Business Incubator Series: Art Boni, Donald H. Jones Center For Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: When did you launch the accelerator?

Art: We launched last summer for the first time, and we are planning to run it again this summer. We will take probably three or four companies for a period of three months. Last summer we had six companies apply and we took four. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jean Boudeguer, Start-Up Chile – Santiago (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Are there any other interesting entrepreneurs in your program?

Jean: There’s H2020 created by Erika Anderson, who is an alumna of Singularity University in Moffett Field, California. [They collect data using their unique mobile phone-based survey. H2020’s Water Poverty Initiative seeks to “improve public knowledge about water problems in slums, increase the efficiency with which information is gathered and published, and stimulate implementation of scalable solutions.”] >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: AngelList Founder Naval Ravikant (Part 8)

Naval Ravikant: The combination of inexperienced investors with first-time entrepreneurs is not good. I am going to show you something else just to get my point across very clearly. Let me show you how many investors have applied to get in who haven’t even been processed. So, you see this page [on your computer], right?

Sramana Mitra: Yes.

NR: There are about 20 to 30 people on this page. There are 57 of these pages. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Art Boni, Donald H. Jones Center For Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Art: Our business accelerator is wrapped in the academic program. The people who participate in it are either spending three months in the program between the first and the second years of their MBA program, or they do it after they graduate with an MBA when they are launching their company. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jean Boudeguer, Start-Up Chile — Santiago (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What entrepreneurs could expect to spend on living expenses while they stay in Chile?

Jean: That would depend on how you want to live. There’s an entrepreneur who lives in a normal apartment. He has a swimming pool on the top floor of the building. He’s probably paying $800 [a month]. You can live with less. You can live with more. On our site, we have that comparison of living expenses. Going out for dinner in a normal restaurant is about $20 per person. Renting an apartment would be between $600 and $800 for two people. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: AngelList Founder Naval Ravikant (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: How are you viewing the other funding exchanges? I saw that CapLinked got funded.

Naval Ravikant: I don’t know if anybody uses it!

SM: Why did it get funded? And it got funded by people you know quite well, right? >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: AngelList Founder Naval Ravikant (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What percentage of your entrepreneurs are first-time entrepreneurs?

Naval Ravikant: That’s a good question. Probably 80% or even 90%.

SM: On the investor side, I understand they are accredited investors. But then there are experienced angel investors, and then there are accredited but not very experienced investors, who are tantamount to dumb money, in my opinion. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Art Boni, Donald H. Jones Center For Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

I am talking to Art Boni, director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship and professor of entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon was one of the pioneers in introducing entrepreneurship courses nearly 40 years ago, in 1972. According to the university, today its Don Jones Center of Entrepreneurship averages three new business spin-offs every year. And, Carnegie Mellon University, the center’s incubation partner, each year supports an average of 10 new business spin-offs. In addition, Google, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, and Disney are campus residents providing students with many opportunities for entrepreneurial collaboration. >>>