Millennial entrepreneurs in Utah are finding success launching businesses thanks to resources like the internet and university programs. Mark Pittman founded Blyncsy, which provides traffic data to cities, after receiving support from the University of Utah. David Toledo co-founded Power Practical and their product received funding on Kickstarter and from Mark Cuban after mentorship from the Lassonde Institute. These entrepreneurs attribute their success to being able to easily research ideas and launch businesses online from a young age with minimal barriers.
Mark Piesing investigates if the office will even exist in a future dominated by social media and the internet. Interviews Leon Benjamin, co-founder Sei Mani for Warwick Business School's international magazine
Talk given at TiE Bangalore, on subject of Social Media, on 1st July, 2010. Aimed at entrepreneurs and businesses, this talked about the relevance of Social Media for business, today!
The 2012 Roundtable on Institutional Innovation convened leaders to explore how organizations can stay atop today’s constant technological advancement. In the current economic environment, growth and underemployment are two outstanding national, indeed international, problems. While technological advances and globalization are often cited as instigators of the current plight, they are also beacons of hope for the future. Connecting the Edges concludes that by integrating the core of an organization with the edge, where innovation is more likely to happen, we can create dynamic, learning networks.
Mark Piesing investigates if the office will even exist in a future dominated by social media and the internet. Interviews Leon Benjamin, co-founder Sei Mani for Warwick Business School's international magazine
Talk given at TiE Bangalore, on subject of Social Media, on 1st July, 2010. Aimed at entrepreneurs and businesses, this talked about the relevance of Social Media for business, today!
The 2012 Roundtable on Institutional Innovation convened leaders to explore how organizations can stay atop today’s constant technological advancement. In the current economic environment, growth and underemployment are two outstanding national, indeed international, problems. While technological advances and globalization are often cited as instigators of the current plight, they are also beacons of hope for the future. Connecting the Edges concludes that by integrating the core of an organization with the edge, where innovation is more likely to happen, we can create dynamic, learning networks.
Nathan Kendrick, Founder and Partner at DesignMap gave a refreshing talk that puts designing products for work into a whole new perspective. He shared with us his journey from studying design at RISD and how he gained appreciation for designing enterprise products.
As technology becomes more widely available and entrenched in peoples’ lives at home, their expectations around ease of use and design aesthetics continue to rise for products they use at work. Long gone are the ’90s when mostly what we expected from productivity software was automating repetitive manual tasks. Consumer expectations are forcing businesses to give design a seat at the table. Here at DesignMap we are fortunate to have help our clients integrate design into their culture and make kick ass products. Sometimes we are even around to see it pay off like when ExactTarget, a long-term DesignMap client, was acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 billion.
Yes, designing for Enterprise can be sexy because of the monetary opportunity and that designers are well positioned to make the applications look beautiful. We learned from Nathan’s talk that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans age 25-54 spend an average of 53% of their waking hours at work. So working on designing enterprise products allow us to to do what we love and at the same time have huge positive impact on people’s lives too!
Nathan called for designers working on enterprise products to contribute to the conversation. So, share your stories with us!
Business Platforms - Presentation by Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of Perion at the NOAH 2014 Conference in London, Old Billingsgate on the 13th of November 2014.
10 Steps to Manage Your Online Ratings #RDJ2016Surefire Local
Speakers Bill Owens, President of Owens Construction and Shashi Bellamkonda, CMO of Surefire Social share their presentation of a talk they gave at the 2016 Remodeling Show on how remodelers can manage their online reputation in terms of the importance of reviews, acquiring more reviews, and responding to reviews you receive (both 5-stars and 1-stars).
Alexander Strachan, Jr., MD, MBA, and Asim Usman, MD, of EmCare Hospital Medicine, discuss bundled payments for care improvement (BPCI) and how hospitalists are leading the charge.
Originally presented May 4, 2016, as a webinar in partnership with Becker's Hospital Review.
Nathan Kendrick, Founder and Partner at DesignMap gave a refreshing talk that puts designing products for work into a whole new perspective. He shared with us his journey from studying design at RISD and how he gained appreciation for designing enterprise products.
As technology becomes more widely available and entrenched in peoples’ lives at home, their expectations around ease of use and design aesthetics continue to rise for products they use at work. Long gone are the ’90s when mostly what we expected from productivity software was automating repetitive manual tasks. Consumer expectations are forcing businesses to give design a seat at the table. Here at DesignMap we are fortunate to have help our clients integrate design into their culture and make kick ass products. Sometimes we are even around to see it pay off like when ExactTarget, a long-term DesignMap client, was acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 billion.
