Student entrepreneur ecosystem combats lack of structure
The entrepreneurship community at Illinois has plenty of resources but lacks connective tissue. According to entrepreneurship figures on campus, students stagnate while shuffling between these resources, inching closer to the dreaded “wantrepreneur” stereotype: All talk, no action. Manu Edakara directs the iVenture Accelerator, an incubator for rising student startups on the Illinois campus. iVenture provides funding and training for rising projects in yearly cohorts.
Alphabet-backed Duolingo becomes first VC-funded $1 billion Pittsburgh tech start-up
Language-learning app Duolingo has opened up new opportunities for smartphone users. Being bilingual looks great on a resume, can open life up to new cultural opportunities, and research has shown it can even delay symptoms of dementia.
Duolingo touts $1.5B valuation; language company to hire 100 more people, mostly in Pittsburgh
Duolingo has earned the title of Pittsburgh’s first tech “unicorn” — investing lingo for those rare startups that achieve a valuation topping $1 billion. Now valued at $1.5 billion, the 7-year-old digital language learning company plans to increase its workforce by about 50% — which could bring nearly 100 new jobs to the city by the end of next year, Duolingo spokeswoman Michaela Kron told the Tribune-Review.
The Boom In Online Executive Education
Andreas Steenbuch Mathismoen was alone in his cabin outside of Oslo the night of a fierce winter storm last year, making it a perfect opportunity for him to work on an executive education class he was taking through MIT’s Sloan School of Management. As the wind howled outside, he perched by candlelight over his laptop, listening intently to a lecture given by his Digital Strategy course professor, who lived more than 3,500 miles away in Cambridge, Mass.
2019 Tiger Entrepreneur Award Winner: Natalie Tung ’18
Inspired after taking EGR 498, Special Topics in Social Entrepreneurship: Rethinking Social Profit Organizations as a sophomore, Natalie Tung ’18 started HomeWorks Trenton, a 501(c)(3) community-based, after-school boarding program that provides academic and social-emotional enrichment activities, dorm living, and nutritious meals to supplement public schools, empower women and build community leaders
Global Entrepreneurship Week helps Pennsylvania entrepreneurs learn and launch
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In its 11th year, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Penn State provided a unique opportunity for student and community entrepreneurs and innovators to network and learn from one another in unique environments on and off campus. GEW featured 56 events — 26 events at University Park and 30 across 11 Commonwealth Campuses — that drew more than 3,000 student and community attendees.
How San Antonio is Building a Startup Culture
Many of the practices startups embrace — moving quickly, failing fast, developing prototypes — are frequently absent in local government.
GVSU launches entrepreneur program
Grand Valley State University is about to launch its first semester of a coaching program for student entrepreneurs. The Richard M. and Helen DeVos Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation is accepting student applications for the first cohort of 77 IdeaLab. The “startup bootcamp” will show 10 teams how to grow an idea into a business, according to Matt Gira, the center’s entrepreneur-in-residence and lead for the project.
SHU Student Receives Grant for Investment Startup
FAIRFIELD, Conn.—Sacred Heart University senior Wilder Rumpf received a $5,000 grant from the town of Fairfield for his ingenious fractional share brokerage and banking platform. The firm is pending registration but will offer fractional shares in over 675 securities, banking services and educational products.