Fostering Student Innovation

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Max Uhlenhuth YC'12 
The Yale Entrepreneurial Institute has been a major part of my Yale experience. From the new friends and business partners that I've made through the YEI to my part-time job working for a student startup to getting help starting my own business, the benefits I've derived from the YEI have been incredible.

As a web programmer, I've gotten involved with a lot of startups at Yale.  From late in the Fall semester to the end of February, I co-wrote the web application for YouRenew.com, a student startup that does electronics recycling/buyback.  Working with Rich and Bob (the co-founders) on a real project and writing code that actually will get used in the real world has been a great experience.  In my free time, I'm working with another group of Yale students on a social-entrepreneurship venture that aims to spread feel-good stories across the world.  I'm also writing code for small projects like extra-curricular signups and blogs.  Being able to work on such a wide range of projects keeps things exciting and lets me meet a bunch of new people.

I also have some projects of my own that I'm working on.  Currently, I'm working closely with the YEI to start a company to market and further develop some school data-management software some friends and I wrote in high school.  We just pulled off a great launch this semester, with more than 5,500 students in 4 schools using our code to schedule parent-teacher conferences.  With the help of YEI, we're working on developing a business plan and taking our web application to new levels of success.

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Kate Harrison FOR'09, Founder of Green Bride Guide
The Yale Entrepreneurial Institute's summer fellowship program gave me the physical, financial and emotional support I needed to take the leap into entrepreneurship. When I found out about YEI, I was finishing up a joint degree in Environmental Law & Policy, and expected to pursue a career in that field. I had started an online company, The Green Bride Guide, but knew it would take a lot more time and effort to get established than I had, and was much riskier than environmental law. The YEI program connected me with important mentors and investors, helped me find an amazing Business Development Director (another YEI student), and gave me the financial cushion to dedicate 100% of my time to the company. Over the course of the summer, the site went from little more than a well developed blog to the largest green wedding website online. Even after the program, Jim and Shana have been my "go to" resource for everything from lawyer introductions in order to close my financing round to advice on strategic partnerships. I will always be grateful to YEI for giving me the jump start I needed to really get The Green Bride Guide off the ground.

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Arun Gupta YC'11, Co-Founder of WakeSmart
A Day in the Life of a YEI Fellow

• 9am
  Wake up. Make sure my partner is up. Check email and get ready.
• 10am
  Barely arrive in time to grab a bagel before the speaker starts.
• 10am - 12pm
  Listen to David Galper talk about founding Ruckus.com and the hurdles he experienced. Think about his method of bypassing strategic partnerships with colleges in favor of an open platform.
• 12pm - 1pm
  Eat lunch and discuss our business with the speaker. Realize that selling to colleges isn't worth the hassle and we should focus our distribution partnerships elsewhere. Also realize that David is really smart.
• 1pm - 2pm
  Call with an adviser/potential investor in the conference room. Discuss the different price points for the product. If the price is too low consumers may be skeptical of its efficacy, if the price is too high they will be less likely to buy. Agree on a lower spectrum price point with a money back guarantee. Also realize that we should refocus the product as a 'cell phone download' rather than a standalone consumer product.
• 2pm - 4pm
  Work on developing ancillary streams of revenue for the business model. Aggregating sleep data could provide the user valuable insight into their sleeping habits and allow them to get the most out of their sleep.
• 4pm - 5pm
  Meet with potential hardware engineer hire at The Publick Cup. Discuss different types of accelerometers and his background in signal processing. Feel overwhelmed that a mid-career mechanical engineer is interested in working for us.
• 5pm - 6pm
  Brainstorm a new venture idea with the fellows for one of the teams. Web 2.0 is played out and their strengths don't lie in web services anyway.
• 6pm - 7:30pm
  Go home, change and hit the gym. School some Yale Summer Session kids in basketball.
• 7:30pm - 10pm
  Network at a YEI reception at Thali Too. Discuss our idea with some VCs. Realize we need some 'gray hair' on our team and that the potato appetizers are amazing.
• 10pm - 1am
  Hang out with a bunch of the other fellows and relax. Talk about how cool it is to be doing something outside the Yale sphere and building real value.
• 1am 
  Go to sleep.

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Jonathan Hartman YC '09, Founder of HST Workhorse
I've often been asked to describe the best aspect of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute Summer Fellowship experience. Is it the networking with investors and professionals, the one-on-one assistance each venture receives, or the pitch opportunities at the end of the summer. Don't get me wrong, each of these aspects is a fantastic and unique part of the program. At the same time, if you asked me to recall one memory that has stuck with me since last June, it would have to be the unstructured afternoons of the program.

The Institute schedules a guest speaker each and every morning, followed by a free afternoon that each venture team uses to continue to work on their company. While all of the fellows met in a conference room for the speaker, each was free to work wherever was most convenient for them during the afternoon so. Lunch was always a time when the group dispersed. Some fellows had ventures with offices in the YEI Incubator Space, so they went back to work there. Most of the other fellows split off into their respective venture teams and went to work elsewhere where they could talk and think without disturbing anyone. This generally left Bob Casey (one of the founders of TwigTek) and me in the conference room to work on our separate tasks. My partner in the venture and a Yale grad has been a design engineer for two years and thus held a 9 to 5 job that kept him from coming into campus every afternoon. Similarly, Bob's venture partner had an internship in New York City for the summer, which also left him to work by himself.

