ABCs of Entrepreneurship
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Dr. Mark Zediker, President and CEO, Nuvonyx, Inc., St. Louis, MO |
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Dr. Zediker discusses the critical relationship between success - even with a highly technical business or product - and salesmanship. Nuvonyx's product is compact, high-powered lasers for military, medical and industrial applications. Dr. Zediker seeks to rebut the presumption that many engineers have - that if the technology is complicated enough, or the product made with it is brilliant enough, it will "sell itself." In addition to sales, Dr. Zediker also addresses other critical aspects of entrepreneurship, including personal branding, the importance of strategic partnerships, necessary leadership skills, the elements of a successful company, familiarity with different types of companies, cash flow, investment, and building the right "culture" in your business. A great lecture that covers a wealth of valuable information! |
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Richard Kessler, Esq., Harris, Kessler and Goldstein, Chicago, IL |
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"P3= Entrepreneurship: A Lawyer's Non-Formulaic Perspective of Entrepreneurship in the Private Sector." In this presentation, Mr. Kessler offers a number of examples of successful entrepreneurs with whom he has worked, in order to explore some of the necessary components of entrepreneurship. |
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Prof. Kevin deSouza, Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA |
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Professor DeSouza, an immigrant and successful serial entrepreneur, offers "10 Rules About Entrepreneurship," drawing from his experience starting and growing companies. One of the most interesting aspects of Prof. DeSouza's lecture is his description of how he finds his best employees. His is a real rags-to-riches story, and he offers others the same opportunity! |
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| Basics of Starting a Technology Business |
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Sanjiv Chopra, Chief Operating Office, Intersymbol Communications, Inc., Champaign, IL and Visiting Professor, Technology Entrepreneur Center, UIUC |
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Mr. Chopra describes the work Intersymbol has done in bringing digital signal processing to the optical market, and uses his company to demonstrate some of the key issues in technology entrepreneurship, including opportunity assessment, funding options, investors' interests and goals, competing business models, term sheets in venture capital deals, and exit strategies. |
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| Different Venture Types and Their Characteristics |
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Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu, Ph.D., Director and Professor, Technology Entrepreneur Center, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL |
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Drawing from information written by professors Amar Bhide, Clayton Christensen and others, as well as his own professional experience and scholarly research, Dr. Sidhu explains the different types of ventures, each one's strengths and weaknesses in terms of innovation and commercializing technologies, and each one's needs vis-a-vis growth, leadership and capital requirements. |
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| Elements of a Good Business Model |
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Don Mulder, self-described "serial entrepreneur" |
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Using his personal experience starting and funding new companies, Mr. Mulder offers what he calls the "Four Keys to Success" for any business model. |
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| How to Start a Business |
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Brian Lilly, CEO and Founder of Smart Solutions, Inc. and ErgoTek, Adjunct Associate Professor, Technology Entrepreneur Center, UIUC |
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Brian Lilly, a serial entrepreneur and adjunct professor, uses his personal experience to generate a discussion with the students about How to Start a Business. Brian claims that everyone already knows how to start a business. Watch the lecture to see if that�s true for you! |
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Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship
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Kathryn Burrer Hyer, Esq., Director, Life Sciences, IllinoisVENTURES, Chicago, IL |
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Launching a company in the biotech arena (pharmaceuticals, medical devices) is a much more regulated, complex and vastly more expensive process than in any other high-technology sector. In this lecture, Ms. Hyer gives an overview of the life science industry, explains the regulatory and capitalization challenges unique to this industry, provides dramatic statistics of the expenses associated with starting new companies in this area, and concludes with an explanation of alternative means of commercializing these technologies, as well as providing interesting statistics about venture capital investment in this area in Illinois and nationwide. |
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Business Growth
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Tim Hoerr, President, i-Cyt, Champaign, IL |
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Many entrepreneurs discuss how to start a business. Mr. Hoerr, one of the founders of i-Cyt, talks about the foundations, strategies and opportunities that he views as necessary in order for a company to undertake and achieve successful growth. |
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| Acquisitions |
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Keith Jaffee, CEO of Focus Products Group, LLC, Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Jaffee describes the process of developing Focus Products Group, the decisions that he had to make in order to grow the company, and the key points that he feels are critical in order to be successful as an entrepreneur acquiring other products and companies to expand your business. |
