To add to the laundry list of successful businesses founded by Cal Poly graduates, the Cal Poly Entrepreneurship Club invites students from different colleges to learn about the fundamentals of starting a business during bi-monthly meetings on campus, including one tonight at 8 p.m. in room 133 of the Mathematics and Science building.
The club was originally inspired during associate professor Jonathan York‘s Business 310 “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” class last spring.
York has 19 years of entrepreneurship experience, beginning when he founded Fourth Channel, Inc., a Web-based supply chain software company. He became a professor to impart his knowledge and passion for entrepreneurship upon students, he said. When he found out the entrepreneurship club at Cal Poly had disbanded, he asked his students if they would be interested in reviving it.
He said the officers are treating the club like a new business, which means making decisions, one of York’s favorite parts about being an entrepreneur.
“It’s your baby and you make the decisions, and those decisions determine whether you succeed or fail. There are risks but there also big rewards, financially but also personally,” he said.
Business junior and club president Luke Richter said the club’s purpose is to bring students interested in innovations and inventions together so they can develop their ideas.
“We’re trying to get people aware of the possible networking opportunities between different colleges and get people interested in the entrepreneur process, especially with the economy the way it is,” Richter said.
Business senior and the club’s vice president Ian Drogin said they are looking for motivated students who want to have an active role in forming the club to meet their specific needs.
“The club will help provide networking support, a forum for discussing ideas and collaborating on creating new products for either scholastic or commercial uses and education from guest speakers,” he said.
Some of the topics officers and guest speakers will cover include how to create an idea, start a business and network.
The club will also be working in connection with the Ray Sherr Venture Challenge, allowing members to compete for prize money by developing and presenting new products and services.
Industrial technology chair Lou Tornatzky said the club is an excellent way for people across the campus to share ideas and promote entrepreneurship; involvement will positively affect members’ career plans.
“I think some students envision a career or direction that will involve some sort of entrepreneurship; they can only gain from participation in this,” he said.
The club is looking to produce tangible results with projects on campus and in the community.
“Right now we’re trying to get people together, engineers and business people, to do senior projects,” Richter said.
Richter is currently collaborating on his senior project with two mechanical engineering seniors, Billie Fritz and Toby Lloyd. Sparked by a need from avid motorcyclists Fritz and Lloyd, the trio is working on a motorcycle headlight that will make riding around corners at night safer.
Fritz said that York and mechanical engineering professor Joseph Mello brought the engineers and Richter together in an attempt to produce senior projects that could evolve into an entrepreneurship.
Lloyd said the collaboration between the engineering students and business student has benefited the project, which for the engineering students will last three quarters.
“Business and engineering are a really good combination. They have to work together a lot and we don’t get to do that in the College of Engineering,” he said.
If the prototype is efficient and they receive positive reviews from testers, Fritz said they will consider developing their project into a business by altering the headlight to fit different motorcycle brands and models.
Entrepreneurs from Cal Poly will speak at a meeting tonight, including Kyle Wiens from iFixit and other small companies started by Cal Poly students.
Owners Wiens and Luke Soules started iFixit, which sends customers parts and instructions to fix their Apple products, in their Yosemite dorm room in 2003.
They had to maintain a professional image while attending school, which was the hardest part about starting their business, Soules said.
While he and Wiens started their company on their own, “It’s certainly very helpful to be able to talk to people who are either trying to start something or who have started something instead of going about it on your own,” he said.
The Entrepreneurship Club is a great idea, Soules said, because it helps students who are looking to start their own businesses.
“I think it’s a great idea. There are lots of people who would love to stay in the San Luis area but can’t. This encourages people to make their own career instead of getting a job with an established company.”
Soules’ best tip for student entrepreneurs: “Pick a business you care about and are really passionate about, not the one you think will make the most money. You’ll enjoy it a whole lot more.”
The club is in the process of creating a Web page, but does have an e-mail address: cpentrepreneurs@calpoly.edu.