tomorrow's entrepreneurs

IDEAS A-BREWING

Emory students and alumni are not the only ones benefiting from the entrepreneurial spirit. For instance, Social Enterprise at Goizueta (SE@G) aspires to increase prosperity and reduce poverty in places where markets are currently ineffective. SE@G fuels academic research to illuminate the factors that induce and impede the realization of societal impacts; puts research into practice through fieldwork programs that inject knowledge, networks, and capital to empower communities of entrepreneurs; and develops the next generation of principled social enterprise leaders through hands-on education, exposure, and experience.

Since its inception, the program has served 110 small businesses in Atlanta’s Clarkston and East Atlanta-Kirkwood neighborhoods by creating or retaining nearly two hundred jobs, establishing sixteen brick-and-mortar locations, and generating annual revenues of $5.8 million.

When Peter Roberts, academic director of SE@G, started the center, he wanted to add an international component with an interest in coffee. He developed relationships and an annual trip that exposees students to the development challenges faced in Central America and the Caribbean. The experience engages students so that business principles and market-based solutions can be applied to achieve meaningful societal impacts.

“We want more of the money to stay in coffee communities,” Roberts says. “By bringing our Nicaraguan partners closer to their consumers, our hope is that, ultimately, they will have more ownership in their own business affairs.”

COORDINATED EFFORTS  

Andrea Hershatter has taught entrepreneurship at Goizueta since the late 1990s. She organizes the annual two-day Emory Entrepreneurship Summit, most recently held in April, where successful alumni speak, mingle with neophyte entrepreneurs, and critique student “elevator pitches.” This year’s keynote was Jim Lanzone 98JD/MBA, whose information-retrieval website was acquired by Ask.com in the early aughts. That success helped propel him to his current job as president and CEO of CBS Interactive.

“We’re looking to train the industry disruptors of tomorrow, and this event is a great way for students to see what’s possible,” says Hershatter, who also is senior associate dean of undergraduate education at Goizueta.

Emory President Claire E. Sterk’s strong support is fueling the focus on entrepreneurship, says Hershatter. “This is a moment when entrepreneurship and innovation are being embraced at every level of the institution,” she says—from student clubs to a Goizueta–sponsored, student-run, microlending venture to the Office of Technology Transfer, a department that helps Emory faculty members market their inventions and intellectual property.

In an era when the next high-tech breakthrough seems as likely to come from a young person in a hoodie as from an old guy in a Bell Labs jacket, there’s no denying that start-ups have become very sexy. Hearing about recent grads who traded in their skateboards for seats in the boardroom is likely to start any business major dreaming about his or her first IPO. But Rob Kazanjian, the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization and Management, says Goizueta hasn’t expanded its entrepreneurship offerings simply to meet demand from the next generation of would-be Elon Musks. Many of the skills that enable people to launch their own companies also will serve them well in other areas of business. 

In fact, Kazanjian says, “The principles of entrepreneurship are being adopted by big companies who want to attract employees with a mindset for innovation.” There’s even a term for employees skilled at developing new business platforms within a corporation—intrapreneurs—and they’re much sought after by headhunters.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED, FAIL  

Entrepreneurial drive, of course, isn’t all it takes to create a successful company. It’s helpful to have strong grounding in accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, operations, and other business school foundations. But Goizueta builds upon these with several programs designed to give students experience with the real-world challenges of launching a start-up.Entrepreneurial drive, of course, isn’t all it takes to create a successful company. It’s helpful to have strong grounding in accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, operations, and other business school foundations. But Goizueta builds upon these with several programs designed to give students experience with the real-world challenges of launching a start-up.

Amelia Schaffner, who spent fifteen years with IT consulting giant Accenture, joined Goizueta last fall as its first director of entrepreneurship, serving as a liaison for the business school, outside faculty, and the Atlanta business community as a whole.

Schaffner coordinates campus visits by local entrepreneurs and venture capitalists—some of whom are Emory graduates—to share their own start-up experiences and offer advice and mentorship. “It’s an incredible opportunity for the students,” she says. “They get exposure to a large number of brains.”

And it’s not only brains that are made available. Every six months, the university sponsore the RAISE (Retention and Advanced Investment for the Southeast at Emory) Forum, where the founders of young companies pitch potential investors for up to $5 million in funding. Any who receive more than $1 million in new capital are asked to commit to staying in Atlanta at least five years.

