SVP Week 8: Developing Entrepreneurial Resilience
The entrepreneurial journey is filled with ups and downs as ventures work towards their launches and generate early traction. As SVP entrepreneur Joshua Hong shared with us in an interview, “The entrepreneur’s marathon is never a straight line, but a zig zag filled with pivots.” During their time in the Summer Venture Program, many of the SVP teams have been met with challenging but exciting pivots to their original business models. Here’s a look into how the Summer Venture Program helped this group of entrepreneurs build their resilience during last week’s programming.
Entrepreneur Diane Hessan inspires the cohort to be resilient,
with stories and insights from her journey founding C Space.
Monday, July 8th
- SVP teams were visited by C Space founder and accomplished entrepreneur Diane Hessan for Monday’s Lunch & Learn session at WeWork. From surviving the fallout of the Dot Com Bubble to calmly handling a difficult case of employee deceit, Hessan’s entrepreneurial journey building C Space required extraordinary resilience. Reflecting on her own experiences and those of startups she has since advised, Hessan offered SVP founders her advice for developing their own resilience.
Tuesday, July 9th
- For our final Hot Seat of the summer, founder Caleb Wursten practiced his venture Daybreak‘s Showcase presentation at Babson Boston. With our Showcase event less than two weeks away, Caleb’s SVP peers and mentors offered timely and valuable feedback!
Caleb Wursten shares Daybreak’s benefits for corporate partners during his Hot Seat pitch.
- Mark Rizzo, VP of Business Banking at Citizens Bank, provided office hours for SVP businesses. Rizzo has extensive experience working with startups and small businesses and provided key insights to the SVP ventures he met with on Tuesday. Citizens Bank is a proud Gold Sponsor of the 2019 Summer Venture Program.
Wednesday, July 10th
- The Summer Venture Program was visited by consultants from BASE (Babson Alumni Supporting Entrepreneurs) for office hours at WeWork. Thank you to BASE consultants Dustan Bonnin, Ned Daubney, Patrick Gregorius, and Sharlene Sones for providing feedback and advice to the participating ventures!
TopForm founder Mike Carlson shares his startup’s journey with the entrepreneurial youth of the Boston Leadership Institute.
- Babson Speech Center consultant Dr. Andrew Tollison provided the latest set of office hours in his on-going work with the Summer Venture Program. Dr. Tollison has been an incredible resource as the ventures submitted their ePitch application videos this week and continue to prepare for July 25th’s Showcase.
- Alisson Amaral of CollegeSpot and Mike Carlson and Peter-Paul Grootens of TopForm presented for a visiting group of young entrepreneurs from the Boston Leadership Institute. The SVP entrepreneurs shared their successes and struggles with the kids, who responded with many great questions. During such a busy week for their ventures, we are grateful that Alisson, Mike, and Peter-Paul volunteered their time to inspire the group of future entrepreneurs.
Thursday, July 11th
Entrepreneur and angel investor David Chang teaches the SVP cohort how to seek funding for their ventures.
- SVP teams were treated to a second Lunch & Learn this week, this time at Babson Boston! The SVP cohort received advice from entrepreneur, angel investor, and former SVP program dirctor David Chang about raising funds for their ventures’ growth. In his presentation, Chang walked businesses through the many different avenues for acquiring funding and explained the best practices for networking with potential investors.
- Alumni entrepreneur Chris Jacobs provided office hours for SVP ventures at Babson Boston. The founder of Honest Discounts and a member of eTower‘s advisory board, Jacobs was an excellent source of feedback for the SVP teams.
Next week, the SVP teams will continue to prepare for the Venture Showcase with their mentors and advisors. Babson’s Les Charm will be visiting for a Lunch & Learn session on assembling boards.
You can see the Summer Venture Program’s cohort of innovative startups pitch at our Summer Venture Showcase on Thursday, July 25th at the Federal Reserve Building in Boston. To register visit bit.ly/2019svp. We hope to see you there!
To stay up to date with the latest SVP happenings and updates about our Showcase event, follow @babsoneship and #babsonsvp on Twitter and Instagram.