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Corporations, Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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Tom Hulsebosch, Director of Sales and Marketing, Motorola Canopy Group, Schaumburg, IL |
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Mr. Hulsebosch explains how Motorola developed and launched Canopy Wireless from within the company |
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| Intrapreneurship (see also Capitalization from Public and Private Sources) |
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Warren Holtsberg, Corporate Vice President, Equity Investments, Motorola Ventures, Schaumburg, IL |
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Mr. Holtsberg explains how an in-house venture capital fund helps Motorola find and launch companies whose products "complement Motorola�s total business strategy." |
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| Telecommunications |
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Dr. Raj Bansal, Ph.D., Nokia Venture Partners, Washington, DC |
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Dr. Bansal uses his experience with wireless and optical networking investments to demonstrate the analyses larger corporations utilize in order to assess the best markets for their research and development dollars. |
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Entrepreneurs Experiences, General
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Mark Laufenberg, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., President and CEO, PowerWorld Corporation, Champaign, IL |
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PowerWorld Corporation is a successful self-funded software development company based on a technology from the University of Illinois. Dr. Laufenberg talks about his experiences starting and running the company, as well as his plans for its growth. |
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Andrew (Andy) Denenberg, President, DenMac Systems |
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Mr. Denenberg speaks about how he "boot-strapped" one of many companies which he started. His experiences cover engineering, sales, distribution, and partnering. |
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Peter B. Fox, President and Founder, Fox Capital and Fox Development Corporation, Champaign, IL |
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Mr. Fox has been very successful in the "low tech" businesses of restaurants and construction. He uses these experiences to offer advice on starting a company generally. |
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Dave Kellner, Chief Operating Officer, Caviton, Inc., Champaign, IL |
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Caviton, Inc. is a start-up company based upon a technology developed here at the University of Illinois by Dr. Cy Herring, President, founder and Chief Technology Officer of the company. The company develops micro-sensors and analytical equipment. Dr Herring and Mr. Kellner currently run their company from EnterpriseWorks, the incubator located here at UIUC. Mr. Kellner describes their efforts to develop their technologies and launch their company using funds from Small Business Innovation Research grants. |
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Dave Frankel, Founder, Jetstream |
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"My $100 Million MBA" - In his lecture, Mr. Frankel describes the "high highs and low lows" of starting his integrated communications company, Jetstream Communications, including the rapid expansion which led to his company being valued at nearly $1 billion before the economy crashed, and Jetstream's precipitous decline thereafter. |
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Vic Tyagi, Founder and CEO, RapidMedia Network, Inc., Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Tyagi relates the story of his efforts to launch his company, RapidMedia Network, Inc. His lecture emphasizes changes to the original business model in response to unanticipated competition in the same market space, as well as adjusting financial expectations associated with the economic downtown of the early 2000's. |
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Jimmy John Liataud, Founder, Jimmy John�s Gourmet Sandwiches, Champaign, IL |
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In this live interview, moderated by local radio personality Stevie Jay, successful sandwich magnate Jimmy John Liataud describes the painful lessons he learned as a college dropout struggling to launch what has become a $300 million business. Liataud offers his humorous and pithy insights into such concepts as company growth, motivating employees, customer satisfaction, personal success, and personal failure. |
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Dr. Quesnell Hartmann, President, EpiWorks, Champaign, IL |
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Dr. Hartmann explains EpiWorks' product (epitaxial wafers) and market, the company's history. One of the most valuable aspects of Dr. Hartmann's lecture is his description of what it takes for an entrepreneur to survive economic downturns and related hardships, and stay in business. In the process, he offers his observations about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur generally. |
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Stacy Fisher, Sr. Vice President, International Financial Services, Wells Fargo Bank, San Francisco, CA |
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A Fine Arts graduate of the University of Illinois, Ms. Fisher relates her somewhat roundabout career path from a bachelors degree in drama, to doing stand-up at Second City in Chicago, with a part-time job working at Citibank on the trading floor, and eventually to Wells Fargo Bank. In so doing, she not only offers examples of an entrepreneurial approach to one's career, but also tells the story of how two young entrepreneurs, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo created one of the most successful financial institutions in the world. |
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Louis Foreman, CEO, Enventys, Charlotte, NC |
