Inventureship™ Opportunity with Alumni Business for Veterans
Alex Corindia MBA’19, Graduate Student Fellow at The Lewis Institute.
When the Inventureship™ program was launched in 2016, it was a first-of-its-kind opportunity to connect students with social enterprises and companies seeking a greater social impact. The mandate to students was clear: apply the Babson Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology on a strategic level to add rocket fuel to these organizations. The program has already shown significant, tangible results in enterprises like Magnomer, Iroquois Valley Farms, and Greyston Bakery.
Courtney Wilson, MBA’17
DropZone Founder & CEO
Enter DropZone for Veterans. Founded by Babson alumna Courtney Wilson MBA’17, DropZone provides an online platform connecting veterans to the tens of thousands of free and low-cost programs and discounts available to them through non-governmental organizations, from coding boot camps to discounts at Under Armour. Think of it as Groupon for veterans. As a former United States Army Engineer Captain and combat veteran awarded the Bronze Star Medal for her service in Afghanistan, Courtney was the perfect person to lead this powerful venture.
Now, Courtney is inviting Babson MBA students to participate in a paid Inventureship™ that explores how Babson’s student veteran population could be leveraged to ignite innovation and activate changemakers within the Babson community and beyond. It’s a multi-faceted, complicated challenge, so the students will be interfacing with multiple civilian and military stakeholders, conducting research, and ultimately creating what they believe to be the solution to this problem.
For Courtney, an Inventureship™ represented the perfect opportunity to stay engaged with Babson and leverage the knowledge and passion of The Lewis Institute’s changemakers. DropZone is the perfect application for a platform model, and like any platform, its success is inextricably linked with the power of its network. As she builds the supply-side of the network of over 50,000 benefits, building a true community of veterans is paramount.
What’s more, DropZone has the potential to open up new networks to make more porous the divides that have stood between veterans and non-veterans. As DropZone opens up new opportunities for veterans, they can start to define themselves in new ways. The Inventureship™ is just one step towards this goal.
Not only is DropZone creating a significant social impact, but Courtney discovered a massive market opportunity that had been left untapped. DropZone opens an entirely new marketing channel for the brands on its platform — meaning this big opportunity could mean big profits.
Applicants from all work background experiences are welcome to apply. Ideal candidates are operationally focused and comfortable dealing with, and executing multi-layer, complex plans. Please email your resume to Courtney@DropZoneForVeterans.com by April 25 with “Inventureship” as the subject of the email.