Inside Look Into the Fast-Paced World of Rock Star Entrepreneurs

There have been so many conferences taking place these past few weeks! This week we'll learn about Seedcon, an annual conference co-sponsored by the Polsky Center and the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group. Vanessa Xu, a first-year student and enthusiastic DSAC blogger, gives us her unique perspective as a volunteer for the event.

-Dana
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I was very drawn to Booth because of its rich environment of intellectual curiosity where amazing ideas are born and everyone comes from diverse backgrounds and is willing to share and learn from one another. When ideas and passions collide, as they often do here, fantastic things happen. Once such occasion where this happens is SeedCon, an annual entrepreneurship and venture capital conference hosted by Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group (EVC) on November 16th at Gleacher and November 17th at Venue SIX10. As a member of EVC, I volunteered for this 2 day conference. Part of my job over these two days was working at the registration desk and being assigned to Sam Yagan, a key speaker, as his handler to make sure he is where he needs to be at all times. Don’t know Sam Yagan? Have you heard of eDonkey, SparkNotes or OkCupid? He’s the guy who co-founded all of these start-ups!

SeedCon really allowed me to be near the energy of entrepreneurs in the vibrant Chicago start-up scene. Arguably the most fun part of the conference was the Fast Pitch competition on opening night, during which 6 finalist teams competed for a chance to win $100,000+ in awards and consulting hours in front of a panel of 8 distinguished judges for 4 minutes of pitch and 6 minutes of intense Q&A. Two of the teams were composed of Booth students; a team of first-years actually took 3rd place for their idea of bringing a new infrared technology to market. The other teams were equally impressive in their start-up ambitions; two particularly memorable ones include a team from IE Business School in Madrid pitching their idea on “Bet Me,” a low-cost online gambling site, and a team of two ex-beauty and makeup consultants pitching their idea on “Stylisted,” a service that matched freelance beauty professionals with professional women. The winner of the competition was Intelligent Loop, a B2B service that employed real-time scanning technology to help companies track industrial assets. I had a feeling this was the winner as soon as the judge commented during Q&A that this kind of technology can really help governments keep track of crumbling infrastructure like railways and highways.

On Day 2 of the conference, my day started early at 7:30AM to help set up and grab breakfast with the other volunteers. We were all excited to hear keynote speaker Mark Suster, a partner at GRP Partners, who was present at SeedCon for the first time after many years of wooing from the EVC group. He delivered a powerful presentation, preferring to use highly visual slides to punctuate his points on what it’s really like to be an entrepreneur – the highs are higher and the lows are lower than any other career. You can read his blog post describing his experiences at SeedCon.

There was plenty of time for networking, where I found people were eager to meet others in search of partners, funders, or just for pure socializing. I met many start-up founders and a ton of students who were excited about entrepreneurship and venture capital. One of the best things I got out of the conference was also learning more about my fellow classmates and their aspirations. A friend shared an insight that resonated with me again and again as I listened to Sam Yagan, Bryce Johnson (the founder of Braintree), and Matt Matros (the founder of Protein Bar) speak about their entrepreneurial journeys: to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have a certain kind of grit that allows you to not give a hoot about what anyone else thinks. Sam Yagan spoke unapologetically about his how his team came up with the idea of building OkCupid: they were trying to find internet industries where it is possible to leverage “cheaper, easier and more fun,” and after ruling out pornography and gambling, they decided on a dating website. True story.

About your blogger: I grew up in NYC with a background in finance and accounting. I always knew an MBA was in my destiny, and the question of “where?” was easily solved when I attended Booth Live; I was blown away by the faculty, the beauty of the Harper Center, and the caliber of the student body. Now that I’ve been a full-fledged Boothie for the past 2.5 months, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life (only a slight exaggeration) and so very glad I made the decision to come to Booth. The two years will go by faster than I can say “recruiting overload” so I’m trying hard to hold onto my seat as I take in each and every second of this journey.

Booth Entrepreneurship Week & Seedcon 2011

Hi everyone!

I know you must be getting excited about Thanksgiving! Here at Booth we have been busy as ever on campus before everyone heads out for the holiday. This week, we check in with our Entrepreneurship Correspondent, Dana, on Seedcon 2011.

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Seedcon 2011: It was the perfect close to what was a very exciting Booth Entrepreneurship Week (BEW), which was brimming with events targeted towards students interested in VC and entrepreneurship.

Seedcon is the annual entrepreneurship and venture capital conference at Booth. This year, the conference spanned two days and included a fast-pitch competition, panels, and a fireside chat with 37signals co-founder Jason Fried.
Panel discussion topics included “What’s in the Future for Non-Technical Entrepreneurs?”, “VCs, Angels, and Accelerators,” and “Big Data, the Next Big Thing.” For me, the data panel was especially interesting. As an undergraduate, I interned in the marketing research department of a firm that had a wealth of subscriber data. At that time, marketers were just beginning to realize the importance of this data and the potential to create more targeted, relevant advertising. Based on the advances in data analytics discussed in this panel, the old pop-up/ banner advertisement model is a notion of the past and marketers should come to rely on real-time information much more heavily. As I create my team for the New Venture Challenge, I now understand the role that my data analytics/ research team member will have to fulfill.

It was also very motivating to see that the Chicago entrepreneurship scene is alive and well. Throughout the three panels, there was no shortage of excitement for the startups that are emerging from Chicago. Chicago has quickly become an entrepreneurial hot-spot; panelists believed that unlike other entrepreneurial cities in the US, Chicago has a much “flatter” network with fewer gatekeepers. This collaborative environment, with members of the community willing to connect with one another, makes Chicago the ideal city for those looking to start a business.

I’ve been a fan of Signals vs. Noise, 37signals’ blog, for quite some time now and rushed out to purchase the blog-inspired book, “Rework,” as soon as it was released last year. It was a real treat to have Jason Fried speak to us candidly on topics related to startups. Jason was quick to point out that data is not the end-all, be-all (ironically, this came after the data panel) and that it is important for entrepreneurs to trust their intuition. Jason also had a great point that truly resonated with me: “focus on doing one thing and do it really well first.” Sometimes, as I synthesize ideas for my business or reflect on the multitude of directions that certain ideas can take me, I have the tendency to get very distracted or overwhelmed. Jason’s advice reminded me that I should focus on the core of my business plan, before expanding into various directions.

Seedcon was a fantastic learning experience and I am proud to be amongst the company of so many innovative minds at Booth. Many thanks to the Polsky Center and EVC for coordinating Seedcon and for providing countless outlets to foster the collaborative spirit of entrepreneurship.