Last week I posted an overview of the Acceleration Project concept, which I believe, is a much better substitute for business plan competitions. (see last week’s post for an overview of the concept) This week I wanted to spend more time on the first part of the Acceleration Project – the Application Phase. Why, you…
Imagine that there were no Olympic training camps for aspiring athletes. In fact, let’s imagine that there were no regional qualifiers; state finals or even high school sports programs. Now let’s assume that every four years we gather together and let anyone who aspires to compete for a gold medal sign-up, get in front of…
The last two days we were fortunate enough to have Steve Blank spend time with us at the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship. During those two 12-hour days we packed Steve’s schedule with meetings, presentations, reviews, office hours and opportunities to meet with as many of our entrepreneurial community as possible (without killing Steve).…
A popular quote we use in startup land is “It’s all about the team”. If you were like me when I first started out you probably didn’t fully comprehend how important this phrase really is. Years later I’ve come to see how the “right team” can turn something good into something truly amazing while the…
Today, Walt Haverstein, the CEO of SAIC co-lectured at University of Michigan’s Entrepreneurial Ownership course (ENGR 490.005). Walt shared the duty and case study review with Mary Ann Beyster, President of the Foundation for Enterprise Development and the daughter of SAIC’s founder, Dr. Beyster. This was a great opportunity for our students to see how…
“What are the key priorities you need to focus on when you launch a new startup,” is a question that I asked the students in my Entrepreneurial Discussion Group class on Friday afternoon. “Don’t answer,” I told them, “just think about it for a moment then let’s try this exercise before you answer.” I’ve done…
In a few weeks we are going to be taking 25 entrepreneurial students to New York City and another 50 students to the Bay Area. The purpose for these trips is to both help these students move their business ideas forward and, more importantly, to build their entrepreneurial networks! As Armando Pauker, General Partner at…
Attended EnGen Student Entrepreneurship Summit in Michigan at Lansing today. Great event, multiple student organizations from universities and colleges around Michigan received awards of $2,500. Congratulations MPowered!-Doug Mobile Blogging from here. [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]
Last Friday, September 10, we had three sets of entrepreneurs from Traverse City, Michigan, present their stories to 350 students enrolled in our Entrepreneurship Hour speaker series at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering. This speaker series is sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship and MPowered. Wendy and Rick Steele, founders of Tape Wranglers…
As I was sitting down to write about popular distractions that entrepreneurs run into on a regular basis, I remembered a presentation that I saw by a Microsoft manager in the early 90s. This guy is a very successful author and manager and did a great job in his presentation, but it was the comment…
Doug Neal 