Princeton Entrepreneurship Club

To all those who are still following the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club on this blog:

We have a website - http://www.PrincetonEClub.org/! It’s been up since late 2008, and all of our current content is updated there, rather than here on this blog. Thank you for your following; we have made tons of progress as a Club over the past year, and are looking forward to Super Saturday this Saturday, February 21, the finale to TigerLaunch 2009: Princeton’s Business Plan Competition.

Best wishes,

The Princeton Entrepreneurship Club Executive Board

You know that brilliant business idea that’s been rattling around your head? Talk about it for 90 seconds for a chance to win $1000! Princeton Pitch 2008 is Princeton’s elevator pitch competition. Students have 90 seconds to pitch their business idea to a panel of 5 Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Entrepreneurs to win the grand prize of $1,000. All you need is an idea.

Register by November 16th at http://princeton.studentbusinesses.com.

Competition will take place at 7:30pm on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 in Friend 101. Catered Reception follows event. Workshop for all contestants with Professor John Danner, Princeton’s Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship on Tuesday, November 18 at 7:45pm in Frist 234.

Come watch innovation at Princeton!

Hosted by Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. Co-sponsored by Howard Cox ‘64, Sierra Ventures, Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, and Projects Board.

Here’s Plug and Play Tech Center’s press release from our big event this past summer:

Distinguished Alums Share Experiences with Budding Entrepreneurs

In the summer of 2005, Mark Jung ‘82 stepped into Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation office. Within an hour of meeting, they shook hands and agreed on the sale of his company, IGN, to Fox Interactive. Jung’s story was one of many inspiring ones shared by distinguished alums last week at the “Princeton Entrepreneurship Forum,” an event held at Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley, and hosted by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club, Princeton Club of Northern California, and the Office of Career Services.

Continue reading "Recap on Summer: Princeton Entrepreneurship Forum, August 13 2008" »

TigerLaunch is Princeton University’s $10,000 Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Club and Mr. Howard Cox ‘64.

This is an archive of TigerLaunch 2008. Click here to learn about this current year’s TigerLaunch.

Calendar of Events

    November 27, 2007 - 5pm         Entry Form/Executive Summary Due
    December, 2007                  'How-To' Strategy Sessions
    January, 25, 2008               Business Plan Checkpoint
    February, 2008                  Workshop
    February 9, 2005 - Sunday - 5pm     Final Business Plan Due
    February 23, 2008 - Saturday - 9am      Super Saturday

Official 2008 Contestants selected

Congratulations to our 10 finalists!

• Amit Mukherjee
• Christian Theriault
• Josh Shulman
• Pietro Rea Maravi
• Andrew Knight
• Seth Priebatsch
• David Levit
• Adrian Soviani
• Jennifer Howard
• Nickolas Jiang

Thanks to Bob Monsour, Greg Olson, and Ed Zschau for selecting these ten finalists.

Winners:

Grand Prize - SCVNGR - Seth Priebatsch ‘11

2nd Place - Princeton Biomedical - Christian Thériault (Masters)

3rd Place - BrightBox Learning - Melissa ‘Bethani’ Massey ‘10, Jennifer Howard ‘09, Tiffany Ko ‘09, Emily Miller ‘09

Read More:

• Daily Princetonian
• Princeton Alumni Weekly
• Packet Online

Thanks to our contest directors:

Selcuk Arkun ‘10

Sar Medoff ‘10

Greg Olsen, Princeton’s Entrepreneur in Residence (appointed fall of 2007) is once again holding office hours for students and faculty interested in getting input and guidance on their entrepreneurial ideas. All are welcomed. If you are a participant in the business plan competition this year, I suggest you take advantage of Greg’s time.

You can sign up for a 30 minute slot by going to:

https://weblamp.princeton.edu/~officehr/slots.php?blockdefid=1187

The next day for office hours is this coming Wednesday, February 6th, from 1pm to 5pm.

Sign up now, before it fills up!

Thanks for listening.

