While this isn’t a typical startup, the challenges that were overcome were strikingly similar to those I face with new ventures – creating value with scarce resources and ample naysayers. In spring 2009, The Entrepreneurs Club had a weekly attendance of 5 members, pretty sad for a university with over 15,000 students. The problem we found back in 2009 was that many students operated their ventures off-campus, few were recognized for their accomplishments and faculty lacked the framework for helping those students to excel past classroom curriculum.
- Spearheaded the creation of Husky Startup Challenge (HSC), a bootcamp program that provides students an opportunity to take ideas from concept to prototype and beyond. Learn more about the HSC here
- Successfully garnered support from university faculty and staff through monetary and in-kind resources to encourage student ventures
- Created Entrepreneurs Immersion Program in which students were provided the opportunity work with local entrepreneurs and small businesses while being exposed to real world challenges faced by entrepreneurs.
- Built and managed the executive board of the organization which was responsible for boosting membership and helping define an entrepreneurial community at the university.
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Since the restructure, a handful of incredibly talented student leaders have carried the torch and made the Entrepreneurs Club the biggest on campus, #6 in Entrepreneurship globally and the best in Boston.
Fellow Entrepreneur Greg Skloot wrote a phenomenal book titled Getting Organized, on the transformation of entrepreneurship programming at Northeastern University and is a fantastic read for organizations seeking to level up entrepreneurial programming at a university.