Changes

                The entrepreneurial spirit pushes a person to ask how they can change the world.  They are driven by the idea of producing something of value. How does a student effect the change in the world?  How do you begin to produce something of value? The goal of any entrepreneurial organization should ultimately be to collaborate to produce value.  When bringing together multiple diverse people with one similar outcome there are many things to be considered.  A lot of artists are turned off by the engineering aspect of entrepreneurship and the inverse is also true. 

                To bring artist and engineers together there is a need for an organization that allows collaboration while allowing for students to highlight their strengths.  In the case of VCU Squared, a university-wide entrepreneurial initiative at Virginia Commonwealth University, the overreaching goal is in “developing new programs and coordinating related activities around the University.  The team also works to understand the regional environment, and collaborate with external partners so that VCU and the local business communities can leverage available resources and expertise.  With an understanding of our larger entrepreneurial ecosystem, the VCU Squared team works to enhance the culture of entrepreneurship at VCU and harness the talent of our student, alumni and research community.” This means an understanding for the diversity of entrepreneurial interests through internal coordination, regional collaboration and a strong standing in diversifying the organization.

                Elliot Roth states, “Entrepreneurship is a varied subject and each student has their own wants and needs. You cannot appeal to everyone with a broad “entrepreneurship” club. Students will soon lose interest if the subject matter is not related to their own interests. There are four very broad categories of businesses (Health, Motion, Perception, Communication) and two types (Products, Services). We are only just beginning to form groups centered on these categories.” By segmenting the group by interests you are taking a large group of people with minimal interest and creating smaller passionate groups of people with real belief in the goals they are trying to accomplish.  It is still very important to keep the passions connected and working together however, as this is the whole point of interdisciplinary collaboration.

          Bringing the future entrepreneurs together under the umbrella group and then delegating by interests allows the organization to run like a business. Everyone does the job they are best suited for but ultimately works for the larger body.  Communication among the groups should be frequent whether through co-sponsorship of events, partnerships, working under an entrepreneurial council of combined group members, or even the simple but powerful method of meeting in the same physical location.  Allowing the students to teach workshops or classes to one another also opens up communication.  It allows artists to teach more creative skills to those less artistically inclined and gives artists the chance to be exposed to prototyping, management and organizational skills, or more business oriented topics. Not everyone fits the same mold and allowing the interests of the students to drive the focus of the organization allows more people to get involved at more levels.

                In the creation of any organization there are risks that need to be assessed.  Elliot Roth states “a club should be self-sustaining.”  He means that a club should be able to stand on its own in the generation of ideas and concepts.  It is a student run initiative and it is in the passion of the members that bring results.  Large academic support recognizes results of an organization.  While academic support is needed for funding and physical space to meet for a university organization, the club should be able to set its own agenda and search out and establish the resources required to produce effective results.  Students are trying to create the networks to see what other disciplines are doing and truly passionate students will continue doing the things that need to be done to create something of value. It is the students that are making the connections and bridging the gap.  This should be encouraged and nourished to its full potential. 

                In the creation of most entrepreneurial organizations it begins as a small grassroots group then slowly expands.  The audience for interdisciplinary groups are students who wish to build a portfolio and not just a resume.  These are the people that love having an end result and ask themselves “What business would I want to start?”  The goal of most artists is to create something, which isn’t very different from engineers who like to solve problems and create solutions.  Elliot Roth says he became an engineer to make things and was frustrated with the lack of outlets to express the need to tinker and build in his university classes.  An entrepreneurial organization, like SEED, allowed for the space and resources to fulfill this outlet. The collaboration with an artist group like ArtUp brought the two groups together with a common mission and appealed to those who wanted to share their point of view and experience others.