Student Venture, KD Energy's Founding Team
After iterating through a variety of approaches to teaching entrepreneurship, many of which I will likely elaborate upon in future posts, this semester I settled upon a course design in which students were required to actually start & run their own businesses.
I honestly couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out. It has proven a very rewarding & educational exercise for the students. The students have taken a great deal of ownership over the pursuit of their creative business ideas which has made for a truly remarkable learning environment in which every student shows up prepared to interact and contribute. I have had a great deal of fun mentoring, coaching, and guiding the teams in their entrepreneurial journeys. I have shared in their successes and their setbacks and I would say that all are richer for the experience.
My biggest take-away from this semester is simply that the best way to learn about entrepreneurship is to be coached while being actively involved in the entrepreneurial process.
There were two teams in the class this semester of four students each. The first team created energy “bites” which have been a smash hit – they are delicious! It is an interesting take on the traditional energy bar. The team has launched their initial website, http://thoroughlypure.com/ and has received attention in several local newspapers:
News Article in the Saratogian
News Article in the Daily Gazette
The other team in the course is pursuing an equally exciting media business specializing in providing community businesses with presences upon college campuses. They are positioning themselves as specialists in viral marketing – or marketing in which ideas spread contagiously because they are so interesting and remarkable. At the moment they are working on a cookbook for students by students which will be supported by advertising revenue generated from local restaurants and small businesses. I applaud both teams for their creativity and tenacity.
[...] The coolest thing about it is that his classes have already worked. This past semester he gave two groups of students $100 each with the goal of creating $200 in revenue by the end of the semester. He essentially seeded two small start-up companies. And both were successful. [...]
By: Wouldn’t it be Cool to Teach Entrepreneurship? | Adam McFarland's Blog - Musings of a Balding 26 Year Old Entrepreneur on May 13, 2009
at 7:27 am