Applications for the Idea Competition are due tonight at 5PM!

Come join us in one week to hear John Schveibinz lead the second ENTR Workshop of the semester. He will share insights on taking an idea to a successful launch.

This workshop will be held on October 14 at 12:00 pm in entreSpace, located in Academic Services, room 139.

Event Description: The path from idea, to successful idea, to successful launch has many important steps. The latest startup ideas emphasize "lean" as a driving concern. What is a "lean" startup and why is it important? What are the steps to launch a business using "lean" startup techniques? This one-hour workshop will introduce a 7-step path to launch a business that continuously measures and challenges the initial idea to maximize the probability of a successful launch. Attendees will be given handouts and will be able to access templates on the website.

About John: John J. Schveibinz is the Founder and Owner of Paxridge Technology, LLC, a technical consulting firm. He is also a mentor with SCORE of Greater Baltimore, an Electrical Engineer, an Angel Investor and a UMBC Alumnus. His focus is on encouraging positive change through technology and innovation. He has experience in business startup, management, M&A, technical management, business development, engineering design, government contracts, education, and business finance & investment. He is a member of the Baltimore Angels, and is the SCORE representative to UMBC. He has counseled and advised numerous UMBC students regarding their business ideas. He has a MSEE from Johns Hopkins University, a MA in Teaching from UMBC, a BSEE from the University of Akron and a Certificate of CoOp Education.

UMBC wants to give you $750 for telling us your idea! How can you win cash for your innovative solution?

The UMBC Idea competition is designed to challenge you to think about problems and opportunities facing society. If UMBC is one of the most innovative schools in the nation, then UMBC students are just the kind of innovators that can really change the world. Now’s your chance to make it happen.

Submit your idea online via the entry form. And you can also grab your camera or smartphone and post a YouTube video in which you pitch your idea. The top entries will be judged, live, by a panel of professionals and alumni along with a crowd of students at the final competition held November 12, 2015, in the Sports Zone in The Commons. The top 3 winners, determined by the results of student and panel voting, will receive cash prizes up to $750.

How to Enter
To enter the competition, complete the UMBC Idea Competition Entry Form, which asks you to (i) describe a problem or opportunity, and (ii) describe your idea for addressing it. Submission forms will be limited to one page, so you will need to articulate the problem you have identified and your idea succinctly. You will also be allowed to post a video to YouTube in which you can personally pitch your idea to the campus. The videos are not required, but they are encouraged as an effective way to communicate ideas to the review committee. YouTube videos are limited to 60 seconds and creativity is encouraged. Videos longer than 60 seconds will not be considered by the judges.

For a full list of the rules, visit http://entrepreneurship.umbc.edu/competitions/umbcs-idea-competition/

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE TOMORROW, 

OCTOBER 8, 2015 AT 5:00PM!

UMBC wants to give you $750 for telling us your idea! How can you win cash for your innovative solution?

The UMBC Idea Competition is designed to challenge you to think about problems and opportunities facing society. If UMBC is one of the most innovative schools in the nation, then UMBC students are just the kind of innovators that can really change the world. Now’s your chance to make it happen.

Submit your idea online via the entry form. And you can also grab your camera or smartphone and post a YouTube video in which you pitch your idea. The top entries will be judged, live, by a panel of professionals and alumni along with a crowd of students at the final competition held November 12, 2015, in the Sports Zone in The Commons. The top 3 winners, determined by the results of student and panel voting, will receive cash prizes up to $750.

How to Enter
To enter the competition, complete the UMBC Idea Competition Entry Form, which asks you to (i) describe a problem or opportunity, and (ii) describe your idea for addressing it. Submission forms will be limited to one page, so you will need to articulate the problem you have identified and your idea succinctly. You will also be allowed to post a video to YouTube in which you can personally pitch your idea to the campus. The videos are not required, but they are encouraged as an effective way to communicate ideas to the review committee. YouTube videos are limited to 60 seconds and creativity is encouraged. Videos longer than 60 seconds will not be considered by the judges.

For a full list of the rules, visit http://entrepreneurship.umbc.edu/competitions/umbcs-idea-competition/

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE IN ONE WEEK, 
OCTOBER 8, 2015 AT 5:00PM!

Shayla Adams, CEO and Founder of RemixEducation, spoke to the UMBC community about her experiences as a social entrepreneur with a fast paced life style.

If you missed this informative and exciting workshop be sure to listen to the unedited audio of the workshop available below. Also below is the slide deck Shayla used in her presentations.

Shayla started off this series by talking about how she has always had the “entrepreneurial spirit.” As a kid she would sell toys and lemonade and as she grew, she constantly came up with new ideas to help her community. This was how she started getting involved with nonprofits.

After finishing college she came back to her hometown in Columbia, Maryland and saw that many students from her high school weren’t going to college because of their financial situations. She saw a need in her community and decided to start a scholarship to help first generation college students achieve their goals. This demonstrated Shayla’s first lesson of social entrepreneurship, which is to identify a need in the community.

She then moved to North Carolina to teach, and saw a need to help at-risk high school students. She went on to establish the H.E.R Story Program, where she exposes at risk girls to various post-secondary opportunities and mentoring. After the first year in North Carolina was a huge success, she was asked to open a program in Washington DC. This leads to Shayla’s second lesson of social entrepreneurship, which is to develop a strategic plan before you grow. She said it would have been a lot easier to start the Washington DC program if she had set goals and guidelines that encompassed the next 2-5 years. She said to always have a system set before growing, or it will be very hard to stay on top of everything.

She persevered through the challenges of running two programs in two different states because the problem she was trying to solve was authentic to her, which is the third lesson of social entrepreneurship. She has a passion and a great deal of knowledge about the education system and what at-risk youth needed to thrive. Shayla says to start something that you’re passionate about and then do research on that issue, which is the fourth lesion of social entrepreneurship. It is up to you to figure out if what you want to do is feasible and right for your community.

She then talked about her biggest challenges/surprises as an entrepreneur. She said her biggest challenge was identifying and maintaining leadership. To her, leadership is influencing others to want to follow you and your vision. She also said she was surprised to learned many managerial skills while running her business and was surprised with how often she needed to train others on these skills (i.e. Writing professional emails, how to document activities, etc.)

She suggested checking out the podcast called Startup, which is something she wished she listened to years ago.

She is also looking for student help! Shayla believes that innovative minds are what makes her program better. Below are the opportunities she is offering:

• Innovation fellows needed to help her throughout the year (with the potential to get college credit).
• Tech gurus needed to help her software company, Test4Me, continue to grow.
• Interns needed to work for her early start up involving “coworking spaces” called The Nest.

If you are interested in any of these opportunities please reach out to Shayla directly at shayla@remixeducation.org.

Snag a free ticket at DCTechDay.com and stay up to date by following @techdayhq on Twitter.

"Customized field trips with built in assessments, EduPal has become the resource I never knew I needed for my students. This platform meets the needs of educators, students, and parents alike with the ability to differentiate lesson plans for a low cost point. The educational tools provided by EduPal should be available in all classrooms" 

-Ms. White, Science and Technology Instructional Program Coordinator at Charles Herbert Flowers High School.

"This group represents some of the best and brightest companies from the region. Helping companies like these grow is central to making Baltimore a global destination for entrepreneurship."

-Jen Meyer, CEO of Betamore