How do you create an Entrepreneurial environment?

1 points by hmcm55 12 years ago | 1 comment

I'm in college and I've noticed that entrepreneurship at my college is an "underground society." Those in it know about eachother but the rest of the undergrad population doesnt know about the entrepreneurial scene. How would you recommend getting more people involved?

seanccox 12 years ago |

I would suggest hosting an event that benefits the members of your 'underground society', but that attracts the attention of the college population overall. I was a non-business minded, non-tech person that haphazardly attended a Lean Startup Machine workshop in my community. It was one of the most exciting experiences I've had – I learned a lot, exercised skills I didn't know I had, and met people I never would have otherwise.

You could do the same thing. Just be sure to grab as many people from outside your community as feasible, and try to weight the teams in such a way that there is a balance between the entrepreneurs and the newcomers. Diversity of background is essential, but balancing skill sets also brings strength to teams, so ask people to fill out a survey of some kind when they sign up to help you plan the teams.

Keep it inexpensive, provide food/booze where appropriate, and limit the capacity so that there is more interest than you actually invite (enabling you to try it again a few weeks later).

This is unlikely to change the entire culture of the college, but it will bring in new people, new ideas, and perhaps some of the participants will hit on an idea that they can build out into an actual business.