Yes, designing for Enterprise can be sexy because of the monetary opportunity and that designers are well positioned to make the applications look beautiful. We learned from Nathan’s talk that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans age 25-54 spend an average of 53% of their waking hours at work. So working on designing enterprise products allow us to to do what we love and at the same time have huge positive impact on people’s lives too!
Nathan called for designers working on enterprise products to contribute to the conversation. So, share your stories with us!
Business Platforms - Presentation by Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of Perion at the NOAH 2014 Conference in London, Old Billingsgate on the 13th of November 2014.
10 Steps to Manage Your Online Ratings #RDJ2016Surefire Local
Speakers Bill Owens, President of Owens Construction and Shashi Bellamkonda, CMO of Surefire Social share their presentation of a talk they gave at the 2016 Remodeling Show on how remodelers can manage their online reputation in terms of the importance of reviews, acquiring more reviews, and responding to reviews you receive (both 5-stars and 1-stars).
Alexander Strachan, Jr., MD, MBA, and Asim Usman, MD, of EmCare Hospital Medicine, discuss bundled payments for care improvement (BPCI) and how hospitalists are leading the charge.
Originally presented May 4, 2016, as a webinar in partnership with Becker's Hospital Review.
Social entrepreneurship isn't just a stance or a thought process that "greener" or more "new age" organizations employ. It is now essential to the success of any business. The platform and change that a company makes in the world affect how its customers, investors and media see it. Ultimately this translates to where they spend their money, time and attention on social media.
Learning ResourcesPlease read and view this weeks Learning Re.docxsmile790243
Learning Resources
Please read and view this week's Learning Resources before you complete the Discussion.
Reading
· Course Text: Entrepreneurship:
Hisrich, R.D., Peters, M.P., & Shepherd, D.A. (2013). Entrepreneurship (Laureate Custom Education). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Chapter 4, "Creativity and the Business Idea"
In this chapter, you will learn to identify various sources of ideas for new ventures as well as the methods available for generating new venture ideas. Creativity is an important feature of entrepreneurship and it plays a vital role in problem solving. You will examine the importance of innovation and the aspects of the product planning and development process. Technology is changing rapidly and has affected the entrepreneurial process. You will discover the features of e-commerce and the process of starting an e-commerce business.
Focus on the definitions provided throughout the chapter. Review and think about the examples and anecdotes provided in the chapter that illustrate the major ideas being conveyed. Reflect on the role that the Internet plays on your abilities to do work, complete research, etc. Do you think that the Internet can be a source of advantage for one firm over other firms? Or do you think that it is a necessity just to be able to compete in today's business environment?
Chapter 7, "The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture"
In this chapter, you will define what a business plan is, who prepares it, who reads it, and how it is evaluated. It is important to understand the scope and value of such plans to all stakeholders as well as to be able to identify the sources for each section of the business plan. You will learn the value of the Internet as a source of information as well as a marketing tool. Finally, you will preview examples of business plans and step-by-step explanations as to how you would go about creating such a plan.
Focus on the definitions provided throughout the chapter. Review and think about the examples and anecdotes provided in the chapter that illustrate the major ideas being conveyed. Consider the amount of time and resources that must be used to develop a business plan. Given these factors, as well as the difficulties of predicting the future, is a business plan useful? What do you believe constitutes an excellent business plan?
· Case Study:"Euro Disney: Bungling a Successful Format"
Management Mistakes and Successes, 10th Edition by Hartley, R. Copyright 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.
In this case study, you will examine the history of the Disney Company's decision to build an amusement park in France despite the failure of previous amusement parks to remain open. This case presents the steps that the company undertook during the research and development stages as well as its thought process and justification for the construction of Euro Disney. You will learn the results ...
Keynote address given at the Seminar on "Social Media for Corporate Communication and Marketing" organized by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on Nov 27, 2009.
Digital Transformation Strategy - 4IR AI Blockchain Fintech by Dinis GuardaDinis Guarda
Digital transformation strategy
How to be a business fit
In a time of 4IR AI Blockchain Fintech
The future of all businesses and related industries is all about disruption – and that’s a good thing
Disruption across all industries is inevitable, but rather than bracing for the change, businesses should be confident to accept and embrace it.
This is the only way to be fit in a digital transformation 4IR time.
by Dinis Guarda,
author, CEO founder ztudium - openbusinesscouncil.org - fashionabc.org - intelligenthq.com
The Future of Business Citizenship - People's Insights MagazineMSL
For our global research study, The Future of Business Citizenship, we surveyed 8,000 young people in 17 countries. Our findings confirm that Millennials have high expectations from business and add an insightful layer to our observations around this generation, with real implications for brands and corporations.
MSLGROUP's global team of corporate and brand citizenship experts dive deep into the results of our study and outline what Millennials value as individuals and what they expect from businesses. The Future of Business Citizenship is part of MSLGROUP's People's Insights project that crowd-sources insights and foresights from MSLGROUP experts.
