The Unconventional Path: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Stories and Ideas.

Hi listeners: How do entrepreneurs get new products to market when working with a limited team and limited resources? One way is to work with a person like this week's guest, Manuj Aggarwal. Manuj is the principal consultant, architect, and CEO of a software consulting company TetraNoodle Technologies based in Vancouver, Canada. Tune in as we discuss the ways that entrepreneurs can help other entr...

Hello listeners, Today's guest is Hanson Grant. He is an example of a person who was born with the entrepreneurship gene turned on at birth. Hanson's grandfather and father were both successful entrepreneurs who built thriving businesses and Hanson learned early on how to start and grow a successful venture. There are many wonderful take-aways in the episode, our favorite is the four envelope tool...

Hello listeners, Today's guest is Rich Honen. For a side-hustle he owns several race horses. In this episode, Rich describes how the horse racing business works, buying and selling horses, building a team, managing risks, and how entrepreneurial thinking is a valuable skill. Rich's primary passion is helping young companies grow and thrive. He is the Venture Capital & Technology Practice Team Lead...

Hello listeners, Today's guest is Victoria Yampolsky, She is a Cornell Comp Sci grad, a Columbia MBA, has worked on Wall Street, is a film producer, and founder of The Startup Station. Her company helps entrepreneurs refine their business plans, financial models and get prepared for raising capital. She is also producing a TV show for Amazon called "The Social Movement", a reality TV series about...

Today's guest is Rich Stokes. He is the founder and CEO of Winston Privacy. This is his second company, his first was AdGooroo an internet ad data aggregator and collector that was acquired. After six years in the industry he realized the initial project he set out to make of collecting data had gone too far. He left to then do the opposite, to stop the ad industry and others from spying on you. P...

Welcome to one of our "mini" sessions where we discuss a topic of general interest. In today's topic we discuss the recent introduction of the "Impossible Burger" and use it as an example of the challenges in obtaining market acceptance for revolutionary products. We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your...

Today's guest is Tobi Saulnier, She is the founder of First Playable Productions, where they develop interactive computer games to educate, transform, and change minds. THis was a wonderful interview where Tobi shared her leadership philosophy, including the highs and lows of such a journey. This was recorded live at the monthly BizLab-Clarkson Entrepreneurial Speaker event I co-host with Rick Der...

Today's guest is Chris Hutchins, Co-founder and CEO of Grove. Chris is the founder and CEO of Grove, a company on a mission to make financial planning honest and accessible for everyone. Previously, he was a partner Google Ventures and a co-founder of Milk, a mobile app company acquired by Google. Chris began his career as an investment banker at Allen & Company and later as a management consultan...

Welcome to one of our "mini" sessions where we discuss a topic of general interest. In today's topic we discuss funding growth in your business. Now that your business is started, how will you fund growth? We discuss several ways of funding and the challenges and benefits of each. We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we...

Rob Salafia started out his career as a street performer. Entertaining people as they walked by. He learned how to get people's attention and maintain their attention by keeping them entertained. Stage presence, storytelling and being able to deal with the unexpected are the transferable skills he developed. He now works with business leaders in helping them engage and deal with the unexpected. To...

Jack Bosch came to the United States as a college student on a semester abroad program to improve his English speaking skills. He ended up finishing his degree here and got job offer from a large company. And as many entrepreneurs discover, working for a large company is not for them. While still working for the large company he started a side hustle dabbling in real estate. Well, as they say, the...

Helping startups grow their customer base - Nick Petros When Nick was in elementary school, a Legos Robotics project ignited his curiosity and gave him the confidence to try new things. Sailing competitively in school taught him how to adapt to the environment and deal with the unexpected. After a few startup experiences, Nick learn the importance of customer validation. Now Nick is working with e...

What is 'data science' and should entrepreneurs be focusing on it? Listener Matt B. recently posed this question to us. In response to Matt's question, we invited Garett Howardson, Ph. D. to join us on this week's episode of The Unconventional Path. We follow Garett's interesting career path, from a tiny town in South Dakota to Washington DC, through fellowships, an academic job, a startup, and no...

