Entrepreneurship at UTSA

10 year olds get it, so why not adults?

aleffel — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:09:36 +0000

The latest Daily Stat from the Harvard Business Review reports that by age 10 children have developed the awareness of the tactics that advertisers use to capture their attention. This was a study, that though in its infancy (ha!) says a lot about advertisers! But what grabs my tickle bone is that by the time these kids are adults, “we” don’t get it!

Here’s the link to the study, and here is the Stat:

AUGUST 31, 2011
Ten-Year-Olds Can See Through Advertisers’ Tactics
By age 10, children are able to discern advertisers’ tactics for getting their attention and making them want to buy, according to research led by Esther Rozendaal of the Amsterdam School of Communications Research in the Netherlands. The study of 209 children also showed that when it comes to the tactic of celebrity endorsements, 10-year-olds are significantly better at grasping advertisers’ intentions than adults. At age 10, children tend to develop an ability to see others’ perspectives and reason abstractly, the researchers say.

Students-turned-entrepreneurs in TechCon: Free admission

aleffel — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:43:45 +0000

Not too late to make it to make it to TechCon2011 free (click here). TechCon International works to expose new technologies developed, sold and implemented in Texas to businesses and consumers. And one such business on exhibit is our very own PREE, started by former UTSA students from the Small Business Entrepreneurship program.

Two products to mention, the PREEcharge™ wireless charger and the Baby M.A.T™ wireless baby monitor. Both products were designed by engineers in the College of Engineering and competed in the $100K New Technology Student Venture Competition, and both placed!

Don’t skip this opportunity to see some of the newest technologies being developed right here. Visit with Matt Jackson, Amanda DeKay and Edward Rigas, and then you can one day about the students-turned-entrepreneurs, “I knew them when…”

The Best Work Space For Creativity

aleffel — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:46:02 +0000

I’m not one to complain about my surroundings when it comes to using the creative side of my mind. I have designed the perfect work space. My job allows me the freedom to develop my work space to accommodate the kind of person that I am.
A recent article in Mashable highlights the kind of work spaces we need to see in San Antonio.
A workplace for developing camaraderie. The best work is done by a team that gets along, and the work space enhances or detracts from building a collegial environment, not to mention fun!
Or a work space that inspires creativity. Sometimes it is hard enough to be creative on demand, but when we have to sit behind a desk in a cubicle, forget it.

The article is full of wonderful examples of workspace, being used by people who love to work with each other, and who are creative in everything they do, even the mundane!

ahh! The best employee of all.

What’s wrong with this picture, I mean Patent?

aleffel — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:43:36 +0000

A recent Tech Crunch article, The Terrible Costs of Patents, created some conflict for me. The jest of the article references the high cost of patenting technology products. Companies like Google and Apple, and start-ups alike, spend exorbitant amount of money to use as or to protect from the weapon “against the rising tide of patent litigation”. But when you realize that technology products, or anything you can think of, comes from the ideas of others. (Read Where Good Ideas Come From, by Stephen Johnson, to help you see the picture.)

From the TechCrunch article:

Patents were originally conceived to protect inventors—people and companies who contribute to the advancement of society by creating new products. But in the past decade, something went horribly wrong. Patents have increasingly became nothing more than financial and legal weapons, to be amassed in portfolios by “non-practicing entities” (i.e. patent trolls) and used to extort protection money from economically productive companies.

And of course, patent trolls have a 55.6 percent success rate in cases in the Eastern District of Texas. Is this the way Texas has become an entrepreneurial state?

What do you think?

San Antonio, an entrepreneurial hub

aleffel — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:38:40 +0000

The Wall Street Journal published a recent article on entrepreneurial hubs across the United States entitled Where the Action Is. Just as one born into a certain family has more opportunities than someone less fortunate, in the world of business, there are certain benefits to starting a business in a certain area of the country. Though we can’t change who we were born to, we can change where we start and grow a business. And this article is keen on identifying the various hubs around the country. San Antonio made that list as a hub for cyber security.

The benefit of a hub as the author indicated: Entrepreneurs are moving there and flourishing in the teeth of a bleak economy. The cities, in turn, are nurturing the entrepreneurs by giving them access to funding, mentors and facilities.
One particular entrepreneur identified in this article, who moved his company from Phoenix to San Antonio said:

“I’d attribute a lot of our success to the location,” he says. “I think the availability of cybersecurity talent and the low-cost of doing business here has helped us. And because there are so many different cybersecurity companies, we have improved each other’s business through partnerships.”

