Startup Week

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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.

David Rusenko 1

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.

Daehee Park 1

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.

Liz Kisenwether 1

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.