So there we were, two guys with two very different ventures working across a conference table from one another. Bob's focus was on trying to establish partnerships and infrastructure for recycling small electronic devices. I was trying to figure out if building a large, mobile, semi-autonomous, heavy lifting robot had a substantial value proposition for industry. At first, it didn't seem like the two ideas had any overlap and thus any reason for us to collaborate during those afternoons. Bob would sit and make calls while I plugged in my headphones, listened to music and tried to get something accomplished each day.

Then, one day about two weeks into the summer, I realized that I had to start making calls to industrial companies. I had cold called people before, but there was always a charitable reason behind it. Now, I had to figure out how to not sound like a telemarketer while still letting these companies know that I was a new venture with new ideas. Realizing that I had another fellow in the room who had been making these types of calls every day for weeks, I started a conversation.

That conversation turned out to be the first of many. After we talked about making calls to companies, Bob came to me one day and asked about my opinion on some of the recycling logistics. From then on, anytime one of us needed something, we'd take off our headphones and start talking. When it came time to put our pitch decks together and present to investors, Bob and I held impromptu practice sessions in the middle of the afternoon. One of us would listen, the other one would present. What started out as two people with differing interests sitting across from each other at the same table evolved into both a professional and personal friendship. I have similar stories of friendships formed with the rest of the fellows. Whether it was over lunch, on the train to NYC to see the Google offices, or after a pitch practice session, sooner or later I got around to networking with everyone.

I guess since every good story should have a moral, mine is this - personal networking with the other fellows is one of the best things about YEI's Summer Fellowship. There is so much to share and learn if you are willing to open yourself up to other people who at first may seem to be traveling a very different path from your own. Entrepreneurship is not an easy road, especially when youth tends to be seen as a negative rather than a positive. Having a network of young professionals in diverse ventures is invaluable when you need something that your own network cannot provide you. What's more, the fears, anxieties, frustrations and successes of entrepreneurship are difficult to understand unless you have experienced them. Therein, having a group of fellow entrepreneurs as an instantly available support network should also not be discounted. I can honestly say that, without such connections and opportunities, I might have given up on entrepreneurship. With this network, I am confident that I can move forward with my venture.

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Vincent McPhillip YC'10
Going into sophomore summer, I chose YEI over Wall Street and never looked back. Today, I have no doubt that I made the right decision. It's only in hindsight that I can really appreciate what a transformative experience YEI was for me. Every weekday for 10 weeks, YEI exposed me to some of the country's most talented businesspeople. From venture capitalists, lawyers, entrepreneurs and visionaries I gained incredible insight into what it really takes to start your own business. Beyond sharing in the experiences of these businesspeople, YEI helped me hone my networking skills to the point that I could really engage these professionals on a personal level. Outside of the daily speeches, Jim and Shana were always available to sit down and provide candid advice about my business venture.

At YEI, I grew both professionally and personally. Going into the summer, I was convinced that success meant raising millions of dollars and dropping out of school before September. YEI taught me to dream big but dream realistically and, even more importantly that failure is a critical component of success. Even though I was not able to get my venture off the ground, the lessons I learned at YEI took me four steps closer to success. When I am at the helm of my multi-billion dollar corporation, I'll be sure to give YEI the credit it deserves.

Besides, New Haven is great during the summer- get a place with AC and strap in.

<Back to Incubator Straight Talk From Students

  
Bob Casey, Co-Founder of TwigTek/YouRenew.com
TwigTek moved into the YEI incubator in late July, 2008. We were only the second venture to move into the space, and for the first couple of weeks, we were basically alone in an empty office. The rapid rate of development that has occurred over the course of the last six months has been unbelievable. Today, the incubator hosts six ventures in individual offices, and dozens more use the space each month.

The incubator is one of the most valuable assets that YEI provides young companies. Starting a company is a difficult endeavor, but when surrounded by other entrepreneurs also working on early stage ventures, so many problems become easier to solve. Early on an 'open door' culture developed in the incubator, and other teams are constantly poking their head in my door asking for a quick opinion or suggestion. The environment is fast paced, open, and friendly. Ideas are shared freely, and all of the teams gain from the shared knowledge.

Upon moving into the incubator, Rich and I became fast friends with the founders of PaperG, an online local advertising network with offices across the hall from us. PaperG has an eighteen month head start on TwigTek, and we learned a great deal from their experiences. Whether we had a question about taxes or about search engine optimization, there is almost always someone in the incubator who has faced the same question before and is willing to lend friendly advice.

In addition to learning from one another, YEI provides regular opportunities for workshops, networking, and learning. Events range from monthly 'Launchpad' dinners that feature successful young entrepreneurs to investor networking events and 'How to Talk to the Press' workshops.

While launching a startup is by no means easy, working in the YEI incubator has allowed us to move more quickly and to access more resources than would have otherwise been possible.

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