Built with an impressive combination of marble staircases, woven tapestries and unique statues that stand outside the mod elevator system, the School of Management has nothing to hide. But somewhere inside the constant bustle of stressed out students gulping Starbucks on their way to fast-paced simulation games, the Entrepreneurial Management Institute waits patiently for the creative-minded to force their way in.
ENTREPRENEURS-IN-WAITING
Ranked among the top 25 entrepreneurship programs in the United States in Entrepreneur Magazine, the EMI offers students the chance to test their business ideas in a no-pressure atmosphere before venturing into the cutthroat business world. EMI Professor Erik Molander said his Small Business Management class allows teams of students to compete against one another in an online simulation game.
“A student will get to play the role of CEO or Head of Marketing,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to experience the role of CEO in a low-risk environment. Even if the student goes bankrupt, all I do is hit control-alt-delete and reboot them. They learn from the experience and will never make the mistake again.”
According to EMI director Peter Russo, many students do not concentrate in the EMI but take classes with the program because they have an interest in entrepreneurship. He estimates that EMI has about 100 undergraduates, 50 graduates and 50 master’s students.
Using categories that have nothing to do with students’ level of education, Russo envisions three different types of students enrolled in the EMI.
He said the first and smallest group is made up of students who “have a great idea and are thinking of launching a business.”
The second group is made up of students who plan to run their own business in the future but want the security of working for another company before they venture out on their own.
“They want to see what the path is to someday launch their own business,” he said.
Russo’s final category includes students who want to learn more about family businesses.
“They’ll probably go back to the family business,” he said. “But they might launch a revolutionary trend within the family business.”
According to EMI professor Ashley Stevens, a freshman student auditing his graduate-level Technology Commercialization class decided to test his father’s idea for a solar energy device. SMG freshman Samuel Peters took the opportunity to evaluate his father’s device without paying a fee. When it passed with flying colors, his father decided to launch a business.
Stevens said the class gives students “hands-on experience with real life technology” and “introduces them to inventors.”
“It’s a lot of fun, and it’s truly interdisciplinary,” he said. “For science students, it gives them a real grounding and hands-on experience with the business side of technology.”
He said the course is also useful for law, medical and engineering students.
Students spend the first seven weeks of the course evaluating a new invention and the second seven weeks deciding if it can support a business, Stevens said.
Stevens said he receives 120 invention disclosures every year, and his students try to evaluate them.
Students are given a choice of which inventions they want to evaluate, Stevens said.
Undergraduates have to take only two required courses before they can choose from a variety of electives to complete the concentration.
Building self-confidence is the most important tool students gain from the EMI, according to Russo.
“Once they learn what has made other entrepreneurs successful and not, they feel much more comfortable about their own ideas,” he said.
He said the EMI teaches students how to write a business plan that refines their original ideas to create a greater chance for success.
“Most people with an idea who talk their way through a business plan have talked themselves out of the idea,” he said.
FROM VISION TO REALITY
SMG graduate Adam DiNicola pushed his idea for a consulting firm through all the stages of the business plan and started the company Trendline Business Analysts, LLC in Bellingham, MA.
“Professor Russo helped a lot,” DiNicola said. “He helped me get an idea of what I needed to do. He helped me refine my business plan and showed me the holes in it.”
Frustrated with his job at a large financial planning organization, DiNicola felt his ideas were being overlooked and decided he would be more successful on his own.
“Smaller companies don’t always have access to modeling and analysis,” he said.
DiNicola said he knew he could offer smaller companies that service, and he saw a good market for his consulting firm.
According to DiNicola, he faced the same challenges that hinder most entrepreneurs who start their own businesses.
“Like most businesses, it was under-capitalized,” he said. “You have to impress people to finance your endeavor. I had a hard time getting going. My first couple of deals fell through.”
Business is improving drastically for DiNicola, who plans to hire a junior analyst in the end of 2007.
“I think 2007 will be a good year,” he said. “And I’m already getting stretched thin with the hours. I want to break away from the consulting model — being on the outside — and I want to be considered part of the organization.”
Right now, DiNicola is the only permanent member of Trendline Business Analysts, LLC . He said he contracts outside people to help with his database and graphics.
He plans to begin asking for a “straight monthly fee” instead of the hourly rate that he’s been charging his clients.
Despite his close connection to Peter Russo, DiNicola did not graduate from the EMI. He said the program did not exist when he went to BU. He did take a course titled Entrepreneurs taught by Russo.
“It was an interesting course about venture capitalists,” he said. “Professor Russo brought in speakers who were contacts from the private sector. He was a tremendous teacher.”
EMI graduate Ben Cathers, who is currently involved in two businesses, agrees with DiNicola’s assessment of Russo
“I speak to Professor Russo at least two to three times a month,” he said in an email, “and not only consider him a great mentor, but also a great friend.”
Cathers said his access to the BU professor’s networking contacts helped him succeed in the business world.
“I had a beer with a professor at the BU pub when I was stuck in a business quandary,” he said. “We exchanged ideas and he offered me the names of people who can help shed light on my problem.”
Cathers said he is part of an Internet search technology business, SearchRate Technologies, LLC, that has been around for three years and “is currently in alpha testing for a release.”
“It has a patent pending and just hired a new CTO [Chief Technology Officer] from MIT,” he said.
Cathers said he is also the seventh member of a startup Internet company he joined in December 2006. According to Cathers, the company reached its highest sales month to date in January 2007.
Russo’s sphere of influence extends to former SMG students like 2003 SMG graduate Joanna Alberti who have never taken a class with him but still consider him as a mentor.
“I still speak with him,” Alberti said. “I tell him where I am with my business and where I want to go. He gives me the business perspective on what I should think about.
Alberti, who majored in marketing at BU, started her own custom-made card company philoSophies after selling cards to a few friends who were thrilled about the product.
“I enjoy doing this a lot more than what I was doing,” she said, “and I wanted to pursue something that I was passionate about.”
She said the name philoSophies comes from the character Sophy who appears in her cards and the philosophical quotes that inspire both wisdom and humor.
By allowing customers to list characteristics of their friends, Alberti designs cards that are unique to each recipient. She often sets up a table in the stores that sell her cards and creates cards for her customers on the spot.
“That’s real blush on her cheeks,” Alberti said on Monday as she lounged comfortably in a couch at The Queen’s Bee on Newbury Street. As she spoke, she gestured to the faint flush on the face of the girl depicted in her card. “I use Clinique,” she added.
Alberti’s 160 different designs include the categories of birthday, bridal, baby and everyday greeting cards. Despite the company’s base of Rochester, New York, Alberti sells her cards in the Boston stores Flat of the Hill, Mint Julip and Party Favors.
She said she draws the pictures and writes the quotes herself.
“I get my inspiration from friends, situations, trends-basically everything,” she said.
Considered by Business Week Online as one of the top five entrepreneurs under the age of 25 in 2006, Alberti said she enjoys “doing something creative.”
“I’ve been consistent in sales,” she said, “and the company is growing more and more.”