iStart Company Investigations: Life Upgrades Group
Music meets robotics with RoboTar, a slide-on device that automates guitar chords. Here’s a look at where Kevin Krumwiede of Life Upgrades Group has gone with the product since placing high in a competition hosted on the iStart platform earlier this year.
Kevin Krumwiede has a burning passion for music that was passed down to him by his father. But when his father had a stroke and could no longer play guitar, the younger Krumwiede found a way to keep his dad’s passion alive by creating RoboTar, a robotic chord player.
The device attaches
Continue reading iStart Company Investigations: Life Upgrades Group
During my years at the Kauffman Foundation I have seen firsthand the effect that education can have on the development of entrepreneurs and their companies. The entrepreneurs with whom I have worked have taken the lessons they have learned and applied them to great effect in their endeavors as founders. These entrepreneurs benefited from opportunities to learn critical skills, and from gaining an understanding of crucial decisions or junctures that often can derail entrepreneurial businesses.
Experience suggests that when entrepreneurs learn about founding team dynamics, strategies for handling objections in the sales process, and the ins and outs of intellectual
Continue reading ‘Sales Is Like Oxygen’ and So is Education
You don’t need to spend countless hours in a classroom, or have an MBA to become a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs often don’t have the time or patience to sit through a semester long class or six-week course in order to retrieve the answer to a question they have now-today. They need help quickly and efficiently. And this is where our idea for Founders School started.
In my own entrepreneurial journey, I remember coming to points while starting my company where my knowledge or education couldn’t provide me with the information I needed to make a sound decision. This happens to
Continue reading Founders School ‘Just in Time’ Lessons for Entrepreneurs
A Year of Learning
In the business world, SiNode Systems is becoming known for its success in recent business competitions as much as for its innovative, high-performance anodes for lithium ion batteries. The startup out of Northwestern University won the 2013 Rice Business Competition, the largest such competition in the world, as well as the 2013 Clean Energy Prize on the back of its cutting edge battery technology and a strong team of founders. Since the competitions, SiNode has gone on to secure private investment, receive a federal research grant, and form industry partnerships as it continues to grow
Continue reading Leading the Charge: Business Competition Lessons from SiNode Systems
It’s no secret that the Foundation thinks entrepreneurial activity benefits the economy. Working off this premise, we often promote policy changes that lower barriers to becoming an entrepreneur along the following (top) lines of logic. However, this series of events is far from obvious. Another outcome seems entirely plausible (bottom).
What do you think? Is more better?
Here is link to the post written by a colleague of mine here at the Kauffman Foundation.
There is no disputing the fact that women are still underrepresented in the much of the startup world, whether that be as Board Members, VCs or as founding members of the company. There is a “Women in Technology Study” being conducted by The Kauffman Foundation and Stanford University as a follow up to a previous study done by the Kauffman Foundation. That previous study shows that there are no real differences between male and female entrepreneurs, but, those of us that are out there on the streets everyday see a very different story. In fact we can see here at
Continue reading Women in Technology Study
For entrepreneurs, it can be tempting to correlate large investments with “success” – but this misleading indicator doesn’t guarantee anything for new companies. Big dollars may lead to big media coverage, but that isn’t the route most startups choose to pursue, and for good reasons. However, for new companies in their earliest stages, it is abundantly clear that at this point in the entrepreneurial journey other factors are far more critical in determining long-term success. For example, finding and building the right team or ensuring that one’s spouse or family is supportive of this new entrepreneurial path can be undervalued;
Continue reading Successful Startups begin with a Stable, but Flexible, Foundation
There are many definitions for the word “startup.” However, a single group of seven words will hardly describe the journey a founding entrepreneur will embark upon during the establishment of his or her company. Business plan competitions are an exciting way to develop new relationships and earn funding. However the top benefit could be experiential learning.
Today, iStart explores the expedition of founder JJ Tang of Vantage Realized, Edson Accelerator winner.
iStart: Tell us about your company?
JJ: Just over a year ago, three friends came together with a mission to change the world for the better. Dana, father of
Continue reading Starting a Startup: A Founder’s Journey ft. JJ Tang of Vantage Realized
This is Terrell with iStart.org interviewing Scott Case with Startup America Partnership. Here are excerpts from our conversation:
What is the difference between a startup and a small business?
We focus on startups and define them as companies that are lead by founders. We’re focused on high growth; we think of it as top-line growth. And companies that are typically less than ten years old. [This is] verses small businesses which are typically run by owners and tend to focused much more on profit orientation. It doesn’t mean the startups won’t get to be a profit place, but that’s the
Continue reading An iStart Interview: Scott Case of Startup America Partnership
There are many definitions for the word “startup.” However, a single group of seven words will hardly describe the journey a founding entrepreneur will embark upon during the establishment of his or her company. Business plan competitions are an exciting way to develop new relationships and earn funding. However the top benefit is experiential learning.
Today, iStart Now explores the expedition of founder Brandon Iglesias of ReactWell, local winner of the 2012 Tulane Business Plan Competition.
iStart: Tell us about your company?
Brandon: ReactWell is a biomass to crude oil and bioproduct production platform
Why did you decided to start
Continue reading Starting a Startup: A Founder’s Journey – Featuring Brandon Iglesias of ReactWell
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