Startup Week

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Paul Cianciolo, vice president of FirstMark Capital, takes part in a panel discussion during IST Start-up Week

Heard on Campus: Paul Cianciolo, vice president of FirstMark Capital

4/10/14

“We’re trending towards a time where there are a lot of entrepreneurs who think raising money is a victory. It can certainly be helpful to bringing traffic, hype, customers to your business but it’s just really the beginning. When you raise that money, you take on a new set of complexity to your business –- suddenly there are people you have to answer to, you have more responsibility than you had before and a greater set of expectations than you had before. Before you raise the money, understand why you’re doing it and what you’re trying to accomplish as a team -- it’s incredibly important.”

Scott Shirley, co-founder and executive director of Uplifting Athletes, speaks during IST Start-up Week

Heard on Campus: Scott Shirley, co-founder of Uplifting Athletes

4/9/14

“I was living my dream building things (as an engineer), but I had the opportunity to build something else, a nonprofit organization that could impact the lives of 30 million Americans. It was a no-brainer for me. Through Uplifting Athletes, we could use the platform of college diseases and make rare diseases matter. We could create a climate that does inspire others to take action and makes us relevant in the medical community. This career allows me to live at the intersection of purpose and profit.”

John Kim, co-founder of Five9 and CEO of DoctorBase, speaks during IST Start-up Week at University Park campus.

Heard on Campus: John Kim, founder of Five9 and CEO of DoctorBase

4/9/14

“When you pitch your idea, a lot of VCs (venture capitalists) will tell you no or simply won’t reply. Don't be a wussy -- don’t take no lying down! You’ve got to keep following up! Sometimes they test you and want to see if you’ll follow up. They want to see if you have the mettle to keep bothering them.”

Jayme Goldberg, co-founder of SilverLine Athletics, talks during IST Start-up Week at University Park campus.

Heard on Campus: Jayme Goldberg, co-founder of SilverLine Athletics

4/8/14

“Let resistance fuel your motivation. If you truly are disruptive, by definition, people aren’t going to like it. When you deal with someone (be it a competitor, colleague, or manager) who is comfortable with, and rooted in, what they do, they are not going to like what you’re doing. When you embrace that resistance -- every time someone says, ‘No, that makes no sense, I’m happy with what I do,’ -- you begin to realize that it’s just more evidence that what you’re doing is something that has never been done before.”

Rod Murchison, vice president at Tripwire, speaks on product innovation during IST Start-up Week

Heard on Campus: Rod Murchison, vice president at Tripwire

4/7/14

“Don’t be afraid to pivot. You’re going to have great ideas and trust me, from an executive standpoint, we encourage you to go forward with those ideas because you never know when you’re going to come across something that is going to change your life and change the lives of others. Sometimes the beauty is in the different use cases. All those times you’re thinking of pivoting, if you take a step back and don’t get too centered on the technology itself and instead think about the value to the customers, that will give you the answers to know where you need to go. We always look forward to those opportunities when we can look at everything a little bit differently, when we can decide if we need a new course and direction, to change and adapt.”

Dan Mead, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, speaking during IST Start-up Week 2014

Heard on Campus: Dan Mead, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless

4/7/14

“Because of our unique position and the social responsibility we have to use technology to make a difference in the world, through healthcare, education and energy management, we created a global contest for innovation because we just want to see great things happening.”

Neilye Garrity 2

Heard on Campus: Neilye Garrity, founder of Candid Career

4/13/12

"I had a full-time job at IBM and the biggest challenge in deciding to start my own company was convincing family and friends that this was the right choice for me. Most people hold back because they are afraid of failing. It is one thing to have a good idea, but you have to be prepared to put yourself in 150 percent and be passionate about what you're doing; If someone tells you, 'no,' or that they don't find value in your idea, you can't let that hold you back. My biggest advice for entrepreneurs is to stick with what you originally set out to do. It is easy to get distracted so figure out your niche and stay focused on your original idea."

