add-VENTURE

As the Executive Director of the J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at York College, I will share my thoughts and observations pertaining to venture creation.

Jumping the Curve: lesson learned while attending Entrepreneurship Central PA 2012

I had a local business owner tell me about his experience at our Entrepreneurship Central PA 2012 Conference.  In particular, he spoke of the impact our keynote speaker Jack Uldrich had on him and his plans for his operations in 2013.

Jack’s talk “Jumping the Curve” illustrated to all of us in attendance that business owners and entrepreneurs can not afford to use antiquated technologies, processes, or procedures in business today.  Those that do will find their businesses obsolete.  Effective businesses of the future will be using the next big thing, and well before their competitors beat them to it.

The business owner told me he made a decision the next day to invest in a new database system to operate his rather sizable operations.  He made this decision not because the system will have lots of new cool bells and whistles, but because his experience at our Conference on Nov 20 proved to him an upgrade is a bottom line imperative for the future of his company.

image

Brianna Boyer, a first-year York College entrepreneurship major from Shrewsbury, won first place in our 2nd Annual Student Elevator Pitch Competition with her idea: a retainer/mouthguard caddy. “It has a soft plastic case that can have any chosen design on it and offers an antiseptic strip inside to keep the mouthguard and retainer fresh,” she said. “The possibility of marketing could be with orthodontists, in drug stores, marketing by companies like Listerine or Johnson & Johnson, or in sporting goods stores.”  Ms. Boyer won $1000 cash for her efforts, as well as the opportunity to pursue her business idea in the business incubator at York College’s J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.   Rounding out the top three finishers are fellow entrepreneurship major Matthew Caldwell with his business DCV Webstores, LLC, a group of e-tail stores, and Anthony Gulino and Kyle Williams with ICBC, a business using cloud-based computing to give real-time data on heavy equipment and fleet vehicle diagnostics.  They also won cash prizes and an invitation to enter the business incubator at the Center.

Brianna Boyer, a first-year York College entrepreneurship major from Shrewsbury, won first place in our 2nd Annual Student Elevator Pitch Competition with her idea: a retainer/mouthguard caddy. “It has a soft plastic case that can have any chosen design on it and offers an antiseptic strip inside to keep the mouthguard and retainer fresh,” she said. “The possibility of marketing could be with orthodontists, in drug stores, marketing by companies like Listerine or Johnson & Johnson, or in sporting goods stores.”  Ms. Boyer won $1000 cash for her efforts, as well as the opportunity to pursue her business idea in the business incubator at York College’s J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.  

Rounding out the top three finishers are fellow entrepreneurship major Matthew Caldwell with his business DCV Webstores, LLC, a group of e-tail stores, and Anthony Gulino and Kyle Williams with ICBC, a business using cloud-based computing to give real-time data on heavy equipment and fleet vehicle diagnostics.  They also won cash prizes and an invitation to enter the business incubator at the Center.

York College Alum Lisa Williams ‘08… On top of the Green Energy World! Always looking to bridge the gap between the customer and the lab, Lisa Williams was accompanied by Evan Bupp and Rich Wurzbach of York College incubator client MRG Labs, and employees of Everpower and Nordex to establish the best practice for sampling wind turbine grease lubricated components, including Main Bearing, Pitch Bearings, and Generator. MRG Labs is a leader in Wind Turbine lubricant sampling and analysis, and is relocating its lab and headquarters to the incubator York College’s J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.

York College Alum Lisa Williams ‘08… On top of the Green Energy World!

Always looking to bridge the gap between the customer and the lab, Lisa Williams was accompanied by Evan Bupp and Rich Wurzbach of York College incubator client MRG Labs, and employees of Everpower and Nordex to establish the best practice for sampling wind turbine grease lubricated components, including Main Bearing, Pitch Bearings, and Generator. MRG Labs is a leader in Wind Turbine lubricant sampling and analysis, and is relocating its lab and headquarters to the incubator York College’s J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.

Is there more than one way to shrink unemployment?

I do enjoy the politics.  In a previous life, it was part of my job.  Now I’m more of an interested observer, tax payer, and person who professionally is trying to grow small businesses into larger ones.

We’re entering the homestretch of this presidential election.  I’ve watched the debates and read the articles and listened to the commercials.  For the record, I’ve known who I was voting for in this election since June 2009.  (I was able to spend some time with one of the two candidates and knew then he was “my guy.”)

In any event, one thing has been made crystal clear to me through this election cycle:  These two fellas see the world and the business of economic development through entirely different lenses. 

Both are educated.  Both are smart.  It amazes me that they share none of the same opinions about how to move the country forward.  We are left to hope that we as a nation make the right choice - or that maybe, just maybe, they’re both a little right.