"The Perfect Storm"

As many of my friends and business associates are aware, for the past 9 months, I’ve been actively (some would say obsessively!) involved in creating a vertical entrepreneurship program, starting with the educational component. To date, we have met with resounding success and like the theme of the Hollywood action film, “The Perfect Storm,” it appears that the “stars have aligned” in order to manifest my ultimate entrepreneurial goal…to create the country’s first and only fully accredited College of Entrepreneurship.

Starting in late August 2005, with a single class of 19 bright interdisciplinary students at Barrett Honors College at ASU in a course of my own making entitled “Ready, Fire, Aim,” our newly fashioned Barrett Honors Entrepreneurship Program now boasts 94 students in four interactive classes at Barrett’s. What is even more impressive is the fact that as of March 31st, we will have actually funded and started five student-inspired businesses launched from last semester’s class, which ended a scant three months ago!

One student project, Club Entrepreneur (www.club-entrepreneur.com), is now a fully functioning ASU-sanctioned student organization that may very well become the largest and most powerful club on campus in very short order. Initial estimates of potential membership exceed 1000 members, which is being accomplished by the assimilation of existing student organizations under the Business Council at the W.P. Carey School of Business. The creation of e-Lab, which utilizes selected Club Entrepreneur members in student teams to research business concepts provided by local EO (Entrepreneur Organization) members is another exciting student-inspired project. Each student team will prepare a marketing, feasibility or full blown business plan for the entrepreneur’s idea and if economically viable, that entrepreneur will fund the plan and provide internship and perhaps an equity position for both the student teams as well as compensate e-Lab with fees and an equity position.

From the overwhelmingly positive response garnered from students and their parents, guest speakers and local business people that have had the pleasure of interacting with students in the Barrett Honors Entrepreneurship Program…it seems only natural to continue with this momentum. Phoenix, itself, has been enjoying a recent Renaissance of sorts by fashioning itself as an entrepreneurial mecca and of course, ASU has become reborn as the “New American University.” It seems only a natural evolution to utilize this combined synergy and create a private, fully accredited, four year educational institution for the purpose of teaching, supporting and nurturing entrepreneurship in the first ever College of Entrepreneurship.

Recent press of our educational efforts in ASU’s State Press, The Arizona Republic and the Business Journal has attracted some very impressive attention. Dean Jacobs of the Barrett Honors College recently fielded a call and had a subsequent meeting with one of the co-founders of Quiznos Subs and now the current owner of Crocs Shoes. This 30-something serial entrepreneur told Mark Jacobs that he had amassed $100MM business, saw the article of our program at Barrett’s in the Business Journal and wanted to make an initial gift to our program of $1MM. He stated that his accountants and lawyers had told him that he had to give away some money and fortunately for us, that day saw our article in the Business Journal. I had the opportunity to speak with Anthony Kruse a couple of times on the phone and we plan on getting together when he returns to town in mid May to discuss how we can work together on the entrepreneurial front. (Update-I had an excellent lunch meeting with Anthony only days ago and he has wholeheartedly endorsed my sweeping entrepreneurship and has agreed to serve on my new College of Entrepreneurship’s Board of Advisors and is considering investing a significant amount in either the University Venture Fund to capitalize student-inspired enterprises or any of several other financial initiatives that I presented to him.)

Additional inquiries came from potential benefactors who read the press and wanted to contribute to “the cause.” One such potential partner had given $500k to ASU some eighteen years ago for the purpose of establishing an entrepreneurial program… which was never implemented. Now, this gentleman has access to the significant amount of many millions of dollars that he represented would like a “home” at an Arizona educational institution. In light of the unsatisfactory treatment by unnamed administrators at ASU, that gift may very well land in our camp for our own plans. I am in conversation with this gentleman and his associates at this time discussing just that possible scenario.

I recently received an email from locally-based construction entrepreneur Jim Riggs of Shea Commercial, who expressed his desire to speak in one of my classes. We met-four times now- and I find him to be bright, energetic and thoroughly engaged in the entrepreneurial process. Having first met him in regards to his pending speaking engagement at my class, we’ve since entered discussions involving his desired participation in the Phoenix downtown-based Entrepreneur Factory project. My partner, Bill Kilburg and I have entered into negotiations to acquire and refurbish a defunct hotel on Van Buren and 22nd Street, whose 160 rooms will be outfitted as offices in this state-of-the-art business incubator to house fledgling businesses prior to their launch into the community. Jim Riggs is the perfect contractor/ partner for such a project and we’re moving towards that possible alliance.

As part of my classroom experience, I’ve engaged local business leaders and fellow entrepreneurs to share their stories with my students as guest lecturers. Recent speakers such as Avnet’s CEO, Roy Valle, Pepsico’s Chairman, Steve Reinmund, Don Budinger, Rodel Foundation Chairman and Diane Graham, Committee of 200 Chairwoman and Stratco Global CEO, have all spoken and interacted with my students. Roy Valle actually took the time to write the (namesake) Barrett Honors College’s main benefactors, Barb and Craig Barrett (Intel Chairman Emeritus) to tell them about his positive experience with our program. I recently met with a former CEO of Motorola who contacted the Barretts on my behalf to share with them some of the kudos being offered about our program. Finally, the gentleman who had previously donated the $500k for the ill-fated ASU entrepreneurship program, has arranged for me to have a personal meeting with Barbara Barrett to share about the success of BHEP, as well as to discuss my new College of Entrepreneurship initiative.