-- Neilye Garrity, co-founder of Candid Career and IST alumna, who spoke April 13 on the final day of the College of Information Sciences and Technology's Start-up Week. For more information, visit http://ist.psu.edu/startup online.

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Heard on Campus: David Rusenko of Weebly at IST's Start-up Week

4/13/12

"This wasn't glamorous; this wasn't Hollywood. The first time we saw four people logged in was a huge moment for us because when we saw only three, we knew it was just the three of us sitting around at our desks. Twenty months after starting on Weebly, traction started to grow. The moral of the story is to stick around. It took three years to get us to this point - it doesn't just happen overnight."

--David Rusenko, a 2007 graduate of Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), who is the CEO and co-founder of Weebly, a tech start-up based out of San Francisco. Rusenko spoke at the University Park campus April 12 during IST's Start-up Week, a week-long celebration showcasing talented young entrepreneurs from around the country, including several Penn State alumni. More than 10 million people have created a website with Weebly, and 12 percent of the U.S. population visits a Weebly website every month. Rusenko was named to Forbes' "30 under 30" list in 2011, and is the youngest recipient of the prestigious Penn State Alumni Achievement Award. To learn more about Start-up Week, visit http://ist.psu.edu/startup.

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Heard on Campus: Daehee Park of Mulu at IST's Start-up Week

4/12/12

"Keywords are very important when having a web-based start-up company. Be mindful of what and how you use the information that you obtain -- web analytics real-time view on how many people are on your site, data on what technology users are using -- so that you can gear towards user. You want to make everything simple for the user."

-- Daehee Park, a 2009 graduate of Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), who works in monetization and analytics at Mulu, a celebrity-supported social commerce platform that raises money for charities. Park spoke at the University Park campus April 11 during IST's Start-up Week, a week-long celebration showcasing talented young entrepreneurs from around the country, including several Penn State alumni. Park leads Mulu's eCommerce team around platform monetization, brand integration, data strategy and analytics. He also co-founded Whim Media, a performance marketing agency based in State College, Pa. To learn more about Start-up Week, visit http://ist.psu.edu/startup.

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Heard on Campus: Liz Kisenwether at IST's Start-up Week

4/11/12

"Seek out people that want to try new things...looking at what else is available out there will open new doors. Your idea will start as one thing and then it is going to evolve. Finding partners is tricky; you need to be confident that you can work together. Go out and do a market survey, find out if that problem you want to solve really exists."

-- Liz Kisenwether, assistant professor in Penn State's School of Engineering Design, Technology and Professional Programs, and co-director of Lion Launch Pad (LLP), a business accelerator program for Penn State undergraduate students and student teams. Kisenwether presented a workshop about Penn State resources for start-up ideas on Tuesday (April 10) at the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), during IST's Start-up Week.

Drew Mohoric 2

Heard on Campus: Drew Mohoric of Innoblue at IST's Start-up Week

4/10/12

"An entrepreneur is an undertaker. Very few are willing to press through the harder times.... The key to getting started in entrepreneurship is to read widely, learn from the experts, imitate other entrepreneurs and stop talking and start doing. To quote Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, 'The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.' All of the speakers participating in Start-up Week are doers. They figured out what they wanted and started taking tangible steps.... As young entrepreneurs, we have to get over the credibility gap.... Society will reward you for something of value."

-- Drew Mohoric, cofounder of Innoblue, a nonprofit, early-stage business accelerator in State College, Pa. Innoblue starts and supports innovative business, civic and social ventures. The company's vision is a community transformed by entrepreneurship, where people act on the double bottom line -- to do well while doing good. Mohoric is a Schreyer Honors College student in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State with an expected graduation date of May 2012. Mohoric spoke on Monday (April 9) at the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), to kick off IST's Start-up Week, a week-long celebration showcasing talented young entrepreneurs from around the country, including alumni from the College of IST and Penn State.