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Priorities:Washington University in St. Louis Student Priorities

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= Overview = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZr5S00c6MQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZr5S00c6MQ] Bear Studios, founded by Peter Delaney, Will Papper, and Avi Felman, is an on-campus incubator to help students found startups. Bear Studios receives idea submissions from undergrads and faculty members, and helps the best ideas launch into full businesses. In the course of our work, we have identified crucial gaps in Washington University’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. First of all, students with ideas do not know where to look to find the right skills. Finance or Marketing majors, for example, do not know how to find Computer Science majors who are seeking to join startups, and vice versa. It is necessary to have a way to match skills on campus. Furthermore, once students have a viable team assembled, they do not know what steps they should take to launch their business and often get so bogged down in details that they fail to make progress. Having a mentor network of experienced entrepreneurs who have attended Washington University in St. Louis would help guide students toward launch. After students launch, they often have little to no capital on hand. Small amounts of seed funding (below $5,000) would give a vital boost to their businesses. Finally, they often have very little time to dedicate to their startups during the year due to obligations from classes. For this reason, a summer program should allow them to work on their ideas independently while receiving a stipend to allow them to live in St. Louis. = Priority #1: Skill Matching = It is necessary to match up appropriate skill sets between students at Washington University. Students need to know where they can find students who are actively looking to join startups, so that they do not waste time chasing leads that do not want to join their ventures. We have already developed and sent out a Skills Survey to students, that asks about the skills they currently have (business, marketing, technical, sales, etc) and the skills they would like to learn. We have received around 50 responses, but we need to promote the survey more widely to reach interested members of the student population. We also need to share it among the graduate programs at Washington University, since our entrepreneurship program is one of the few that allows both undergrads and grads to participate. = Priority #2: Mentor Network = A mentor network would allow students to receive crucial advice as they go through various stages in founding their startup. When students are in the early stages of developing their ideas, we can match them with other students who have recently launched startups who can guide them through the process of executing on an idea. As they progress to more advanced stages and gain revenue or further funding, we can leverage Washington University’s alumni networks to match them with experienced entrepreneurs who can give advice appropriate to the stage that they are in. We know entrepreneurs on campus and recent graduates in the St. Louis area well, and could reach out to them to match them with students seeking mentors. We do not know as many entrepreneurs who are more than a few years past graduation, however. We need to contact the Career Center and the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington University to find appropriate mentors for later-stage startups. = Priority #3: Seed Fund = Students often lack the capital needed to execute on their ideas. Small sums in the university’s budget are life-changing sums for students seeking to start businesses. Small amounts of funding (often under $5,000) would allow them to purchase necessary services, form legal entities, and outsource work as appropriate. Heads of various schools at Washington University and applicable professors (e.g. entrepreneurship professors) should be given a portion of a seed fund to allocate as they see fit. The university currently uses business plan competitions to allocate funding, but those do not properly evaluate how a startup progresses over time and how the founders work day-to-day. Allowing faculty to act in a fashion similar to small-scale angel investors would give students the ability to further their businesses. = Priority #4: Summer Program = Students often lack large amounts of time during the school year. Between classes and various extracurricular obligations, they are not able to make their startups a primary focus. A summer program that pays students a stipend would allow them to focus on their startups and make far more progress than they could during the school year. Some entrepreneurship summer programs exist, but they are not widely available for students seeking to work on their own businesses. = Related Links = Current fellows: [[William Papper|William_Papper]] [[Peter Delaney|Peter_Delaney]] Campus Overview: [[Washington University in St. Louis Campus Overview 2016|Washington_University_in_St._Louis_Campus_Overview_2016]] UIF Washington university in St. Louis Project Pitch link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZr5S00c6MQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZr5S00c6MQ] [[Category:Student Priorities|Student_Priorities]]= Overview =

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Priorities:Washington University in St. Louis Student Priorities

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