Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

Earlier this week, we featured student entrepreneur, Brooks Gabel. Brooks is in the process of launching his startup justlikeyou.org, a non-profit organization providing a free and anonymous social network for people 13 years and older going through the coming out process. Brooks told us about his upcoming crowdfunding campaign using Indiegogo where he’ll be raising $50K. This begs the question, who should entrepreneurs go to for funding: the experts or the crowd.

One of the strategic missions of the Dingman Center is the bridge the gap between research and practice. By welcoming Dr. Rajshree Agarwal as academic director last year, the Center has been working more closely with faculty to support their research and better connect them to rest of our community. One way we do this is through the Dingman Research Seminar Series. Inter-disciplinary in nature and drawing from all departments from across the Smith School, the series highlights professors who received summer research grants from the Dingman Center.

Last semester we hosted a Research and Practice Seminar that facilitated interaction between faculty, Dingman Center Angel investors, and students from the undergraduate, graduate, and PhD levels. Professor Siva Viswanathan led the discussion presenting his research titled Who you gonna call: The experts or the crowd? In short, his presentation described the basic differences between funding from angel investors or venture capitalists and funding from the crowd. Here are some highlights from Professor Viswanathan’s research:

• There were 536 active crowdfunding markets worldwide with total revenue in the trillions. Despite these numbers, the crowd relies on experts to help make optimal decisions. Without expertise, how does the crowd know if they are making a good investment? How can they decide which entrepreneurs are trustworthy and worthwhile?
• Angels and VCs provide the valuable expertise needed to influence decision making.
• Crowdfunding platforms creating additional risk for investors while simultaneously providing an easier means of fundraising for startups.
• Crowdfunding markets can overcome these obstacles in a well designed market with access to the right set of information.
• The crowd is sophisticated enough to distinguish between experts and nonexperts, so intelligently designed crowdfunding markets can remain very active.

Knowing those basic factors, who do you call? The experts or the crowd? We hosted a panel discussion to find out.

L-R: Jason Shrensky, Siva Viswanathan, Ed Barrientos

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, Ed Barrientos and Jason Shrensky, weighed in with their perspectives as angel investors and presented opposing views. Ed’s view was that the angel investing community is very different than it was 15 years ago. Before, you had to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to be an angel investor. Now, younger people can invest $10K and call themselves an angel investor. With the emergence of crowdfunding technologies, this minimum is even lower. Jason argues that less people are participating than you think, so startups shouldn’t rely too heavily on crowdfunding. He also points out that when angels invest in a company they are involved in some way. They may hold regular meetings with the CEO or even intervene. This monitoring provides a necessary pressure for the startup that you don’t get with crowd funding. 

But, why do people contribute via crowdfunding and why do startups like it? Ed argues that some platforms provide the structure that startups need to close deals. Even if there is interest from potential investors, a deal may never close because entrepreneurs are bad with logistics. Technology like Angelsoft helps. Board Member and Dingman Center Angel, Bill Boyle, adds that some people are interested in crowdfunding not for the return but because they want to support a business, cause, or entrepreneur they believe in. The group agreed that crowdfunding is good for social entrepreneurship, but it does not yet replace traditional funding methods for companies.

For now, the research and debate will continue. As we host additional research seminars we will keep our readers informed on hot topics such as this one.

Are you interested in attending the next Research and Practice Luncheon? Stay connected with the Dingman Center  

Today marks the second week of Liz Sara’s Business to Business Marketing course in the Smith School’s part-time MBA program. One reason the Dingman Center is so excited to have a member of our community teaching this course is that we don’t get to interact with part-time MBAs as often as we do with students that are on the College Park campus everyday. Through this course, we are able to extend our reach even further and gain more insight into what is valuable for part-time MBA students.

The most recent class focused on the use of PR and advertising in B2B marketing. Guest speakers included: Tim Weinheimer, SVP, Ketchum; Joshua Konowe, CEO, Uppidy; and Chuck Ludmer, CMO, CohnReznick. That’s right — three executives in one night. One from a leading PR firm, another from a successful DC tech startup, and the third from the 11th largest accounting, tax and advisory firm in the United States. Arguably the most valuable part of this course is this type of face-to-face interaction with regional companies used as real case studies.

Weinheimer talked about the $21M, three-year campaign that Ketchum developed to get doctors across the country to adopt electronic medical records. Ludmer discussed the challenges in building company awareness and how former NY Yankee Joe Torre fit into the picture.

“Hearing first-hand about the actual plans and executions of two very large, very different and very challenging B2B PR and ad campaigns adds a learning dimension that a textbook simply lacks,” Sara emphasized.

We wanted to know what the students thought so we asked them, how Lecturer Liz Sara’s approach to bringing in local startups as presenters impacted the learning experience?” Second-year MBA student Havish Kakumanu had this to say:

 “In my one and a half years of education at College Park, I never had an opportunity to listen to entrepreneurs who presented their story as part of a course. Liz’s course was the first of its kind where we as students had a great opportunity to hear and understand the learning experience of these entrepreneurs, especially in the field of marketing. The speakers were very insightful and informative and this gives us a wholesome perspective of how small successful firms carry out B2B marketing. I personally feel that this a great teaching methodology and should be practiced more often.”

The class continues today with two more entrepreneurs who will compliment Sara’s lecture by sharing their experiences. Stay tuned for more dispatches from inside the classroom.

Best Marketing’s Liz Sara, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Dingman Center of Entrepreneurship, is using her long-time experience in marketing and entrepreneurship to teach a winter-term course in the MBA program at the Smith School of Business. The course, “Business to Business Marketing,” features an experiential learning environment leveraging outside speakers and Sara’s clients from the local community’s thriving technology and startup sector. It takes place at the Smith School’s DC campus at the Ronald Reagan Building. During the course, 14 CEO’s will present actual marketing case studies featuring their company.

“There is no better way for these MBA students to learn how to tackle the numerous marketing challenges facing every company than by hearing the war stories and the success stories from the CEOs and executives themselves,” explains Sara. “I am delighted that so many of them are willing to share their experiences and devote their time.”

The course kicks off today covering value propositions for business buyers and the top ways to differentiate. Two DC entrepreneurs will serve as guest speakers: Jeff Fehrman, Chief Strategy Officer, Mindseye and Eric Koefoot, CEO, Public Relay. Stay tuned to our blog for updates on this exciting course from Sara, her students, and guest speakers from DC’s leading startups.

Liz Sara has 20 years of experience in the local high tech community as an entrepreneur, business leader, angel investor and philanthropist. In 2001, she founded Best Marketing, LLC to provide early stage software companies with strategic marketing, PR and business development services. Her company offers clients all the benefits of a full-scale, seasoned marketing department on a ‘virtual’ basis — eliminating overhead and headcount associated with full-time staff. Previously, she played a principal role as co-founder of SpaceWorks, an eCommerce software company, where she facilitated its startup and growth to nearly $25 million in revenue; at America Online, where she designed the PR program and investor road show for the IPO; at United Press International, where she facilitated a turn-around strategy; and for LEXIS/NEXIS, where she was instrumental in the creation and successful launch of a new division. Ms. Sara holds an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland. She is a member of the Business & Professional Women’s Committee of the Corcoran; the Women’s Committee of National Museum of Women In the Arts; and the Board of the Capital City Ball. In addition, Ms. Sara is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

The Dingman Center operates like a startup, always iterating and trying new things. We hosted a lot of great events this semester with audiences from all corners of our community of entrepreneurs. So we want to know, what was your favorite event of the semester? The poll below lists some of the most popular — pick no more than three. Thanks for the feedback!