SYRACUSE –– On March 20, television viewers got a glimpse of Syracuse University’s entrepreneurship scene when SU alumnus Patrick Ambron appeared on ABC’s TV show “Shark Tank.” Ambron (Class of 2009) co-founded BrandYourself, an online reputation-management company that helps people improve online search results for their names. He and his partners started the firm […]
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SYRACUSE –– On March 20, television viewers got a glimpse of Syracuse University’s entrepreneurship scene when SU alumnus Patrick Ambron appeared on ABC’s TV show “Shark Tank.”
Ambron (Class of 2009) co-founded BrandYourself, an online reputation-management company that helps people improve online search results for their names. He and his partners started the firm in 2009 as part of the Student Sandbox program at the Syracuse Technology Garden in downtown Syracuse. BrandYourself later became a regular tenant in the Tech Garden and won the $200,000 grand prize in the 2011 Creative Core Emerging Business Competition. The firm then moved its headquarters to New York City.
On the Shark Tank episode, Ambron asked the show’s “sharks” (investors) for a $2 million investment in exchange for a 13.5 percent stake in the company. Ambron rejected a counteroffer and walked away without a deal.
BrandYourself may have captured nationwide attention. But, what about the current state of entrepreneurship at Syracuse University? Are there any other emerging success stories?
Professors and students alike say that SU and the city of Syracuse continue to foster a positive environment for entrepreneurship. But room for improvement remains before student entrepreneurship can grow to its full potential.
In the 2013-2014 school year, SU’s Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprise (EEE) faculty taught 1,800 undergraduate students and nearly 400 graduate students across 206 majors, according to the Martin J. Whitman School of Management’s annual report. Alexandra Kostakis, a professor of entrepreneurial practice, teaches the course EEE 370, “Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises,” which has 24 students from Whitman and 20 students from other SU undergraduate colleges. But, in another section, she has only eight Whitman students out of 52 students. Kostakis says she’s never had a class with students from such a wide range of majors.
“What’s great about this class is that [there are] a lot of ideas, because there’s so many students from such diverse backgrounds,” she says referring to the second section. “It is the perfect environment for ideas to happen, because everyone is coming from different places. That’s a great plus.”
Kostakis also noticed that this semester, she has more students visiting her during office hours to discuss business ideas. She has had five to 10 students sign up to be in the Couri Hatchery incubator, a co-working space at Whitman that provides resources and support for student ventures. To her, it is an indication that student entrepreneurship is still growing and is here to stay.
“It’s not a trend or a fad in my eyes,” she adds. “I see it as an opportunity for them to take control of their own future.”
Other professors in Whitman’s EEE department have also taught a diverse range of students, and often cannot accommodate all the students who want to enroll in their class. Ken Walsleben, a professor of entrepreneurial practice, said this semester he turned away 15 to 18 students who petitioned him to add them to his entrepreneurship class. The class had already reached its capacity of 50 students.
Other resources
The resources or opportunities SU students can tap to grow their startups, include competitions such as the Raymond von Dran (RvD) IDEA Awards, which they can enter and win up to $10,000 for their business. Within the Couri Hatchery, students can talk to accountants, lawyers, and other experts about their business ideas. Outside of Whitman, SU also has other programs and offices that support student entrepreneurship. They include the Newhouse Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship — which promotes new media entrepreneurship opportunities to students, providing resources to help start digital-media ventures — and the
ICE Box — a space for innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship at the iSchool.
Students also have access to programs in the city of Syracuse. For example, CenterState CEO, which operates the Tech Garden, has launched a new startup competition called The Germinator. It’s a contest for startups that will award $600,000 in total over a two-year period with funding rounds starting every six months.
Other priorities
But with all the opportunities and resources, why aren’t there more student-run businesses across the Syracuse community?
Starting a business after college may not be a high priority for all students, says Peter Scott, a professor of entrepreneurial practice at the Whitman School.
“Most students are interested in other stuff,” he says. “They’re interested in going to the bar. They’re interested in getting their degree. They’re young and unfocused.”
Last year, Scott taught a senior capstone class in entrepreneurship. One group of students came up with an idea in which tennis-court paint would change color for five seconds if the ball hit the line.
“Cool idea,” he quips. Out of the 60 or 70 business plans for the capstone, the tennis-court paint plan was in the top five. Scott encouraged the team to enter IDEA and other business competitions in the spring, but they never did — even though Scott thought that they had “a really good chance” of winning prize money for their venture.
“They’re students,” he says. “They’re in their last semester. They’re thinking about jobs, right? Like real jobs. They’re thinking about graduating, and having fun.”
Last year, Syracuse University student Tom Charles and his two other teammates won $7,500 from the IDEA Awards. The funding was for Compas, an event-management service for student organizations on college campuses. It originated as a final project for an information-technology class in which Charles and his teammates were enrolled. However, they folded the company shortly after the competition.
“Being that the app started as just an idea for a class project, we never really assessed the business environment at all,” says Charles, who is now a graduate student in Whitman’s entrepreneurship program. “We didn’t think it was the best use of our time.”
However, Charles believes that student entrepreneurship at SU is continuing to grow. He says he would like to see more centralization in the resources for entrepreneurship on campus, instead of having many different offices scattered across the various colleges. Putting entrepreneurship resources and spaces in one spot would mean students would make more connections with other entrepreneurs and have an easier time to find the right tools to start their business, he contends.