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"From Everyday College Student to to Everyday Edisons." Louis Foreman, an Economics graduate of the University of Illinois, describes the unexpected path to entrepreneurship, starting in college when he was looking for inexpensive printed t-shirts for his lacrosse team, to starting his own screen printing business - while still in college, to building and selling an enormously successful printing business promoting NASCAR events, to advising on Everyday Edisons, a reality show on PBS that documents start-up entrepreneurs. |
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| Myths about Entrepreneurship |
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Paul Magelli, Jr., CEO and Founder, Apertio Inc., Bristol, UK |
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Paul Magelli, Jr., a University of Illinois graduate in Math and Computer Science, describes his experiences launching Apertio. In the process, he addresses what he calls the "Myths and Realities" of Entrepreneurship. |
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| Myths about Entrepreneurship II |
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Paul Magelli, Jr., CEO and Founder, Apertio, Bristol, UK |
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In Mr. Magelli's second stint as a guest lecturer in Lectures in Entrepreneurship, he expands on the growth and development of Apertio, the second company he has started, as well as his insights on "Entrepreneurship Myths and Realities." |
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Entrepreneurship and Economic Development
| Venture Development as a Program |
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Joe Boeddeker, FLAGG, Saratoga, CA |
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Before starting his current company, Mr. Boeddeker managed The Enterprise Network (TEN), an extremely successful incubator in San Jose, California. Drawing from years of experience developing programs for incubators, Mr. Boeddeker' explains what principles and resources are necessary to have a successful venture development program, and debunks some of the myths surrounding what constitutes "success" and "failure" in entrepreneurship and economic development. |
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Family Businesses and Entrepreneurship
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Brian Lilly, BS, MS, Ph.D., President, Smart Solutions, Inc., Visiting Associate Professor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Technology Entrepreneur Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
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Recent statistics indicate that over three-quarters of the corporations in the United States are closely-held. Many of these are family businesses. A serial entrepreneur, Dr. Lilly explains some of the unique characteristics of the family-owned business, and the distinctive concerns for entrepreneurs in family-owned businesses. |
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Finance
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John Lafferty, CPA, MBA, Founder and President, CFO-Pro, Naperville, IL |
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Mr. Lafferty presents financial strategies for starting or acquiring a business, including managing personal cash flow, preparing a marketing plan for the business, projecting financial results, and dealing with growth. Mr. Lafferty advises would-be entrepreneurs to pay particular attention to accurate breakeven-point calculations, key performance indicators and cash-flow projections. |
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Funding
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Robert S. Collins, Esq., Associate, Gordon & Glickson, PC, Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Collins gives a general overview of the legal and financial issues associated with obtaining venture capital. |
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Rich Cline, CEO, Hometown America, LLC, Chicago, IL |
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"Capital: What it is, why you need it, and how to get it." Mr. Cline uses his personal experience as a banker and interest in real estate to become a principal in the nation's largest manufactured housing company. In this presentation, he describes the need for capital in any young business. |
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| Angel Investment |
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William H (Bill) Payne, CEO, WHP Enterprises, Las Vegas, NV |
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Mr. Payne is a long-time angel investor. He explains the role of angel investors as one link in the "capital food chain." |
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| Federal Government Grants |
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Joseph Scroppo, Client Services Manager, TRECC, West Chicago, IL |
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"The ABC's of Funding from Federal Agencies." Mr. Scroppo explains how to obtain funding with Broad Agency Announcements (BAA's), Small Business Innovation Research grants (SBIR's) and other government-based funding sources. |
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| Private Foundations |
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Robert Chernow, Senior Vice President, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO |
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Mr. Chernow has many years of experience starting businesses, including experience in the Peace Corps helping Brazilian fishermen form cooperatives. He joined the Kauffman Foundation in 2002 to help them advance their mission to foster entrepreneurship and improve education across the United States. Mr. Chernow explains the Kauffman Foundation's underlying principles, its mission, and its commitment to greater public awareness of entrepreneurship and its benefits to society. |
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| University Support |
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John Banta, CEO, IllinoisVENTURES, Champaign and Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Banta explains the purpose of and services provided by IllinoisVENTURES. He also provides his views on venture financing generally. |
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| Venture Capital |
