Connecting the dots: How to navigate entrepreneurship

In an industry where nine out of 10 of even the best startups can fail, junior Greg Foreman knew his chances were slim.

For two years, Foreman has worked to get his e-commerce app off the ground. Along the way, he has sought nearly every entrepreneurship resource UNC has to offer: 1789 Venture Lab, the Carolina Challenge, the entrepreneurship minor, Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies — and its alumni network.

Foreman is back to the drawing board, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Entrepreneurship is hard, Foreman said, but that’s not the frustrating part. It was that resources were in sight but still hard to reach.

A lot has changed since his freshman year. UNC has a vast and diverse ecosystem of resources across and off campus. This year, the economics department’s entrepreneurship minor admitted 150 students, the largest class ever. UNC is bringing in a diverse set of mentors and speakers. Resources are more open than ever — but Foreman believes UNC must make the education more accessible than it is now.

“There are people here with great ideas,” Foreman said. “They can be very successful — it is a great school for entrepreneurs that is potentially getting wasted because of barriers to entry.”

And UNC agrees.

The school has come far since former Chancellor Holden Thorp launched Innovate@Carolina in 2010. Judith Cone, special assistant to the chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship, said this year UNC is working to connect the resources on campus and make the entrepreneurship education more accessible to students — all with the goal of creating a true innovation hub on campus in the future.

“(Entrepreneurship) is transforming ideas into practical benefit and focusing on the biggest challenges facing the world today,” Cone said. “We have some big issues in the world, and we need people at the University to solve those.”

Like most universities around the country, entrepreneurship hasn’t been popular at UNC until recently. According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, in 1985, there were about 250 entrepreneurship courses offered at U.S. universities. In 2008, there were more than 5,000 courses.

“The jobs or career of today may not exist 20 years from now. So how do you train students and get them a set of experiences that allows them to think creatively about their own paths, their own careers and jobs?” said Charles Merritt, director of the minor in entrepreneurship.

UNC is training more students than ever to think like entrepreneurs — even if students never start a business in their lifetimes.

The cultural shift has been incredible, said Mathilde Verdier, social innovation initiative program coordinator for the Campus Y.

“We had cases of faculty members who were allergic to the term of ‘entrepreneurship,’” Verdier said. “And now they have a class on entrepreneurship.”

Verdier said the Social Innovation Initiative program website, launched this week, is one of those steps. The website walks visitors through the many resources — the classes, workshops, seed funding opportunities, pro bono support services, mentorship, events and more — offered through Verdier’s office and the other centers on campus.

Foreman acknowledged it is not the University’s job to build students’ businesses or make the path easier — serious entrepreneurs have to do it on their own. But instead he hopes the education, entrepreneurial mindset and accompanying resources UNC has to offer will be available to the entire student body, not just those admitted to the business school or entrepreneurship minor.

“The thing about entrepreneurship is there is no formula. Anyone can have a billion -dollar idea.”

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