We hope you enjoy reading this comprehensive report and invite you to share your feedback and tips with us @PeoplesLab or you can reach out to us on Twitter @msl_group.
MSLGROUPs latest survey of 8,000 Millennials across 17 countries reveals that they feel very differently from preceding generations about businesses’ roles in dealing with the world’s greatest challenges.
Similar to The Enterprise - Utah millennials finding success launching entrepreneurial endeavors (20)
The Enterprise - Utah millennials finding success launching entrepreneurial endeavors
1. Matt Gray, employee at Blyncsy, one of a number of successful millennial-owned business in Utah, installs the Blyncsy sensor in the
Transit Center in Deer Valley.
3 days ago | 0 | 2 | |
Utah millennials finding success launching entrepreneurial
endeavors
SHEENA STEEDMAN
The Enterprise
Imagine being 24 years old and selling your business for $54 million.
That was the case for Garrett Gee, a former student and soccer player at BYU, who sold his iPhone app
called Scan to Snapchat, a video-messaging application company, two years ago. Gee, like some other
young entrepreneurs, attributes their success to some of the characteristics and resources — ease with
the Internet, for example — that are quintessentially millennial.
About four years ago, after Gee got home from his LDS mission, he bought a smartphone and tried to
find a good scanner app so that he could scan QR codes and bar codes, but he wasn’t pleased with what
the market had to offer. He decided he would build his own app with the help of Google and a couple of
classmates.
“For me, it was just Googling it and doing research for it on my own, and then finding other students who
were starting to do the same thing,” Gee said.
“Something that is new to the millennial generation is that from my dorm room I could think of an idea,
design it and build it myself, and then sell to anyone in the world for anyone to download or purchase.”
As Gee sees it, a degree has become less and less important compared to his developed skills. After he
sold his app and soccer season had ended, Gee dropped out of school and is now traveling the world
with his family. With a laptop handy, he is able to continue to develop software and apps while on the go.
“With $100 and a laptop, you can start an e-commerce website,” said another millennial entrepreneur,
Mark Pittman, 26,
founder and CEO at Blyncsy, which provides a fast service platform through which he sells data on the
movement of people.
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2. Pittman works with cities in particular, to provide them with traffic data, allowing them to synchronize
traffic lights more effectively, and for business development purposes. Some of his clients are the
University of Utah and the city of Park City. He plans to cover the majority of the Wasatch Front with his
Blyncs censors this year.
He said the barriers to starting a business have become very minimal, and the support from the
University of Utah was equally crucial for Pittman.
“I would have not started the company without the University of Utah and the Lassonde Institute,” he said,
referring to the nationally ranked business incubator geared toward business innovation. He received a
scholarship to build a business while a student through hands-on learning and also benefited from a grant
through the university’s program called “Get Seeded.” It gave him the capital to start his business. He
received $10,000.
Pittman said that the most important characteristic setting apart his generation from his parents’ is “the
mentality and the mindset.”
“I think differently than they do,” he said. “They grew up in a generation where you found a career and
you entered that career, and I have the mentality that if there is something I want to do, then I’m doing
that.”
Pittman went to law school but decided not to be a lawyer. He didn’t like a Fortune 500 gig that he was
going to get as an MBA student, so he decided to do something different and take a risk.
The question in his mind was never, “Can I do this and is this a risk I can take?” he said. “It was more
like, ‘How do I do it?’” He believes this is one of the most important mentality differences of the millennial
generation.
Another millennial who took a risk is David Toledo. The 27-year-old co-founded Power Practical, a
company that produces portable power solutions and whose flagship product is the Powerpot, which can
charge mobile devices through a USB port by heating water in a lightweight pot.
The technology received over $100,000 on Kickstarter, $250,000 through Mark Cuban companies on
“Shark Tank,” and a lot of mentorship and support through the Lassonde Institute. His success includes
having his product sold in Cabela’s, REI and similar stores.
“The single most useful tool that we have, that previous generations didn’t, is the Internet and Google,
which allows you to become an expert in many, many things that normally we just wouldn’t have access
to,” Toledo said. “By being able to Google, ‘I want to start into this industry, how do you do that?’ you can
do the research and find out.”
Toledo’s path included earning his degree in engineering at the University of Utah in 2010 and pursuing
his Ph.D. in engineering at Cornell University. However, he decided to take a leave of absence and came
back to Salt Lake City when Power Practical’s first product launched into retail.
“Why I wanted to become an entrepreneur was that I was in graduate school. I felt like if I was to work as
hard for myself as an entrepreneur, I could do more in the same amount of time that I could spending it in
graduate school, and, ultimately have more freedom in life after that,” he said.