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Jon Burgstone, Managing Director and co-founder, Chronos Capital |
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Mr. Burgstone, an entrepreneur who sold his first company, SupplierMarket.com for over $900 million, articulates his views on venture funding and his experiences with Sequoia and other leading venture firms. |
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| Venture Capital |
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Amol Deshpande, Cargill Ventures, Minneapolis, MN |
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Mr. Deshpande, a venture capitalist in Minnesota, offers a general overview of venture capital, the role it plays in entrepreneurship, and how it is distinguishable from other forms of capital infusions. |
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| What a business needs to have for funding |
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Joseph Beatty, CFO, Telular Corporation, Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Beatty received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from UIUC, and has spent his entire career in the telecommunications industry, first in established enterprises, and then he and some friends decided to start a business. They went from "4 guys in a rented office" to a public company with 1200 employees, and a valuation of $1 billion. In his presentation, he starts by outlining what he views as essential attributes of entrepreneurship, and then devotes the rest of his talk to the elements that are necessary for a business to obtain funding |
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Humor
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Barry Moltz, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, founder of Prairie Angels, and best-selling author of "You Need to be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Business," Chicago, IL |
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"You Need to be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Business." In this lecture, Mr. Moltz offers a glimpse into some of the humorous - and true - anecdotes from his experience as an entrepreneur that have made his book and speaking tour such a success. While Mr. Moltz' stories and delivery style are unquestionably amusing, his lecture contains serious and poignant truths about the challenges entrepreneurs face in both their professional and personal lives. |
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Innovation
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Robert Price, former CEO, Control Data, and author, The Eye for Innovation |
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Bob Price draws on 40 years' experience in industry to discuss innovation and its relationship to entrepreneurship. |
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International Entrepreneurship
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Herbert Chang, Managing Partner, PTI Ventures, Fremont, CA |
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Mr. Chang explains how companies are being transported out of the US to Asian markets which are more suitable for IPOs and acquisitions |
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Raymond Chin, Chairman of the Board, MTone Wireless, Santa Clara, CA and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China |
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Dr. Chin offers his experience running a company that is located in both the United States and the Far East. In his lecture he emphasizes how change creates opportunities for corporate growth and expansion. He covers such points as building a sales and distribution network for technological advances, government and regulatory changes, social, political and economic changes that offer business opportunities, team-building and a strategic vision. |
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Leadership/CEOs
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Lynn Reedy, CTO and Vice President for Product Development (ret'd), eBay, San Francisco, CA |
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A Computer Science alumna, Ms. Reedy offers her insights into what it takes for an executive to be successful at a high-growth company. |
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| CEO Skills |
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Brad Mottier, Unison Industries, Jacksonville, FL |
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Mr. Mottier, a UIUC graduate with a masters in General Engineering tells a great story about how a research project for a professor turned into a position at an aviation company; a company which he went on to run, and which was eventually acquired by General Electric. Mr. Mottier emphasizes the leadership skills necessary to take a company through many different stages, including growth, economic downturns, extensive patent infringement litigation, and acquisition. |
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| Critical Decision Making |
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Dr. Tony Lewis, Founder and CEO, Iguana Robotics, Inc., Champaign, IL |
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Using his own company, Iguana Robotics, as an example, Dr. Lewis describes the various points in the lifecycle of a start-up company, and the decisions that must be made along the way, including when and how to fund the company, what products to develop and what markets to target for those products, who to hire, and how to hire them. |
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Legal Issues in Entrepreneurship
| Company Formation |
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Alan Singleton, JD, licensed patent attorney and partner, Singleton Law Firm, P.C.
One East Main, Suite 215, Champaign, IL 61820, 217-352-3900 phone, 217-352-4900 fax, singleton@singleton.law.pro e-mail. |
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Mr. Singleton addresses the fundamental methods of organizing a company and discusses issues of ownership, management and control of the company, as well as tax and risk implications. |
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| Intellectual Property, General |
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Alan Singleton, JD, licensed patent attorney and partner, Singleton Law Firm, P.C.
