Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara
By Sol Tran
Identify the top business icons of our day and you'll notice many of them never received MBAs. Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College to start Apple from his garage, Michael Dell changed the PC industry from his college dorm room, and 29-year-old Andrew Mason turned Groupon.com into a multi billion-dollar company armed simply with a music degree.
Business degrees are helpful; they exert credibility and give business students important acumen and skills. Internships as well can be extremely helpful. However, when it comes to learning business, there is nothing that beats on-the-job training.
In our day and age, with the resources at our disposal, starting a business simply requires passion, drive and proactiveness. With our location in the heart of Silicon Valley, we have access to the top venture capital funds in the world.
The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara regularly holds programs and events to help develop your business. For example, in November, four students and I were sent to Chicago for the National Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Conference to compete in the National Elevator Pitch Competition and attending sessions. Such seminars are frequently held around Santa Clara's campus as well.
The Santa Clara Entrepreneurs Organization also holds competitions such as the Venture Capital Case Competition, where students get VC Mentors as they learn how to analyze different markets, run a competitive analysis, evaluate a private company using different models such as discounted cash flow, and interview executives from start-ups around the valley. All these skills are highly applicable in any business setting.
Personally, I have leveraged all these resources for my own business. In 2008 and 2009 I co-founded two companies named YourQuad and Campuskiwi, and have since worked passionately to grow both. By attending many local seminars, talking to mentors and reading books at Borders, I learned first-hand many of the basic skills stressed in our business classes, from networking to finance and leadership to marketing. I walked away with a much stronger business foundation.
Many entrepreneurs at Santa Clara have done the same. Class of 2009 alum Kevin Carter started a lacrosse camp (bayarealax.com) that netted him around $10,000 in one summer, while teaching him how to market the company and deal with clients. Carter now works at SV Angel, the Premier Silicon Valley Venture Fund.
Anthony Prieto, as the owner of Bronco Student Services, has had to learn how to manage accounting, deal with marketing, handle the supply chain and juggle countless other aspects of business. He is now Co-President of SCEO.
It is no coincidence that companies highly value entrepreneurial-minded students. Many big firms such as Ernst & Young hold "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards and list "entrepreneurial" as a desired trait for job candidates.
They want people who are proactive and will find innovative ways to add value to the firm. They also know that entrepreneurs know how to find solutions with few guidelines. In a start-up, there is little direction.
Anybody, regardless of major, can be an entrepreneur. Just ask Andrew Mason, the music major who started Groupon. All it takes is passion, devotion, and hard work. Use the resources given to you and you just may find yourself ahead of the game in the business world.
Sol Tran is a senior finance major.