Regards, -Bob Monsour

Sean Weaver of ODUS brings you an opportunity to become a student agency manager:

PSA will be having two information sessions for students interested in manager positions. We have several positions vacated by graduating seniors that need to be filled. All the information is on our website www.princeton.edu/agencies

As you know these positions give students a lot of autonomy in running their own business with no financial risk. We’re especially encouraging freshman and sophomores to apply. We want to make it clear to everyone that these positions are open to any undergraduate student. Some still believe that these positions are reserved for those who are already involved in the program which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Thanks so much.

The Princeton Entrepreneurs Network (PEN) Princeton Chapter is being brought back to life. We want input from students of the Entrepreneurship Club.

You are invited to attend this meeting where we’ll be determining what the organization will have as goals in the near and long terms. We’re looking forward to building an organization that can be a resource (or clearinghouse of resources) primarily to the regional alumni and campus communities in entrepreneurship matters, but it’s by no means limited in scope at this point.

The meeting will have the “purpose of (1) setting up some structure (co-directors, co-presidents, or otherwise plus some other key people) for the Chapter, (2) deciding how often to officially meet (perhaps, quarterly?), (3) and decide on next steps for moving forward with the areas of focus discussed at the last meeting: (A) being part of TigerLaunch, (B) assisting CIEE with its entrepreneurship resources site, and (C) gathering from time-to-time in a collaborative-style manner to discuss entrepreneurship and provide students, alumni, and other members and associates with direction to resources.”

You have a chance to have a voice in how we set some of this up. Also, remember that students can become members of the Princeton Entrepreneurs’ Network for free.

Who: PEN Princeton Chapter

What: Inaugural and organizational meeting

Where: E-Quad Cafe

When: 7PM on Wednesday, February 6th

Besides the TigerLaunch competition, there are many ways to get initial funding for developing your business idea. Friends and family are a common avenue. Or, you can try to compete for money and services from a pre-seed venture firm like YCombinator or DreamIt Ventures.

YCombinator was started a few years ago by Paul Graham and a few other entrepreneurs. If selected as a finalist, the firm gives you $15000 - $20000 in funding for a small percentage of your company. You work closely under the company’s wing in Boston for the summer (or California for the winter) as they guide you through the ropes of starting a company. Paul Graham emphasizes technical talent over experience. You can sign up for summer funding today: http://www.ycombinator.com/s2008.html . Applications are due April 2nd, but do not delay. Apply as soon as possible.

DreamItVentures is a brand new firm with an identical modus operandi, but based in Philadelphia. Moreover, they solely focus on college students, whereas Paul Graham will look at any sufficiently bright engineer. They, like Paul Graham, emphasize buliding a prototype or working product in a short time before the end of the summer. Applications are due March 12. The press release for Dream It Ventures is below.

The money can be useful, but is relatively little for starting a real company. When considering these options, remember that they can provide incredible access to venture firms, publicity to gain new customers, and a wealth of experienced mentors to teach you how to build up your first startup.

Continue reading "Pre-Seed Funding Opportunities" »

Every year, Professor Ed Zschau, for students of his class, ELE 491: Hi-Tech Entrepreneurship, hosts a special talk about patents, trademarks, copyright, and tradesecrets.

This year, Entrepreneurship Club members have a special invitation to come to the workshop. Please come learn from Jeffrey Rosedale and let him answer your questions.

Who: Jeffrey Rosedale, Ph.D., J.D., of Woodcock Washburn

What: IP Seminar

Where: 006 Friend Center

When: 4:30-6:00 pm on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and is hard at work on their business plans. Selcuk surfed around and found a few links that should be helpful in writing a plan.

www.mentorsphere.com: Mentorsphere is a great resource for all contestants to communicate with their mentors as well as outside resources. It is a network that gives you the opportunity to share your documents with the rest of your group. We encourage everyone to register and create their own mentorsphere.

http://www.bizplanit.com/free.html : BizPlanIt provides high-quality free business plan resources for the do-it-yourself business plan writer. There are a range of resources on this website that you can use to write your business plan.

http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html : Small Business Administration has many resources on how to start and run your own business. The section on writing a business plan offers many tips and resources that should help you throughout the process of writing your business plans.

Also check out the new documents we uploaded: Business Plan Structure and How to Write a Business Plan.

Sar Medoff