The more small businesses develop and flourish, the more they attract more entrepreneurs and more available financial support. What we are still missing is what is available in places like Boston or the Silicon Valley: people tripping over each other to mentor, advise, and otherwise support new start-ups.

More on Twitter… a free book and webinar!

aleffel — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:29:07 +0000

Yesterday the post referred to Twitter, and just this morning I read the author of a new book on social media effectiveness is offering a webinar and his book free. I’ve already downloaded and began to read it, and have signed up to hear his presentation. From the website:

You’ll learn how to build your reach, engineer contagious ideas and measure your results, through data-backed, scientifically-proven best practices.

If you’re interested in learning more about the productivity and successes using Twitter, Facebook and other social media, check out the webinar today, and download his book for free from Amazon. (The bunny is for a reason!)

66 million productive uses of Twitter?

aleffel — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:35:15 +0000

So I have students who will be required this semester to learn about Twitter. Why you ask? (Actually, those who ask need the same assignment as my students.)

Just yesterday, I saw a great infographic from Mashable (check out the story) which will support me as I explain to those students who ask, “But why do I need to know this?”

The author of the Mashable article not only claims he’s addicted to Twitter, but is searching for a 12-step program to help him break his addiction. Lab42 (https://lab42.com/), an online research firm, conducted the survey on the use of Twitter. The truth is, we use Twitter because someone else we know uses Twitter. Google the question How to use Twitter productively, and you’ll get 66,300,000 opinions.

Whether you are the young grad tweeting about the happenings in city council and around the city government, or the guy who just let us know “just got up, showered and off to work” (whatever!), Twitter offers immediate information. The headline across my desktop this morning reads “Libya: Latest Tweets Say Rebels Are Moving Into Tripoli“. And I tweet to promote a university program and corresponding blog.

So for whatever reasons, Twitter offers 66 million reasons to understand how it works and how it can work for you. Just look at the Resume below and you can see how it brands that user!

MTC Sports, a promise and a dream

aleffel — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:43:01 +0000

So proud to have met David Josiah!

DJ has a mission, something that gets him up in the morning, something that motivates his every move, and something that inspires others to join with him. He has founded an organization to help at risk youth through the game of basketball. Sounds like one of many efforts in the city, but this one is driven by a young man who will ensure continuity and success, right now through his organization MTC Sports.

For the event this weekend, he has found support from:
Haven For Hope, United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA, Communities in Schools, San Antonio Youth, Marines, Coast Guard, Habitat For Humanity, and San Antonio Housing Authority.

And his sponsors:
Chick Fila, Jensen Education Corp., Crown Trophy, Bill Millers, UAM, 210 Print, various Lawyers, TASO, K-Love Radio, The Beat 98.5, FOX News, & of course George Gervin.

Here is his promo for the upcoming event: Beyond a Game
“There is a purpose for my existence.” I’m sure DJ wrote the text because that is his mantra! Congratulations David and thank you.

If you could work for any start-up, which one would you choose?

aleffel — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:53:30 +0000

If you could work for any start-up in the country, which one would you choose? That was the question posed to readers of TechCrunch recently, and you may be surprised to learn the results of over 5,000 votes.

Yes, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Foursquare each had roughly the same number of votes. And some of the up and coming start-ups that made the list of votes: Dropbox, Instagram, and Techmeme.

But the all time, number one start-up that received the most votes on the question which start-up would you most like to work for?

Your own start-up.

UTSA Business Students partner with Canary Island Engineers

aleffel — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:44:52 +0000

A few business students from UTSA spent 3 weeks in Spain’s Canary Islands playing on the beach, sleeping late, and basically doing nothing.
NOT!

Daniel, David, Randy, Tony, Kim, Rochelle, Tyler, Taylor, Ivan, Matt, Liliana, and Rebecca went to the Canary Islands (which is located 70 miles north of Morocco), and for one long week of writing and working with engineering students from the Islands, competed in a Business Plan Competition. 6 teams, each comprising 2 business students and 1 engineer, met for the first time 6 days before the competition. They wrote the business plans, in both English and Spanish, presented in both English and Spanish to a committee of international judges. If that wasn’t one big fright, ask any one of them.

Not only were they phenomenally successful, 4 of the Spanish engineers who participated in the competition are coming to San Antonio in early September to seek out more advice and assistance with their business ideas. (Check out the San Antonio Business Journal article.)