This document discusses 5 entrepreneurs who had surprising or non-traditional educational backgrounds: - Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, did not complete his undergraduate degree but learned programming in high school. - John Knific, founder of DecisionDesk, studied music at Case Western Reserve University but used his experience to create a platform streamlining applications. - Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College but said the humanities classes influenced his work at Apple by teaching empathy and ingenuity. - Jane Wurwand had only a beauty school certificate but established a successful skin care company after moving to the US. - Walter Driver, co-founder of Scopeley, studied creative writing and

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5 Entrepreneurs
with Surprising
EducationPRESENTED BY BOB VATERS

2. Jack Dorsey
The founder of Square and Twitter never completed
his undergraduate degree. Dorsey enrolled at
Missouri University of Science and Technology and
then New York University but never completed his
degree. By the time he left college, he was an
experienced programmer already. He learned how
to code while he was still in high school. At this time
he started to write programs for coordinating
taxicab dispatching. In fact, some of them are still
used to this day. He drew upon his programming
knowledge when he founded Square and Twitter.
There have been many successful founders of
businesses that have followed a similar path that
Dorsey did. He wanted to participate in the startup
game, ended up developing the necessary skills
and then decided not to stay around to complete
his college degree.

3. John Knific
Knific is an up-and-coming entrepreneur from
Cleveland who founded DecisionDesk, which
offers a platform for streamlining application
and admission processes for universities and
other institutions. However, as a Case Western
Reserve student, Knific studied music not
business. DecisionDesk began as
CitizenGroove, which was a platform for
streamlining music schools’ audition process
to help applicants be able to upload their
digital auditions recordings. Currently,
DecisionDesk partners with more than 100
institutions. It might have grown out of a
problem that was specific to the field that
Knific studied, however, he used his
experiences with music to transform into
something even larger.

4. STEVE JOBS
There are many famous successful
college dropouts, including Mark
Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Steve
Jobs of Apple also left Reed College
as a dropout and failed to finish his
degree, partly due to the fact that
the high tuition cost was too
expensive for his parents to afford.
However, the culture that Reed
exposed him to influence the
approach he would take at Apple
later. Jobs stated that the humanities
classes that he attended at Reed
helped him with everything he did
subsequently. He learned skills of
empathy and ingenuity through his
experiences as a starving student.

5. Jane Wurwand
Although Jane Wurwand didn’t ever study
business in college, she is a multimillionaire
today who invests in entrepreneurial ventures
started by women. Wurwand moved to the U.S.
from England, with just a beauty school
certificate. She ended up establishing the
International Dermal Institute, which was a skin
care school whose mission was to focus on
health instead of beauty. Her previous
experience working as a teacher was the
foundation of her success: Dermalogica,
Wurwand’s company, is one of the world’s most
successful skin care companies.

6. WALTER DRIVER
Who would ever think having a creative writing
degree would provide the fuel for making it to
the ninth spot on Inc.com’s fasts growing
American companies list? That is precisely
what Walter Driver’s degree did for him. The
co-founder of Scopeley, a California-based
gaming network, studied creative writing and
literature at Brown University. He credits his
education for providing him with the skills
needed to become successful.

7. THANK YOU!
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