UNCW Entrepreneurship Center NewsletterSeptember 2011

Strategic partnerships are the cornerstone of most successful companies and organizations. For startups, partnerships offer opportunities to accomplish more with less by leveraging another party's resources, relationships, and marketing opportunities while also providing equal value in return. The Entrepreneurship Center through its approach to avoid duplication of services in the region, to be as efficient and operationally lean as possible, and a "desire to accomplish more with less" has found great success in working with many of our excellent local small business resources including the local Chambers of Commerce, the Small Business and Technology Development Center, the CFCC Small Business Center, the UNCW Center for Marine Science, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and many many more.

 

The role partnerships play with the EC and how that benefits our region was never more apparent than on September 16th when one of the leading Angel Investors in the United States, Bob Okabe, came to Wilmington to hold a special workshop with local entrepreneurs, investors, students, and support organizations. What made this workshop a reality was the strong partnership that exists between the Entrepreneurship Center and the Wilmington Investor Network as well as with the NC Biotechnology Center. What resulted was a workshop that left entrepreneurs with a better understanding of how to approach raising capital in today's business climate, investors with more tools and knowledge on how to invest in local, high-growth start-ups, students with a better understanding of how the investment process works, and support providers with more information on how they can benefit the region's entrepreneurs.

 

In today's world partnerships are critical to success and our region is blessed with a large supply of organizations, non-profits, and educational institutions. The more we work together through partnerships to achieve our goals, the better our region, our communities, our organizations, and all of us will be. 

 

Sincerely, Jonathan Rowe
In The September Newsletter
The Rocket Pitch Is Coming - Oct 25th
The Importance of Entrepreneurship Research at UNCW
Invitation to Participate in an On-Line Survey Regarding the Challenges Facing New and Small Businesses
The Rocket Pitch is Coming - Oct 25th
Rocket Pitch
The Importance of Entrepreneurship Research at UNCW and How You Can Help.

Matt Wood Where does knowledge come from?

Scientific research! It is through the collective efforts of entrepreneurship researchers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders that we develop an understanding of effective entrepreneurship practices. That understanding lies at the heat of entrepreneurship education and thus your participation in research efforts is critical. An upcoming study conducted by Dr. Matthew Wood (UNCW, pictured) and Dr. David Williams (University of Tennessee) will investigate how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities for new venture creation. You will soon be receiving an e-mail participation request for this study and we humbly ask for your help with this very important research.

Invitation to Participate in an On-Line Survey Regarding the Challenges Facing New and Small Businesses

Survey Button
As part of a major study of the challenges and opportunities that small businesses and start-ups face, the Financial Services Forum, the Kauffman Foundation, and the Entrepreneurship Center is conducting a brief, on-line poll to survey the opinions of entrepreneurs and business leaders. We invite you to participate in the brief survey by clicking on the button to the left. We hope you can take a moment to share your thoughts and opinions about the current business climate and obstacles and frustrations affecting companies like yours. Your feedback is very important to this effort to enhance the circumstances for new and small businesses. Please note that any information shared will only be used for internal research purposes, and will be treated confidentially. Responses will be consolidated into an overall report, which will reflect categories of comments. The report will not identify the input of individual respondents.
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Member Profile
Jenni Harris
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Jenni Harris recently joined UNCW as the new assistant to Chancellor Miller for Community Partnerships. An alumnus of UNCW, Jenni will be strengthening and expanding various University partnerships with community groups, businesses and agencies at the local, regional, state and national levels. This includes the Entrepreneurship Center which Jenni will be helping to support and promote. Jenni has strong ties to Southeastern NC having grown up in Wilmington and most recently having served as corporate sales and service manager for SMG Management Corp., which manages the Wilmington Convention Center.
The EC looks forward to working together with Jenni by helping to support our entrepreneurial community. Welcome, Jenni.
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"Envision" Begins Season 3 with Excellent Line-up of Entrepreneurs
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Envision, the TV show launched in August 2010 recently began recording its third season and features an excellent line-up of upcoming entrepreneur guests including Pam Marinko, Founder and CEO of Proficient Learning, Shaun Olsen, Founder and CEO of Opterex, and Chris Holman, Co-founder and CEO of Advanced Maintenance to name a few. The show features interviews with successful entrepreneurs to better understand what drives them, lessons they've learned in their business careers, and thoughts on starting and growing companies in the Cape Fear Region. Envision founder and host, Jonathan Rowe, explores these topics in the 30-minute show which airs on Monday and Thursdays at 7pm on Time Warner Cable Channel 5 and also online in the EC Video Library. Envision is currently working to expand its cable broadcast throughout North Carolina.

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Entrepreneurial Statistic: According to the Angel Resource Institute, a total of $20 billion dollars was invested in 61,900 start-up companies in the United States in 2010.