The Entrepreneurs Organization (fka the Young Entrepreneurs Organization) is a collection of nearly 6,000 extremely successful independent business founders in 40 countries around the world. I was one of the original members in 1987 and have recently become very active in both the local Arizona chapter, as well as the National Board, serving on committees on two groundbreaking initiatives. The local chapter (Arizona) has spearheaded one of our classroom-developed concepts, called e-Lab. This exciting new development will take EO member-inspired business concepts and hand them over to hand-picked student teams ( taken from the ranks of Club Entrepreneur) to fashion marketing studies, feasibility reports and business plans with the goal of bringing these new concepts to market in a combined effort of entrepreneur and student teams. We are just launching this program with the local EO Board approval having been granted only weeks ago. The National EO board is watching closely with plans on replicating the program chapter-wide (140 locales) if proven viable here in Arizona.

I’ve joined the committees of both the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and the Accelerator Program at the national level of EO. Each program incorporates much of what I’ve been doing in my own initiatives at the Barrett Honors College and I’ve forged strong new networks within the infrastructure of the global EO organization.

Additionally, I’ve been making great strides at allying myself and new initiatives with the Kauffman Foundation, first through an alliance with Jeff Horvath, the head of Fasttrac, which offers the business plan curriculum that we use in my classes, “Ready, Fire, Aim” and “Adventures in Capitalism.” Jeff and Fasttrac came to me by way of my friend and colleague, Dr. Francine Hardaway, noted entrepreneurship educator and proponent here in Phoenix.

Further interaction and hopeful cooperation with the formidable Kauffman Foundation comes by way of Sue Hesse’s introduction to various members of Kauffman. Sue was my Forum trainer in EO and is the “Entrepreneur in Residence” at the Kauffman Foundation. One such introduction is Desiree Vargas, a team member of Kauffman’s collegiate entrepreneurship team. ASU has recently been selected for the designation as a “Kauffman Campus,” which provides significant funding prospects for the University. I was told by Ms. Vargas that our program at Barrett Honors greatly helped ASU’s application for this award. My new College of Entrepreneurship should have considerable chances of being designated a “Kauffman camous” itself, once it is up and running.

My entire business life has been immersed in entrepreneurship, having started the first of over 100 companies at the age of 19, while a freshman at the University of Virginia. Fate brought me to Phoenix at the threshold of its own re-birth as the “mecca of entrepreneurship” and I’ve now come full circle by being given the privilege of teaching entrepreneurship at Barrett Honors College…just as I was taught at the University of Virginia 29 years ago.

It is only fitting and right that I do whatever it takes to assemble the people and resources that I have in my life and work towards the goal of creating the first of its kind….the College of Entrepreneurship, right here in Arizona. A short time ago, I met with Shea Commercial’s Jim Riggs yet again. Jim has an extraordinarily ambitious commercial project being built right smack in the middle of downtown Tempe and which actually abuts ASU. Since the development process will take all of the next year, he has generously donated as many of the existing buildings on this 1 1/2 city block downtown Tempe property as we need for our entrepreneurship purposes. Specifically, Jim’s property will serve as the interim Entrepreneur Factory - an incubator format for the growing number of student-inspired businesses….at no cost to us for the next year.

Since I am no academic, I reached out to Dean Stuart Mann, the head of the Harrah School of Hotel Management at UNLV. Stuart and I are friends and I value both his direction as well his significant introductions to leaders in literally every field of industry. He will be one of the academic administrators that I will look towards in negotiating the accreditation process and professorial staffing for our new College of Entrepreneurship.

I also spoke with Nick Rago, former Fortune 100 CEO and now an adjunct educator about my plans for launching the College of Entrepreneurship. He offered the sage advice of teaming up with an already accredited institution like Thunderbird or the University of Phoenix. He suggested that rather than reinventing the wheel, I fast track my plans by joining forces with one of these already accredited schools and establish of College of Entrepreneurship, in conjunction with them. I concur and recently met with the president of Thunderbird, Dr. Angel Cabrerra and their Director of Entrepreneurship, Dr. Robert Hisrich to open discussions together. We will hopefully be working together on a Masters of Entrepreneurship program, a possible relocation of Thunderbird’s newly launched incubator to our anticipated Tempe location and a collaboration on the undergraduate entrepreneurship curriculum, which will result in this country’s first Bachelor of Entrepreneurship issued from a wholly dedicated undergraduate insititution.

Negotiations with the fully accredited Grand Canyon University recently resulted in a contract that will allow us to open up the brand new College of Entrepreneurship as early as this coming Fall. We are busy creating the curriculum and searching out the top entrepreneur/professors to teach as Adjuncts in our new school. We will be operating out of an interim facility, most likely in Tempe, until our permanent location is negotiated…also, hopefully, in Tempe.


The road from small niche business operator and novice member of the adjunct faculty teaching entrepreneurship (pro bono) to Barrett Honors College students is a far cry from establishing this country’s first College of Entrepreneurship. However, with the help of my friends and associates and with the determination and tenacity of the “pure blood” entrepreneur…I have no doubt as to this project’s ultimate success. After all…it’s all about the journey anyway.