EP-34 Mini: Minimum Viable Product (MVP) One of the BIG mistakes I made in my first start-up was we did not test the market early. We got the product 80% "right" and were out of money and the customers were not buying. Lesson learned for sure! What are the key points of MVP? •Test your product concept EARLY using a prototype! Could be a bare-bones version, a mock-up, •Listen and learn...get out of...

As the economy becomes more and more digital, the percentage of the workforce working remotely keeps increasing. In this mini-episode we discuss the advantages and challenges in having remote Employees. This is a great way for entrepreneurs to hire the best talent, regardless of their location. It is also a way to reduce start-up costs and remain very flexible. Managing remote employees also have...

Can entrepreneurship be considered a career path for college students in the US? Will Miles tells his story, shares his lessons learned, and discusses his goals to become an entrepreneur in the world of financial services. Join us and listen to Will tell us about the ups and downs of balancing life as a young entrepreneur with being a full-time college student. It's a fascinating story that mixes...

What happens when you find yourself in a situation where the stable, traditional business you are running is being disrupted? One such industry undergoing significant disruption is higher education. On paper, a small school in a small town in northern New York, should be in trouble. Dr. Anthony Collins, President of Clarkson University talks about being entrepreneurial within a university. Join us...

Keri O'brian is one of the first employees company founder and CEO, Nichole Snow hired. All companies need entrepreneurial thinking and action. Keri discusses how by teaching piano lessons, she learned how to be organized and keep track of finances. Her stint at Americorp taught her how to lead teams and get stuff done. Keri loves the culture at Darn Good Yarns because she has the opportunity to m...

Kat Koppett - Actor, entrepreneur, and business leader. Kat is a 25-year improv veteran, including stints with Theatresports companies in New York City (Freestyle Repertory Theatre) and San Francisco (BATS Improv). In 1995, TheaterWeek Magazine named Kat one of the year's "Unsung Heroes" for her creation of the improvisational theater format, Spontaneous Broadway, which is now performed regularly...

Tony Civitella started as an intern at Transfinder and is now CEO. Listen to his great life story starting at arriving in the United States with his parents from Italy, to serving as the translator to help his father buy a car, and growing and running an international business. Tony continues to grow Transfinder and recently started the NYBizLab, a business incubator in downtown Schenectady. He is...

Euwyn Poon was born in Singapore and moved to Canada as a young lad. His entrepreneurial tendencies and drive were evident at a young age. He entered Cornell University at the age of 15. After graduating with a degree in computer science, he went to Cornell Law School. It was during a sabbatical from Simpson Thacher, a top NYC law firm, he got the entrepreneurial bug and joined Y-Combinator. Euwyn...

Kate Cartini started her working life as a TV News producer and now is one of the three key executives at Chloe Capital, a seed-stage VC firm investing in women founded companies and COO at Upstate Venture Connect.. Throughout her career, Kate has witnessed the birth of the Charlotte, NC start-up ecosystem. From there it was onto Boston and now upstate NY as one of the key leaders in the entrepren...

Ever wonder how business founders with a great idea and very little operational and finance experience make a start-up work? They hire people like Drew Sheppard to help. Drew was trained as an engineer and quickly developed a broad range of managerial skills, including finance, operations, and HR. Drew's career has followed an incredibly interesting arc spanning from the industrial midwest to Sili...

Devon Watson spent summers as a professional wakeboarder. Enjoying the sun and jumping wakes while getting a great tan. After Devon graduated from Clarkson University, he joined forces with his brother, and they started a business. He then got the "bug" to join the venture capital industry. His story on how he approached getting the attention of VC firms is a great lesson in getting yourself in th...

Coworking spaces have become the big buzz in the business world. From new startups to remote workers needing a meeting place. Some of these coworking spaces are formal and structured, others are less formal and may be your local corner coffee shop. This is a great way for entrepreneurs to reduce start-up cost and remain very flexible. It's also a great way to build your network and learn from othe...