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Update on Stanford Entrepreneurship Program.
Thursday night, on the grounds of Stanford University, a “gathering” of Global Entrepreneurs assembled to address students enrolled in Professor Thomas Kosnik's Management Science and Engineering course on GEM (Global Entrepreneurial Marketing). “Sponsors” as Thomas Kosnik described these entrepreneurs “are invited to meet students and give a two minute pitch about their company.” Tom Kosnik is a Consulting Professor who teaches Global Entrepreneurial Marketing at Stanford School of Engineering. Professor Kosnik has worked with over 100 startup companies since 1975, and has consulted to leading Information Technology product and services companies including American Management Systems, Apple Computer, Applied Materials, Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Oracle.
The companies attending Thursday night were as diverse as the student body at Stanford. In attendance were representatives of such recognizable companies as Google and Mozilla to lesser known entrepreneurs like Genepharm Inc, marketing a new line of skin care products, and Whale Tails Tortilla Chips, an environmental entrepreneurship, that just might help save the whales one bag at a time.
Each of the CEOs or Co Founders of the companies were limited, by Professor Kosnik, to a two minute “pitch” to try and enlist his students as active participants in helping with the development for their companies. These areas of development are called “projects” and the students are allowed to select which company's project is of interest to them. Immediately following the two minute “pitch” was a “breakout session”where the students were allowed to ask questions and present resumes to representatives of the companies. Christopher Beard , representing Mozilla, drew the biggest crowd during this break out session with students. Twelve companies attended. In addition to, Mozilla, Genepharm, Whale Tails Tortilla Chips, representatives from Beyondcore, Gumball Capital, Roundtable Group, Standford Energy Crossroads, Experience Project, Toloop, ThreeAll, Big Tent, and Open Floodgate all participated. Once students select the company and it's project, the company is given the chance to review the student's resume and then agree to work together over the semester
“Participation in these projects will help the students will learn the marketing skills needed to market new products to new customers, using new technology.” said Jaleh Rezaei , GEM teaching Assistant. And these companies also benefit. Take for example the start up company in attendance, Whale Tails Tortilla Chips. This company was founded no more than a year ago is already on the shelves of Whole Foods Markets and is looking for expansion funding and increased market share. One of the co founders, Ric Kraszewski, described his unique salty snack as the “corn chip with a conscience” . Ric said “ I was excited to be invited to tonight's event because of the growth our company is experiencing. Our goal is to provide sustainable funding for ocean conservation through the sale of our organic tortilla chip and the global market is where we need to be to accomplish that goal. I am very impressed with the students I spoke to tonight” Kelly Thong of Genepharm pitched her unique line of what she calls “cosmoceuticals” a blend of skin care that is much more than a cosmetic and almost a pharmaceutical in the benefits it creates for the user. Ms Thong spoke with students regarding her expansion to the Asian markets and here at home.
After observing the enthusiastic exchanges between students and companies at Thursday's event I will definitely be using “Mozilla” to “Google” “Whale Tails Tortilla Chips” and find out happens next to this new group of entrepreneurs..
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