The entire model for bringing a product to market has changed in just the past decade with the emergence of the “lean start-up” paradigm, Schaffner says. Instead of spending months or even years trying to perfect a product they hope will sell, today’s entrepreneurs are encouraged to “fail fast”—that is, embrace a trial-and-error approach in which early versions of an idea are shown to consumers to confirm whether the company is targeting the correct market or even that there’s a demand for the product at all.

One of Goizueta’s recent initiatives that replicates this back-to-the-drawing-board process is the Emory Start-Up Launch. The free, ten-week accelerator program sees teams of rookie entrepreneurs—anyone can take part, but at least one team member must have Emory affiliation—pitch ideas and collect real-world feedback to help hone their potential products and develop a business model. Out of fifty-five applications, eleven teams were selected.

Ed Rieker 04MBA, a self-described “serial entrepreneur” who graduated from founding his own companies to providing seed funding for start-ups, came aboard Goizueta in 2014 as an adjunct professor and now helps oversee Start-Up Launch. Among the ideas selected for the program is a smart-phone app to tell you whether a skin splotch is melanoma, a service to help winemakers source the appropriate grapes, and software to help disabled employees more easily navigate their workplace. Some of the ideas are likely to change dramatically over the weeks, but that’s the point, says Rieker. “This program helps them define who the buyers and users are, and then finds a solution for them,” he says.

Eboni Freeman 18BBA, whose five-member team developed software to help disabled workers navigate the sometimes complex process of requested workplace accommodations (see “Enabling Ability” for more on the work of Freeman’s team), says the launch seminar has been useful for showing them how to pitch to investors and refine their product through interviews with potential customers.

“It’s shown us where we need to grow on our business model concept,” she says. “We’ll feel more comfortable launching the company with the data in our back pockets.”

Chris Dardaman 16MBA, who cofounded the wealth management company Brightworth in 1997, is, like Mookerji, a business veteran who came back to earn a degree from Goizueta and wound up becoming an entrepreneur in residence and a volunteer coach for the Start-Up Launch teams.

“It’s been great to watch people learn and go through the steps to tweak their ideas to become more responsive to the market,” he says. “I’ve loved being around students and sharing the experiences of my twenty-five years of building a national firm.”

ATLANTA CONNECTIONS 

Another major Goizueta initiative is its partnership with the three-year-old Atlanta Tech Village (ATV), the country’s fourth-largest tech incubator, whose founder, David Cummings, is also an entrepreneur in residence. Through a program cheekily dubbed Pitch the Professor, students compete each semester for eight spaces that Emory maintains at ATV in order to develop their ideas. 

A light-filled building with the open feel of a campus student center, ATV plays host to panel discussions, peer roundtables, onsite mentoring, and weekly networking lunches to provide members with ample opportunities to share ideas, get advice, and form partnerships. 

“Having hundreds of entrepreneurs under the same roof creates what I call ‘engineered serendipity,’ ” says Cummings—in other words, the perfect environment in which to shape a concept into an actual product.

Business major Ignacio Arana 18BBA spent this past semester at ATV nurturing his idea for an interactive online course to teach teenagers how to manage their personal finances as they prepare for college. He doesn’t yet have his business model worked out, but Arana says being at ATV has been a great experience, providing both inspiration and shared wisdom.

“You’re exposed to people here who can help you figure things out,” he says. Cummings, in particular, has been helpful in making introductions with other possible mentors, says Arana, and suggesting that he discuss his idea with one hundred potential customers.

Goizueta professor Charles Goetz helps vet student pitches to decide who gets the sought-after spaces at ATV. Out of around forty winning ideas in the past few years, he estimates that about 30 percent have led to new product launches. But even those who don’t immediately start a company will be well-served by their experiences. “The same skills they learn about how to build a business are the ones they’ll need to evaluate a business or launch a division,” Goetz explains.

One reason Goizueta’s focus on entrepreneurship is so welcome, says Dardaman, is that the skills one learns to launch a company can be applied in a number of professions. Instead of immediately creating a start-up, most recent business graduates will work in the corporate world for a while before striking out on their own.

“Statistically, the more successful entrepreneurs are older, with some business experience,” he says. “What students gain from an entrepreneurial education is an integrated view of business that can help them down the road.”

The cross-pollination now occurring between Emory, local entrepreneurs, and incubators like Atlanta Tech Village is exciting, Dardaman says. “There’s a lot of positive energy and momentum right now,” he says. “Emory is becoming a big part of the business ecosystem of Atlanta.”