One East Main, Suite 215, Champaign, IL 61820, 217-352-3900 phone, 217-352-4900 fax, singleton@singleton.law.pro e-mail. |
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Mr. Singleton addresses the fundamentals of intellectual property including patent issues, copyrights, and trademarks. Some strategy is discussed. |
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| Intellectual Property, General |
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Marvin Benn, Esq., Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, PC, Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Benn, an intellectual property attorney, gives a very exhaustive overview of the four main types of intellectual property protection: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. |
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| Intellectual Property, Trademarks |
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Tim Lavender, Esq., Kelley, Drye & Warren, Chicago, IL |
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In this fun (and controversial!) lecture, Mr. Lavender describes some of the trademark infringement issues associated with search engines' business model, and Google's in particular. He describes in some detail a trademark infringement lawsuit between American Blind and Wallpaper and Google. |
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| Intellectual Property, University Issues |
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Mike Fritz, Director, Office of Technology Management, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
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Mr. Fritz explains intellectual property rights for students and faculty within the university setting, as well as the role of the Office of Technology Management, and the services it offers. |
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| Term Sheets in Venture Capital |
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Robert S. Collins, Esq., Associate, Gordon & Glickson, LLC, Chicago, IL |
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A "term sheet" is the contract between venture capitalists and the companies they fund, whereby in exchange for the money the venture capitalists bring to the venture, they acquire important ownership and management rights and responsibilities. What are these rights and responsibilities? What do the original owners and founders retain? How much of the typical term sheet is negotiable? In this lecture, Mr. Collins addresses these and other questions, and explains some of the typical terms and conditions in such contracts. |
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Market Research
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Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht, Inventables, Inc. |
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These two twenty-something entrepreneurs describe how they caught the "entrepreneurship bug" while here at UIUC, and the many iterations their current company has taken. Their lecture places a particular emphasis on the role of market research and determining customer need in product and service development. For more about their company, please see http://www.inventables.com. |
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Markets and Marketing
| Identifying Your Market |
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Jack Philbin, Founder and CEO, Vibes, Chicago, IL |
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At the ripe old age of 29, Mr. Philbin had already been an entrepreneur and business owner for 8 years. He describes Vibes' business in text messaging and "mobile marketing," and uses his experience to explain the importance of defining your business model, identifying your market, establishing a revenue stream, maintaining profitability, and surviving during the tough times. |
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| Identifying Your Market |
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Neil Kane, CEO, Advanced Diamond Technologies, Romeoville, IL |
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Mr. Kane, a serial entrepreneur, former venture capitalist and former CEO-in-residence for IllinoisVENTURES, describes the process of building Advanced Diamond Technologies, and defining the market for their primary product - thin film diamond. |
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Product Development
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John Brewer, Xindium Technologies, Inc., Chicago, IL |
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Mr. Brewer, a CEO brought in by the venture capital firm funding Xindium, addresses the misconceptions engineers and inventors frequently hold about the difference between having a device (or a technology, generally) and a product - with a market and paying customers. He explains what he calls the "Four P's" pf a product: people, pricing, placement and promotion. He also discusses many of the perils and pitfalls of developing your management team. |
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Paul Tomaszek, President, General Assembly and Manufacturing, Cary, IL |
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Mr. Tomaszek gives a very in-depth description of his company, which produces products, packaging and assemblies across a broad variety of industries, including automotive, consumer products, construction, electronics, medical and military applications. Mr. Tomaszek analyzes the components of a successful product-based business. |
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John Schlafer, retired |
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Mr. Schlafer, an engineer with experience in both large and small companies, describes the relationship between entrepreneurship and product development. |
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Neil Kane, CEO, Advanced Diamond Technologies, Romeoville, IL |
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Mr. Kane, a serial entrepreneur, former venture capitalist and former CEO-in-residence for IllinoisVENTURES, describes the process of building Advanced Diamond Technologies, and defining the market for their primary product - thin film diamond. |
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Profits/Cash Flow
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Ray Guerin, COO, Reyes Holdings, LLC, Rosemont, IL |
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With a B.S. in General Engineering from UIUC and an MBA from Northwestern, Mr. Guerin is the Chief Operating Officer for the largest beer distributorship in the state of Illinois. He lectures in this presentation on the necessity of profitability. |
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Psychology of the Entrepreneur
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Dr. Tony Mendes, Executive Director, Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, UIUC |
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Dr. Mendes, an entrepreneur and educator with a Ph.D. in psychology, presents some truly enlightening material in this lecture on the psychological profile of the entrepreneur: character traits, disposition, perspectives and viewpoints. In so doing, he debunks some of the myths about entrepreneurs (for example, that they enjoy taking risks) and compares the entrepreneurial style of venture management with the administrative style. A great way for the aspiring entrepreneur to evaluate his or her personality and suitability for being an entrepreneur! |
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Stephen Blakely, Co-founder, Neurovision Medical Products, Inc., Rea Technologies, Inc., O'Fallon, MO. |
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"Industrial Sweat and Magic." In this lecture, Blakely, a 1969 BSME from the University of Illinois, relates his own experiences as an entrepreneur, and extrapolates from them the motivations, traits and characteristics that make for a successful entrepreneur. |