“For myself, as a millennial, and for other people who are in my generation, it’s kind of this idea of
freedom and being able to do what you want. Whether or not starting a company really gives you very
much freedom is another argument. It is the impression.
“You are on the Internet, which is something that’s big in our generation and not previously. And, you see
these lifestyles people are living and the idea of what freedom really is, and traveling. Again, [it’s] doing
what you want and not being a part of a corporate machine, so to speak, that was definitely the big
attraction for me,” explained Toledo.
Troy D’Ambrosio, executive director of the Lassonde Institute, said that he has seen a big increase in the
number of students entering the entrepreneurial programs at the University of Utah over the past 12
years.
“There has been a big change in attitude among the millennial generation, driven by the desire to have
more control over their career,” he said, attributing the attitude change to millennials watching the
previous generation experience the misfortunes of the recession.
D’Ambrosio said he cannot determine if millennial entrepreneurs are willing to take more risks than those
in previous generations or if the entrepreneurial climate is just less risky, with less capital needed to start
a business, thanks to advances in software.
Similarly, he said it is too early to determine whether the millennial entrepreneurs are more successful
![Pittman works with cities in particular, to provide them with traffic data, allowing them to synchronize
traffic lights more effectively, and for business development purposes. Some of his clients are the
University of Utah and the city of Park City. He plans to cover the majority of the Wasatch Front with his
Blyncs censors this year.
He said the barriers to starting a business have become very minimal, and the support from the
University of Utah was equally crucial for Pittman.
“I would have not started the company without the University of Utah and the Lassonde Institute,” he said,
referring to the nationally ranked business incubator geared toward business innovation. He received a
scholarship to build a business while a student through hands-on learning and also benefited from a grant
through the university’s program called “Get Seeded.” It gave him the capital to start his business. He
received $10,000.
Pittman said that the most important characteristic setting apart his generation from his parents’ is “the
mentality and the mindset.”
“I think differently than they do,” he said. “They grew up in a generation where you found a career and
you entered that career, and I have the mentality that if there is something I want to do, then I’m doing
that.”
Pittman went to law school but decided not to be a lawyer. He didn’t like a Fortune 500 gig that he was
going to get as an MBA student, so he decided to do something different and take a risk.
The question in his mind was never, “Can I do this and is this a risk I can take?” he said. “It was more
like, ‘How do I do it?’” He believes this is one of the most important mentality differences of the millennial
generation.
Another millennial who took a risk is David Toledo. The 27-year-old co-founded Power Practical, a
company that produces portable power solutions and whose flagship product is the Powerpot, which can
charge mobile devices through a USB port by heating water in a lightweight pot.
The technology received over $100,000 on Kickstarter, $250,000 through Mark Cuban companies on
“Shark Tank,” and a lot of mentorship and support through the Lassonde Institute. His success includes
having his product sold in Cabela’s, REI and similar stores.
“The single most useful tool that we have, that previous generations didn’t, is the Internet and Google,
which allows you to become an expert in many, many things that normally we just wouldn’t have access
to,” Toledo said. “By being able to Google, ‘I want to start into this industry, how do you do that?’ you can
do the research and find out.”
Toledo’s path included earning his degree in engineering at the University of Utah in 2010 and pursuing
his Ph.D. in engineering at Cornell University. However, he decided to take a leave of absence and came
back to Salt Lake City when Power Practical’s first product launched into retail.
“Why I wanted to become an entrepreneur was that I was in graduate school. I felt like if I was to work as
hard for myself as an entrepreneur, I could do more in the same amount of time that I could spending it in
graduate school, and, ultimately have more freedom in life after that,” he said.
“For myself, as a millennial, and for other people who are in my generation, it’s kind of this idea of
freedom and being able to do what you want. Whether or not starting a company really gives you very
much freedom is another argument. It is the impression.
“You are on the Internet, which is something that’s big in our generation and not previously. And, you see
these lifestyles people are living and the idea of what freedom really is, and traveling. Again, [it’s] doing
what you want and not being a part of a corporate machine, so to speak, that was definitely the big
attraction for me,” explained Toledo.
Troy D’Ambrosio, executive director of the Lassonde Institute, said that he has seen a big increase in the
number of students entering the entrepreneurial programs at the University of Utah over the past 12
years.
“There has been a big change in attitude among the millennial generation, driven by the desire to have
more control over their career,” he said, attributing the attitude change to millennials watching the
previous generation experience the misfortunes of the recession.
D’Ambrosio said he cannot determine if millennial entrepreneurs are willing to take more risks than those
in previous generations or if the entrepreneurial climate is just less risky, with less capital needed to start
a business, thanks to advances in software.
Similarly, he said it is too early to determine whether the millennial entrepreneurs are more successful](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)