I’m not sure if you saw Robert Wolfe’s presentation last Friday at our Distinguished Innovator Speaker Series but if you didn’t, you missed an informative and entertaining 45 minute lecture on one of the most overlooked aspects to entrepreneurship… having fun! As Robert spoke of his goals in starting his company, Moosejaw, shortly after graduating…
On the first day of Christmas, My startup gave to me An idea that was really crazy. On the second day of Christmas, My startup gave to me Two friends to help me And an idea that was really crazy. On the third day of Christmas, My startup gave to me Three lines of credit,…
If you ever have been becalmed on the water on a sailboat you know what it’s like to lack momentum. Your boat simply sits there without any forward movement wallowing in the seas as each wave tosses you back and forth and despite all your effort in tuning the rigging, adjusting the helm and cursing…
The answer is simple – all 2,165 of them! That was the number of individual video elevator pitches of ideas collected by MPowered this year in their second annual 1000 Pitches competition. This annual competition (again, only in its second year) has built tremendous momentum at the University of Michigan and has quickly achieved a…
I was explaining to someone on Friday the difference between how we approach Entrepreneurship activities vs. how others approach it. I explained that other entities are “Market Driven” where there is an intense focus on existing markets and how to create solutions to better meet those market needs. I was just starting to explain how…
There was a story on NPR recently where a junior soldier in Iraq was recounting a fire fight he was in where he was completely surrounded. The soldier recounted the fear and desperation that gripped the team as they bravely fought the enemy in all directions. The story turns when a more experienced soldier somehow…
Much of my days (and many of my nights) since joining U-M have been focused on helping develop programs and activities that foster entrepreneurship and commercialization activities. Students, Faculty and Staff seem to have an insatiable appetite for entrepreneurship and this, in many cases, is a good thing. But should everyone become an entrepreneur? In…
I was recently mentoring this entrepreneur who had developed a product, had 10 beta customers and was preparing to raise a round of pre-seed financing to take his company to the next level. He wanted my input on his business plan and pitch deck so I agreed to sit down and have a look. The…
Someone asked me the other day what magic did I use to resurrect one of my startups from almost certain death. What tremendous insight did I bring to bear or epiphany did I have to change my company from having closed sales of less than $10,000 over two years to annual sales of almost $5mm…
So there I was; my first board meeting as the CEO of the company I co-founded was going to start in about 45 minutes and I was still in my car in the parking lot reviewing my presentation one more time. Actually I was splitting my time between reviewing my slide deck and frantically flipping…
Doug Neal 