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Research Tools for Entrepreneurs
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Linda Ackerson, Assistant Engineering Librarian and Associate Professor, Library Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
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Linda discusses tools for market and intellectual property research at the University of Illinois libraries. In the second half of the presentation, Yoo-Seong Song covers Market Research Tools available in the College of Business Library. |
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Sales
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Curley Lee, Owner and President, Ford of Champaign, Champaign, IL |
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Former NBA basketball player Curley Lee uses this lecture to present a bit of what he calls "Lee-ology" - his philosophy of life and business. In particular, Lee offers personal and professional anecdotes to demonstrate that no matter how brilliant the entrepreneur or technically sophisticated the product is, a venture cannot be successful without understanding the critical role of sales and customer service. |
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Strategic Planning
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Thomas Lewicki, Serial Entrepreneur and Consultant, Mahomet, IL |
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Mr. Lewicki was one of the original members of the management team of Spyglass, the company that commercialized Mosaic, the web browser developed here at the University of Illinois. Since that time, he has gone on to be involved in a number of other start-ups. In this lecture, he discusses the importance of planning, action and communication in building a business. |
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Success
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Jim Vaselopulos, Vice President, PSC Group, LLC, Schaumburg, IL |
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Mr. Vaselopulos devotes this lecture to the definition of 'success': what it is, how each person defines it, and how it relates to entrepreneurship and other undertakings in life. If you haven't yet considered what you view 'success' to be - or even if you have - this is a great lecture to watch! |
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Tom Varga, Managing Partner, 4th Floor Investment Group LLC, Chicago, IL |
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"Success ... is a CHOICE." Mr. Varga, a first-generation American, relates his parents' experience as immigrants from Hungary, and how this has shaped his definition of success as an entrepreneur and a person. |
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Technology Commercialization
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Andrew Singer, Ph.D., Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Director, Technology Entrepreneur Center; President, InterSymbol, Inc. |
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Professor Singer, an entrepreneur as well as tenured professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, describes the process of technology commercialization at the University of Illinois - the resources available, the process of licensing or launching a business from a technology developed at UIUC, and related issues. |
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Video |
University of Illinois Resources
| Faculty |
| Speaker: |
Nan Goggin, Art & Design; William Patterson, African-American Studies; Bill Hammack, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering |
| Topic: |
"Entrepreneurial Faculty: It's Not a Contradiction in Terms." In this panel discussion, three faculty members from disciplines across campus discuss the entrepreneurial ventures they have launched, and the unique challenges associated with trying to take an entrepreneurial approach in an institution of higher education. |
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Video |
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| Incubators |
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Scott Pickard, Manager, EnterpriseWorks, Champaign, IL |
| Topic: |
Mr. Pickard manages the University of Illinois' incubator, EnterpriseWorks. His lecture is an explanation of the role of an incubator in the life of a startup company, as well as what EntrepriseWorks does specifically here at UIUC. |
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Video |
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| Leadership/CEOs |
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Neil Kane, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Illinois Ventures LLC, Champaign, IL |
| Topic: |
Mr. Kane describes his current position as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" for Illinois Ventures, and how he acts as a "floating CEO" for three young companies in Enterprise Works, the University of Illinois� new business incubator. Kane also explains how his background, education and interests provide a good fit for this role. |
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Video |
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| Research Parks |
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John B. Parks, Former Director, Research Park at UIUC, Champaign, IL |
| Topic: |
Mr. Parks has managed the research parks at Iowa State and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the spring of 2004 he accepted the position of manager of the research park at the University of Kentucky at Lexington. Mr. Parks' lecture explains the role of a research park in university technology transfer efforts and economic development. His emphasis is on the Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, its current capacity, and its plans for future expansion. |
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Video |
University Resources
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| Speaker: |
Dr. Andrew Singer, Founder, Intersymbol Communications, Inc., Champaign, IL |
| Topic: |
Professor Singer, an entrepreneur as well as tenured professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, describes the process of technology commercialization at the University of Illinois - the resources available, the process of licensing or launching a business from a technology developed at UIUC, and related issues. |
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Video |
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| Economic Development |
| Speaker: |
Michael Tokarz, CEO, The Tokarz Group, NY |
| Topic: |
Michael Tokarz, a graduate of the College of Business at the University of Illinois and a board member of IllinoisVENTURES, describes the series of resources available at the University of Illinois, and the role that those resources, including financing, play in economic development. |
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Video |
Women and Entrepreneurship
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| Speaker: |
Tricia Mills Gray, Cofounder and Vice President of Software, UserActive, Champaign, IL |
| Topic: |
Ms. Gray offers her advice for what to expect when starting a company, with particular emphasis on adjusting unrealistic expectations, dealing with economic downturns, and adapting your company's core products and services to meet the market demand. Ms. Gray's lecture also provides perspective on when � and when not � to pursue the "big client," keeping your focus on your company's short-term and long-term goals and objectives. The discussion following this lecture also features a lively debate on the pros and cons of accepting outside funding. |
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Video |
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